New Year, New Tips: How to get out of the house on time.

Wondering how to get out of the house on time in the morning with two children to get ready as well as yourself?

I've finally worked this one out. Unfortunately the biggest contributing factor to success is waking up at a sufficiently early hour. When the children having been waking up in the night, it's all to tempting to stay in bed until they wake up. Especially when their usual hour of waking is about 6am! I find that sleeping in with them when they choose to, results in a more rested mummy, but requires huge speed to catch up and get out of the door! So I guess it's your call.

In our house I have worked out that I need to have both children downstairs eating breakfast by 7am at the latest. Then it's upstairs to change and dress the youngest whilst the eldest plays; into the shower by 7.30am, out by 7.45am, dress eldest and myself by 7.50am, makeup by 7.55am and downstairs by 8am. If I hit the 8am target I can then dry my hair properly whilst they play for a while, check we have the bags ready, get shoes, coats, hats, scarfs and gloves on, and get them out of the door by 8.30am. By the time I've dropped them off at respective nurseries and driven to work it's 9.15/9.30am if I'm lucky.

For those of you without children this will sound like a ridiculously long time to be awake before arriving at work! Up at 6.30am. At work by 9.30am? That's 3 hours for goodness sake!

Yes; and you'll often spend 20 minutes repeatedly putting on stubborn child's coat because the second you turn your back they've taken it off. Which fool designed a coat with 'poppers' down the front? Probably a pal of the mummy who keeps dressing the child in said coat because it's pretty and goes in the washing machine easily!

Other tricks to reduce 'crazy' moments in the morning include:

• Laying out your makeup, contact lenses, perfume, and work outfit, the night before; ensuring to select shoes, lingerie and jewelry that work with the outfit as well. I've been caught out all too often, having selected a white shirt for work the night before, only to find in the morning that the required white bra is in the wash!
• Packing the children's bags with spare outfits, nappies, hats/scarfs/gloves, etc the night before and placing by the front door,
• Selecting the children's outfits the night before. (I fail on this one more often than not!)

I'm also finding that allowing the elder to 'help' with my makeup actually speeds things up. She just gets to put a tiny dab of neutral eyeshadow on for me (gently!) and will stand waiting patiently for her makeup moment for a good few minutes, allowing the rest of the makeup to go on without hitch.

I hope some of that helps!? And if you have any other helpful tips on the morning rush, let me know!