Getting Young Children Out Of The Door Quickly & Easily

Oooh I think I’ve stumbled on something…a way of getting young children out of the door quickly & easily and without wanting to commit a murder.  I expect you’ve all been doing this for years and I’ve been behind the times as usual but just in case you haven’t, I thought I’d share the love…

You know the scenario, you have to be somewhere by a certain time and trying to get your young children out of the front door is worse than trying to stuff an octopus into a bag. Little ones don’t seem to function at all well when you’re in a hurry and if they so much as get a sniff that you’re getting ‘a bit stressed’, then you’ve completely had it.

It doesn’t seem to matter how much time you give yourselves to get everyone out of the door, or how many explanations / warnings about departures times…as you put their shoes on they take the other one off, or just as one child is finally by the front door another one needs a poo and the youngest one has taken his coat off again.

School days are the worst and without a moments notice the younger one will suddenly become unable to move, except in the direction of the floor. As I shove his arms in coats and feet in shoes, they come straight out again. Trying to get him to move towards the door becomes harder than trying to move a wardrobe.

This is it…
One morning, I thought well if Mary Poppins can do it then so can I.  I starting singing one of his favourite songs BEFORE I wanted him to to anything. I looked him in the eye, smiling while I sang and held my hand out to him. He grinned back, stood up and took my hand. Together we walked singing and smiling (just like in the films), hand in hand to the toilet. We sang while we washed our hands and we carried on singing while he put his own coat on. By then the other two were singing too and before I knew it we all had our coats on, smiling our way out of the the front door in just a few minutes AND it’s worked every morning since (it really is true).

As our mornings mostly go like this, it made me feel rather smug.  If you struggle to leave the house in one piece then do give this a whirl and let us know how you get on.
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If you have any other tips or thoughts on getting young children out of the door quickly & easily please do leave a comment, we’d love to hear them!

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