Morning Routines for Children and their Caregivers
A nourishing morning routine sets the tone for the rest of your day. When the first few hours of the day go smoothly, the rest of the day feels and hits better.
Simple Morning Routines for Children
Children, especially young ones, benefit from following a consistent routine. By doing the same activities in the same order every day, children can learn to smoothly transition from one activity to the next because they know what to expect and what’s expected.
The key to a strong morning routine for children is having them perform the same daily habits in the same order every day.
For example,
☀️ wake up
👖 get dressed
🧼 wash face
🪥brush teeth & hair
🥣 eat breakfast
🎒 pack bag
🚌 catch the bus
Young children learn via imitation, so if everyone performs morning tasks like brushing teeth and hair and washing faces around the same time, children are more likely to follow their older siblings and/or parents’ lead.
A visual chore chart or habit tracker is another way to help children to remember what’s coming next. You can use something like the images above if your children can read, or if you have younger children, you can print images that represent each morning task for your child to reference. Here is a set of free “Morning Routine Visual Cue Cards” available to print
Simple Morning Routines for Parents and Caregivers
Starting the day with a short meditative or contemplative practice can be grounding and calming for busy caregivers. But how do we create a space for self-care in the morning while also balancing the needs and schedules of our family?
When we had a newborn, a toddler, and two children in kindergarten, my husband and I faced a personal challenge that woke us both up to the unnegotiable importance of mental health.
We had a meditation teacher (Vedic/Transcendental) come to our house every evening (when the kids were in bed) for a week and then visit once a week over a month.
She taught us how to sit through a twice-daily 20-minute meditation practice.
Not only did we learn how to sit and observe our busy minds, but we also learned to work together to prioritize our mental health.
We woke up early enough to split the morning caregiving before work: I would get up and go straight to the car to meditate, then I’d go inside and switch, and he’d head to the car for his practice. At that point in our lives, it was the quietest place to go!
My second practice fell either at school pick up if my little ones had fallen asleep or before I went to bed in the evenings.
Today our meditative/mindfulness practices look different, although we both draw from that course we took many years ago.
Our story and solution are not a prescription for you but a reminder: there is very often a creative solution and/or a way to prioritize self-care despite the challenges we face as busy parents.
If you could choose 3 practices for yourself in the morning, what would they be? How could you creatively problem-solve to prioritize them?
Write down your ideas, and if you want to want to go further, book a coaching call with me to help break down that vision into actionable steps. I only work with a small number of clients one-on-one each month so if you find a spot- grab it.
