Our Mornings Were Complete Chaos
I was the mom screaming down the hallway at 7am in a bathrobe, hair looking like it lost a fight, yelling:
“LET’S GO, WE ARE GOING TO BE LATE!”
Like volume was somehow going to fix everything.
It wasn’t.
It was just loud. And exhausting. And nobody was happy, including me.
I was exhausted, overwhelmed, and somehow expected to get everyone dressed, fed, and out the door every morning like I had my life together. 😅
The Small Change That Changed Everything
So I tried something I’d never done before.
I woke up 30 minutes early — which, if you know me, was a whole sacrifice — walked into each room at 6am, turned on the light, said:
“good morning”
…and left.
That’s it.
No rushing. No yelling. No acting like a football coach before sunrise.
Just light and a greeting.
Then I’d go start breakfast, lay out an outfit for whoever forgot to handle that the night before (always somebody), and actually get myself together for once.
Like a person. 😆At 6:20 I’d circle back.
“Ten minutes. Time to get up.”And they just… got up. Calmly.
No tears. No drama. No chaos.I stood there thinking:who ARE these children 😂
The Morning Routine That Actually Worked
This became our routine every single school year.
And honestly?
The extra 30 minutes of sleep I sacrificed was completely worth the peace it brought into our mornings.
Were our mornings suddenly perfect?
Absolutely not.
Did somebody still occasionally lose a shoe five minutes before leaving?
Of course. 😅
But there was less yelling. Less tension. Less chaos before school.
And that alone felt like a huge parenting win.
Fast Forward to the Teen Years…
Things have changed a little over the years. My kids are older now, and instead of walking down the hallway turning on lights, I’ve upgraded the system. 😆
They sleep upstairs these days, and I was NOT about to stand at the bottom of those stairs hollering into the ceiling like a human foghorn every morning.
Teens hear you yelling and somehow pull the blanket up tighter.
On purpose.
It’s a whole thing. 😂So one night around 11pm, fueled by pure exhaustion and probably caffeine, I went to Amazon like a woman on a mission and bought three wireless doorbells.
I put the receivers upstairs in their rooms and kept the buttons downstairs with me.
Now instead of walking room to room, I just hit the doorbells at different times to let them know:
okay… it’s officially time to get up 😅
Ding dong.
Good morning.
Mama didn’t even have to move. 😂
Protecting the Peace
And weirdly enough?
It worked.
Not perfectly, of course. We still have rushed mornings sometimes because life is life.
But our house feels calmer now.
Less tension. Less yelling. Less everybody starting the day irritated with each other.
After all these years, I’ve realized something important:
Parenting isn’t about having a perfect system.
Sometimes it’s just about finding little things that help your family function a little better and love each other a little easier.
And honestly?
If wireless doorbells are what save my sanity before 7am, then so be it.
😆Until next time, have a blessed day.
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What a great idea!
Thank you. Took me a little bit of trial and error…