Help! The morning rush is making me crazy. My children take forever to get going in the morning and I can't let them be late for school as there are no consequences for lateness at school. How can I make the mornings more manageable?

Many parents find the mornings rushed and mostly unpleasant, but the good news is there are some things you can do to make mornings work better for everyone.

First of all, make sure bedtime is reasonable. Children and teenagers need a lot of sleep, at least 9 hours per night but often more (up to 12 hours). Enforcing an early bedtime, so that your children wake up naturally rather than having to be woken up each day is a great start. This means turning off all screens at least an hour before bedtime (screens are very stimulating and make sleep difficult for some time afterwards).

Other ideas include:

• Pack lunches the night before.
• Lay out the next day’s clothes before bed.
• Gather homework and pack backpacks the night before and leave by the door.
• Showers and baths should happen in the evening
• Back up the wake up time to about 20 to 30 minutes earlier so that there is ample time for connection and communication and a healthy breakfast for you with your children in the mornings. When the children are dressed, make time for a story or snuggle time before everyone goes their separate ways for the day.
• Never allow screens of any type in the morning.

This way your children will be ready to go with a minimum of fuss in the morning. Sometimes children and teenagers believe they need less sleep than they really do, but this is not the case. On school nights, keeping routines simple and making time to get ready for the next day will allow the transition from sleep to getting to school much smoother.