Thanks How Long Does It Take You to Get Out the Door in the Morning?

Updated on January 20, 2012
J.J. asks from San Jose, CA
17 answers

Hi Mamas,

I need to tighten up my mornings. When it is just me getting my 3.5yo DD ready, it takes us 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours to leave the house (!) I know I can shorten my showers and move a little faster. DD is usually in good spirits and does alright. I'm wondering what I can realistically cut it down to. So, how long does it take from the time you wake up to the time you walk out?

TIA!

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So What Happened?

Thanks everyone for sharing your morning routine! I guess I've been in denial about how long it takes - glad to know I'm not alone!

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K.W.

answers from Stockton on

I wake up at 5, take a shower, get dressed, pick out two boys clothes, make two lunches, make a quick in the car breakfast, wake both boys up by 6, dress them, pack the car and am in the car pulling out of my driveway at 6:40........exhausted.

1 mom found this helpful
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J.O.

answers from Detroit on

There are 4 kids to get out the door, 5, 4, 2 and baby.
I don't get showers often enough. I freeze as it's hard to put on a coat.
We just get up, eat and go. Up at 7:45 and out the door by 8:15. But a lot of it is putting on coats, etc. I eat standing up, usually bread. The good thing is they don't all have to be ready, as times are staggered for preschool and there are 3 different ones.

1 mom found this helpful

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B.G.

answers from Champaign on

I get up at 6:00. I take my shower and have my coffee. I get the boys (5 1/2 and almost 3) up at 6:30. Then it's breakfast, get dressed and out the door to catch the school bus at 7:30. Then the little guy and I drive to daycare, and I'm off to work.

So, I guess it's an hour and a half. I feel like an hour and a half is good. I don't feel the need to do it any faster. This morning I told my husband I should pack the bags and actually put them in the car the night before, but that's just because my little guy dropped my coat on top of my purse and I wasted about 5 minutes just looking for my purse. Ah, the fun of having little ones :-)

2 moms found this helpful
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B.B.

answers from Missoula on

If I take a shower the night before, I can get myself and my two boys out the door in 75-90 minutes from when I get up. My kids are 10 months and 4 years, and they are usually happy in the morning. I get them dressed, fed, lunch packed, gear all together, get myself dressed, take care of the dogs etc. etc. etc., but I never have time for coffee/breakfast for myself. I'm fortunate in that I don't have to be at work at a specific time, I get there when I get there, so I'm okay with our morning schedule.

2 moms found this helpful
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J.K.

answers from Kansas City on

Well I wake up at 5:05, and we leave at 6:40. But in that time, I shower, talk to my husband a lot, without doing any "getting ready" stuff, then get ready, wake up my 2 boys, make lunches, get something for breakfast, make sure backpacks are ready to go, etc. Oh, and I don't have to help my boys with getting ready at all, they are old enough.

1 mom found this helpful
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J.D.

answers from Cincinnati on

Well, when I was getting my son ready. Shower for me the night before( i usually shower every other night except on period days then its in the morning because I am convinced that I stink.
So Shower for me the night before. Me up at 5, get dressed, son in shower by 5:30, out by 5:45. He gets dressed by himself and in the mean time, I am downstairs getting breakfast ready. We have to be outside by 6:45 to wait on the bus to arrive by 6:45. I don't wear makeup or do my hair.
My husband has to get him up and ready for school now because we lost our sitter.

ETA: I pack lunches the night before also

1 mom found this helpful
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L.D.

answers from Modesto on

I'm up at 6:45, feed/let the cat out, showered the night before on non gym days.On gym days I just get up, pull hair back, no makeup -shower when I get home (I'm a SAHM). Get 5 yr old and 3 yr old up at 7:00am. Immediately put them in clothes that were picked the night before. Out to breakfast table. Often wheat toast/banana/juice or oatmeal or some other easy combination of food. Admittedly, I do not do any breakfast dishes until I get home later or sometimes I just do all the days dishes together after dinner . Coffee for my husband and me was prepped the night before and set on timer -it's made by the time we get up. I start my coffee while they are eating. Lunches for kids and hubby made the night before as well. AFter they eat, they brush teeth and I do their hair. When they are all ready, they get to watch a some TV while I get ready in peace. Curl hair, makeup, clothing. They are motivated to get ready fairly quickly in order to watch TV. We are all ready and out the door at 8:10am and arrive at school at 8:20 (we live close!) for an 8:30 am start. Childrens baths are every other night, never in the mornings. Anything that needs to go to school, stuff for my errands etc. is either loaded in the car the night before or set on my purse to take out with me in the morning.

1 mom found this helpful
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M.D.

answers from San Francisco on

Mornings are rough, but we finally have a groove! You will get one soon! I have a 4 and 5.5 year old girls. It takes us 1 hour. After dinner the night before, they make their lunches, with some parent supervision/help. I also pour their morning juice/milk in a cup and put it in the fridge, so it is easy to grab by them or me in the am. It is one less thing to do then. They take a bath and night and they choose and lay out their clothes night before. I try to do the same as well. If there is anything extra that I need the next day, I put that in the car, the night before as well, ie: library books to return, returns to Target, etc... I leave my purse in our car in the garage, so that is one less thing I have to grab.

We all usually get up at 6:30, they get dressed on their own and brush teeth and sometimes do their own hair, depending on what style they are wanting that day. I am trying to get ready before they wake up, but usually it I do it at the same time as them. We usually take 30 minutes to get ready and then we go and make breakfast. Sometimes my older daughter will start by putting a bagel in the toaster. I pull lunches out of fridge, they put ice packs in them and put them near door so we can grab on our way out. If we are running late, then we eat breakfast in the car. I always seem to eat in the car.

Good luck!

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C.B.

answers from San Francisco on

I get up at 6:40 and am out the door by 7:45. I get GD up at 7:25 and she's out the door with auntie by 8:00. I shower at night, but I do get in the shower for a quick "rinse" in the mornings. I also fix my own lunch every morning and fix instant oatmeal for GD. I don't wear much make-up so that only takes about 5 minutes. GD wears uniforms to school so there's no problem with deciding what to wear!

1 mom found this helpful

K.M.

answers from Chicago on

Well, I shower at night, I have naturally curly hair so after my shower I put in my styleing creme, anti frizz, mousse and heat protectant - let sit for 10 min then deffuse my hair. In the am I simply spray my hair with my water bottle re mousse (definition) and heat protect and diffuse again or toss it in a cute updo for the day! I like a smokeyish eye for an everyday look so my eyes can take up to 10 min and the rest of the make up 5ish so we are looking at 20-25 min for hair/make up if I properly prepped the night before (clean face, moisturized, prepped hair etc). My son gets himself dressed (5) but I have to pull down his shirt (hung up all else in drawers) I tell him to do this 30 min before we have to leave and he has to have 30 at least of being up before he will do this happily. If I plan on leaving right away in the morning and him not having time to hang out before I get him dressed or it will take way too long and be a struggle he is typically up by 7 and we don't schedule things until after 8 so we have ample time in the am. I was happy to find out he is in the afternoon class for school the part timers are in the am and full time in the pm so we have ample time in the mornings to do things and I like having part of the afternoon to myself. So, we typically take up about 45 min to an hour (depending on breakfast) to get out. Breakfast is often something like a Frozen Waffle with peanut butter or apple butter (sometimes nutella)
Gogurt with a granola bar
Nutrigrain bar and apple sauce
Special mornings (time to spare) pancakes w/ nutella (no syrup) and a banana (like a taco!)
But the actual getting dressed part is about 45 min so long as I am ready for the day.
When my son was that age I had a basket that I put his clothes in for the next few days (3 pants - shirts - socks - pull ups - appropriate shoes) so he could pick out what he needed from the basket but I still got him dressed (around 4.5 he understood the concept - it came with potty training).
If you flat iron your hair do it the night before, if you curl your hair there are tons of overnight non heat ways to do it (check out you tube for tutorials) and find 5 easy go to styles you can do quickly every day. Have two or three easy for you make up looks (practice makes perfect I honestly practice for speed on the weekends and some weekdays) you can do and if you use quality products you will find yourself using less and having the right amt of color right away. I also hang my clothes in "outfits" I have those hangers that you put 5 things on then drop it down to comact space... I put on there 1 pant - two shirts - two accesories belts/scarves/sweaters etc so I just pull one up and have two full outfits ready to choose from. I also hang necklaces WITH shirts and i have some felt squares that I clip onto the hanger that holds broaches or pins to go with jackets or scarves too! Don't worry I get lazy about it often and am digging thru my pile of clothes at least once or twice a week and then get mad at myself for not prepping!

1 mom found this helpful
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M.E.

answers from San Francisco on

With kids, even older ones, it's better if you have more time. I get up 1.5 hours before I have to leave. My daughters' are 9 and 13.

1 mom found this helpful
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H.J.

answers from Minneapolis on

45 min at the most...usually 1/2 or so though. We do not shower in the morning we shower at night...it takes too long for my hair to dry to do it in the morning and I like to crawl into bed clean!! So we get up at about 7:30 and our oldest is on the bus by 8:15

1 mom found this helpful
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C.G.

answers from Atlanta on

Well, if I want us all to look nice, like for church on Sunday's, then I need two and a half hours. So that's feeding cat, dog, children breakfast, my shower, nice hair and makeup, children teeth & clothes & hair.
It does help to pick out clothes the night before, diaper bag packed, and set breakfast dishes out.

1 mom found this helpful
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B.B.

answers from San Antonio on

It takes us about 50 minutes total.
I am up at 5:50 (shower, hair dried and done, make-up on), then wake my kids at 6:20 (dress my daughter, my son gets dressed and brushes his teeth on his own - I finish getting ready while he dresses), out the door at 6:40. I have about 10 minutes leeway in the event something goes wrong, but we pretty much have to be on our way by 6:50 at the latest. Anything later than that and traffic is a complete nightmare and I will wind up late for work.
We have a pretty straight-forward routine, but if I wake them earlier they are cranky, and we don't get out the door any faster. Luckily she has breakfast at daycare, and he has his at pre-school.

1 mom found this helpful
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C.W.

answers from Redding on

I have a 3 yr old, a 3 mo old and 2 dogs to tend to in the ams...it takes us about 1.5 hrs...can do it in 45 if i feel like sleeping in...but i like to sit for breakfast, check Facebook, put clean dishes away, start laundry etc etc so i have less to do at nihgt : ) But i do make coffee, lunches, clothes at night. But if i do everything quickly, no "extras" in the am, we can get out in 45 min or less. Looks like you are not alone in how lomg it takes you to get out yhe door! Good question : )

1 mom found this helpful
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S.R.

answers from Chicago on

I get up at 5:45am take a 15min shower, another 15min doing my hair (i never blow dry my hair so this helps a bit) and make up and about 15 min ironing and getting dressed, then another 10 min getting my little prince ready total 55 mins...sometimes i can roughly minimize it to 45min but its not easy.

1 mom found this helpful

⊱.H.

answers from Spokane on

I get up at 5:30 and get completely ready, make lunches, feed the dog, lizard and cats and get bags by the door. I get my boys (7 and 3) up at 6:15/6:20 and we are out the door at 6:45. My husband works swing so he is still in bed when we leave.

1 mom found this helpful
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