Routines

Routines are amazing, hard to set up and easy to lose, but when they do their job they make life so much easier for everybody. Even just relaxing about the times a routine has to happen can mess the whole thing up for the day. For a while the routine has been waking up the slow waker at 630 so that he can be useful when we need him. Then from 7 till 730 the kids get ready for school and if they are ready by 730 they get a tick for pocket money. Then they do piano practice then play till school.
Lately though the wake up has been after 7 and this in turn makes it harder for night owl children to sleep at night. Then it is playing and watching tv while getting ready. The routine that is well set up takes a few days to undo but one day we wake up and it is completely gone. Today for example, breakfast wasn't even begun being organized until 730, then when it was time to leave two children were still in their pyjama's and one hadn't cleaned their teeth.

Routines don't keep themselves. They need an adult with a watch to ensure that people are doing what they are meant to be doing. We can be lulled into a false sense of security though because routines can get momentum to keep going for a little while even without someone pushing it. However without somebody reminding and pushing it along, it can roll to a complete standstill and can be very hard to restart afterwards.