Help w/terrible mornings - 3yo

[Anonymous]

Best thing we did was no food until you are dressed...got them moving. When breakfast came first it was hard to get them back upstairs to change too.

[Anonymous]

I started putting on the shirt for the next on our 3 year old at bedtime. They slept in it and I didn’t have to fight put on a new shirt in the morning. I found it much easier getting just pants on a squirmy kid and made mornings much nicer!

Only lasted a couple months, just do what you can to get through this stage!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok this isn't what you want to hear, but the thing that helped our morning routine was....turning 4.

3 year olds are hard! They are smart enough to know that this routine is the thing that leads up to what they don't want: parent separation. But they are NOT smart enough to realize that it will be done either way, but one way can be calm and one can be stressful.

The only thing that helped my youngest was that the pandemic hit while he was 3 and we stopped leaving the house. So who cares what you're wearing! Nothing else worked. Choosing for him, sleeping in his clothes, laying them out the night before, forcing him, being as patient as possible, allowing him an hour to get dressed, bribing, routines, etc. NONE WORKED. We just had to push through and it sucked and there was lots of crying from him (and sometimes from me).

OP here - I appreciate all of the suggestion on here but thanks for this especially. I'm starting to realize that with a lot of 3 yo craziness I just have to accept surviving and not thriving. Today's episode ended in both me and him in tears so knowing that others have been there is helpful.

+1!! I’m a parent of a three-year old too and it’s really important to remember that they are notoriously tough and to a large degree they are just wired to want to resist whatever they’re offered.

[Anonymous]

Keep sticking to your schedule, give oral cues of what’s coming next and when, and introduce a “schedule chart” that lets him check off each step in order.

I’m sure you’ve tried a lot of things but when DD is slow and stalling we’ve had luck with “get dressed as fast as you can” timed contests. I’ve also done positive reinforcement (if she’s done getting ready on time I bring a cookie for her to eat on the drive home from preschool) and as needed a threat of “big kids get ready when their parents tell them to, I guess you’re too small to go play with friends at school today.” That works like a charm too. As for what to wear, I put out the outfit the night before and hype her up on it (the new sweater matches your sneakers perfectly or let’s wear your blue barrettes tomorrow) and if she doesn’t want to wear it the next day I let her choose either pants or a shirt and I choose the other so they match. That’s helped a lot too.

[Anonymous]

We've always left the next days outfit by the door in the bedroom, and kids put it on before they come out. Sometimes they only put on the underwear and shirt and then have to go back upstairs to get their pants or whatever, but seeing the clothes and knowing it's their responsibility to put it on helped manage expectations.

But also, 3 is young. And very whiny! It may just be a phase that ends with age.