Tardy to go to school

[Anonymous]

You wake them up. Everyone has breakfast together. Lunches and backpacks are packed before any lashing about. You leave the house 10 min or more before schools starts. What if there is a back up or accident.
You don't let early ES kids just do the morning in their own without a lot of prompting.

[Anonymous]

There are plenty of ways to get a kid moving that aren't yelling.

[Anonymous]

You need to get them up earlier. Not just waking up but up out of bed out of their bedrooms. You know they’re slow so you need to adjust for this.

[Anonymous]

You actually can raise your voice at your kids, even if they end up crying. Don’t scream at them, but raising your voice with authority is sometimes needed.

[Anonymous]

OP, how old are the kids?

You said the oldest had 3 years at the school before the youngest started school, so I'm going to assume the oldest is around 3rd grade (roughly age 8) and the youngest is around kindergarten (roughly age 5).

At young ages you as the parent end up having to be 100% responsible for making sure the kids are at the school building on time. They are showing you they cannot handle the level of responsibility/independence you are currently giving them in the morning, so you need to change something.

I would start helping/supervising each step of the morning routine. Wake up the oldest kid, and tell them to get dressed. Tell them they have (pick a number that works with your schedule) minutes to do it and you will be back to check. Go get the youngest kid out of bed and help get dressed. Walk back into the older kid's room and either he's dressed (good) or he "has shown that he needs your help" so you will physically hand him each piece of clothing and Make Sure he gets dressed (he will probably hate this enough to quickly start getting dressed on his own within the time limit you give). Escort both kids to the kitchen and set a timer for breakfast - give them their breakfast while you pack the lunches. When the breakfast timer goes off, no matter how much or how little they have eaten walk both kids into the bathroom and supervise brushing teeth. Then hand them each their backpacks and physically guide them out the door at whatever time is on the schedule so you can be at school on time. They can earn more independence when they show you they can handle it.

[Anonymous]

Put them to bed earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since my younger child attends elementary school, both of my kids are tardy like 6-8 times a year. My older kid has zero tardy for 3 years before his younger sister attends same school as him. It is just both are so slow and no sense of time even though they wake up at 8am or earlier. Something has to be done, and I punish both woth zero screen time every single time they are late. On the day they are not late, I cannot drop them off till like 1 to 5 mins before school closing. My younger one throws tantrum and spend extra minutes being mad or crying if I yell at her. So, I cannot let out my frustration on her. Do you all use alarm clock or timer countdown to get kids out of the door on school days?

1. Yelling is counterproductive. Vent your frustration in some other way--AFTER you drop kids off.
2. Build in more time in the morning, set visual and audio timers, and leave to drop off whichever child is ready. Return to get the tardy child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Let's say the school is closed at 9am. The older one wakes up between 7:30am to 8am. He likes to read books or newsletter magazine. Then he waits till 8:30am to grab a bite of food as breakfast, uses bathroom, takes allergy medicine, grab socks & etc. He is normally ready at 8:50am. My younger one wakes up between 8am to 8:35am. She throws herself on the couch, eats slow, and touch this & that. I have to comb her hair, and put socks and shoes on her to get her out of the door. She just sits there looking at me. Their school is only 3 mins drive away.

Even though I am the one helping them to get their lunch packed, water bottle refilled etc ready. They are so slow to get ready. I can get myself ready to work, include brush teeth shower, makeup, get changed, pack lunch & eat breakfast in 20-25 mins to leave door from the time I wake up. My work is only 8 mind drive away. I grew up in city and I learn to be multi tasking and used to do things fast.

They are children, not mini adults. They need to get lunch and water bottles ready the night prior, early to bed, then get up earlier. Get yourself ready before they wake up. If DS wants to read for 30 mins he gets up 30 mins early. Unless she's 2? She can either get her shoes and socks on for herself or she can carry them to the car.

This is ridiculous. Parent the kids, get them out the door, but plan enough time for them to do for themselves. Because you're doing so much for them, they think that it's up to you to get them out the door on time.