Friday Forum: Morning Moments

When I was a young mother of two little girls (5 and 2), we struggled with our morning routine.  After breakfast and getting dressed the girls usually watched morning cartoons while I cleaned, check emails, made phone calls, did laundry, etc.  just a normal list of things to do.  One day as I looked at the clock, I realized things needed to change.  It seemed that by the time I got back to the girls my best time was given to things that really didn't matter.  I am not perfect in this department and will be the first one to admit it.  So I decided to come up with ..........

 

with my girls.  We started out by reading from our Children's version of the Book of Mormon, we would then share five things we were grateful for, and say a morning prayer together.  It really only was a few moments but it helped start our morning the right way.  Yes, they still watched morning cartoons while I did my to do list but the day started out differently!!! 

As the girls have gotten older, we continue this tradition during the summer.  We have a grateful book they write in, we still read from our Book of Mormon and say a little morning prayer.  We have also added in their grateful book a line that they write an affirmation for the day.  These are simple things like I am a kind sister, I am a good bike rider, I am a great artist.  When they feel sad or are having a rough moment (like fighting with each other) I remind them of their affirmation for the day.  It helps them to change their thinking about bad situations.
 

I am now a mom of an almost two year old and am struggling to get into a good new routine for us.  So I ask the question whether you have children or not.......

What are your morning routines??

Nancy:  I find that when I wake up before my kids and "ground" myself, the day goes so much better (the problem is that doesn't always happen :)). My best case routine is to wake up, read my scriptures, pray, shower, and get ready for the day. Then get my kids up, have a morning prayer and breakfast together.  Jan has me thinking though that I would like to include something more inspirational for my children in the morning like affirmations, planning, or gratitude rituals.

Lauralee:  Unfortunately, the only person in our household that is a morning person is the baby. With that said, our morning are usually chaotic. We could really use a schedule like Jan's! With my husband's work and school schedule never the same on any given day, there are only a few things that are routine in the morning at my house. We always start out with a wake-up call from the baby hollering in his crib. Then you can always count on breakfast. If it is a school day, I give my 9 year old a nice reminder (every two minutes) that we need to get ready. Getting my 9 year old out the door for school is about as fun as giving a cat a bath. I try to make it to the gym every morning, this helps me keep my sanity. Unfortunately, we usually reserve family activities for night.