Morning routines when you have a family

People with family responsibilities can do great things before breakfast too. The key is a little creativity (and flexibility).

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is about building a morning routine when you
have a family. Mornings are a great time for getting
stuff done, and I'd love to read about amazing morning routines.
We'll talk about many of them on this podcast. I
am totally that person who clicks on stories about people

(00:23):
doing ten mile hikes and hour long meditation sessions before breakfast.
I once wrote a book called What the Most Successful
People Do Before Breakfast that was all about routines like these. However,
since I have four young kids, I know that attempting
to put ten mile hikes into my own mornings presents
some logistical complexities. So I definitely sympathized with a few

(00:45):
listeners who stumbled upon Before Breakfast and then rode in
to ask about doing things before breakfast when you're responsible
for people other than yourself. Is that even possible to
have a morning routine when you have a baby or toddler.
What if having any time to yourself in the morning
requires waking up at four am? As one woman wrote,
do I just throw it out the window until she

(01:07):
was out of the baby stage. Let me be the
first to say that that is totally an option. If
you are keeping your head above water with a career
and a young family, you're already accomplishing great things. But
if you would like to experience the upsides of a
morning routine and you have little kids, there are a
few things you can do. The first thing I'd note

(01:27):
is that good morning routines are about creating space for
priorities that life tends to crowd out. For most parents,
spending time with their children is a priority. Mornings are
a great spot for quality time for parents who work
outside the home. Family dinner can be tough to make happens,
so why not substitute family breakfast. I do my best

(01:48):
to keep seven fifteen the seven fifty open most weekday
mornings so I can sit at the breakfast table with
my kids. In sequence, it's nice to have that time
together before we all go our separate ways. This can
be a profound owned mindset shift. Instead of thinking I
wish I had a good morning routine, comparing myself to
the people running marathons before breakfast, I can note that
I do have a morning routine, which involves investing in

(02:11):
my relationships with the people I love more than anyone
else on the planet. The second thing I'd note is
that mornings can look very different if your kids wake
up predictably or if they don't. If you know your
kids never wake up before six am, then you can
just build that into your life, maybe waking up at
five to run on a treadmill or spend half an
hour reading or reflecting to wake up at five. Most

(02:33):
people need to go to bed by ten, so you
arrange your life to make that happen simple enough. The
trouble is when they might wake up at six, or
at five, or at some other time. Entirely, it is
so frustrating to set an alarm for five thirty hoping
to get some quiet creative time before a toddler is up,
and then as soon as you're settling in with your
coffee to work on your novel, you hear someone yelling

(02:54):
for you. This was my life for much of the
last eleven years, so trust me, I get it. So
my suggestions for unpredictable mornings. If you are co parenting
with someone, you might decide to trade off early morning
childcare coverage. Each of you gets two weekday mornings per
week to do your own thing, and you team up
on Fridays, or you might designate a morning parent and

(03:16):
an evening parent. My friend Sarah, who co hosts the
Best of Both Worlds podcast with me, is part of
a two physician couple. For many years, she planned her
runs and blogging sessions for mornings while her husband was
responsible for the household, and then she was the one
who'd be there for the evening routine. If you're parenting
on your own, or if your partner travels a lot,
this is obviously more complicated. My husband and I have

(03:38):
looked at our weekly schedules and if I wanted to
go for a run outside some early morning, I'd planned
that for a day we were both there. It isn't
a routine, and I normally run in the afternoon, but
it's nice to use mornings once in a while. I've
also definitely taken advantage of days when relatives are visiting
to slip out for an early morning run. If you
have some flexibility with work and child care hours, you

(03:59):
might still be able to take advantage of morning hours
here and there, even if you are on your own.
Maybe your kids go to a daycare nearby two days
per week. You dropped them off at and go for
a forty minute run, shower at home or at your gym,
and then go to work. Or if you have a nanny,
maybe that person might agree to come early and work
an extra hour or so. Two mornings a week, you

(04:20):
go to a nearby coffee shop or diner to work
on writing your book before heading into the office. I'd
also say that kids do grow up. My youngest child
is now four. He can watch cartoons while I run
on the treadmill or get some reading done in the morning.
I can't leave the house if my husband is traveling,
but I can do most of the things I would
do in one of those morning routines you read about

(04:41):
and clickbait articles. Well maybe not the hour long, totally
silent meditation session, but let's be honest, I don't want
to do an hour long meditation session anyway. I can't
blame my kids for that. If you've got a family
and a good morning routine, I'd love to hear about it.
You can email me at the for Breakfast Podcasts at

(05:01):
iHeartMedia dot com. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks
for listening, and here's to making the most of our time.
H