Just a quick plea for advice/tips/tricks today:
How on earth does anyone ever manage to be on time for anything, anywhere, with a baby (or more than one) in tow? I used to pride myself on punctuality, but pride goeth before a fall, and now I just seem to be perpetually late for everything. It doesn't seem to matter how much time I allot to prepare and get out the door, it is never enough... It is one thing (and hard enough) to go with LW's free flowing schedule during our days at home, but how to make it work when we are faced with the clock-watching outside world?
I was to have lunch with a good friend today who I haven't gotten to see since Mother's day, and yet the combination of a late nap, and a whole lot of parking troubles cut our time in half (sorry, Kate!). It was the proverbial straw... I want to learn to be on time again... but I just haven't figured out how to do it with all the inevitable wrenches that a baby can throw in the mix. It's why one of the few consistent meetings I've gone to in the last year is LLL, where everything happens on baby time, and no one minds if you are a few minutes, or far more than a few minutes, late. So what about all of you with very little ones? How do you manage the problem of time?
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4 comments:
Sometimes no matter how prepare and organized I am, I'm still late. A poopy diaper, a huge spit up... these things happen. People with children tend to be a little more forgiven, but I hate being late.
When I have to be somewhere "on time" (i.e. dentist, doctor) I get things in place from the moment I wake up. I give myself ample time to get ready and get into the car - all the while hoping and praying that everything goes smoothly.
I'm still figuring out little tricks that help. One that works well is that if Sweetpea starts fussing for a nap, but we'll be leaving in not-too-long, I stick her in her carseat (in the house)to fall asleep. I also have a packed diaper bag in the car so that I'm not rushing to remember things at the last minute.
I guess we just get used to how long it takes to prepare bottles, make sure the diaper bag (suitcase! Seriously!) is packed, how long it takes to get the kids in the car seats and into the car... and then I mentally add it all up and start getting ready X amount of time before we are due to leave. I'll wake the babies up earlier if I have to and offer them a sook of milk before I change them and stick them in their car seats. I dunno... maybe having been in the military helps me juggle 15 crazy things and still be on time? (But we do have our late days when someone blows a massive poo or yacks all over their clothes. You can't prepare ahead for that lol.)
I think for us the only way to manage it was to attempt to be places at least 10 minutes early. If we actually managed that we looked good for being so organized, if we didn't, well at least we weren't generally late. One of the things that has driven me slightly nuts in recent years is that I have a passenger for church who doesn't like to leave until the last possible minute. It doesn't allow for slow drivers, traffic at the end of Plains Road, or even hitting every single light wrong. Of course the fact that our organist seems to now begin the processional music before the time Mass is even supposed to begin is a new headache.Lately, I've been nearly late to a couple of things even when I'm by myself, but it's generally because I've tried to do one extra thing or another before I left the house.
I think it does help to keep the diaper bag packed and even in the car ahead of time. However, a lot of the time your biggest complication is a little one whose nap runs later on a given day. In that situation you sometimes have a choice between waking a sleeping baby or being somewhat late. Since you're almost certainly going to have to change said baby before leaving the house you can count on it taking at least 5 or 10 minutes after she wakes up to be able to go to the car. However, if you've got the diaper bag in the car, your keys, purse and phone on the table by the door before she wakes up, and slip on shoes to wear, it shouldn't take much longer than 5 or 10 minutes. What complicates it is having to go looking for keys, phone, etc. after you've changed the baby. Since I sometimes spend those last minutes looking for either the phone or my glasses I know the scenario well. The keys on the hook have saved me at least one headache I used to deal with constantly. There's a reason I once had no fewer than 7 sets of car keys and why I still keep an old pair of glasses in my bedroom.
I keep extra baby stuff in the car-- which really helps out on the weekends. During the weekdays, because I work, I have our routine down to the minute-- as long as I don't add or subtract from it, then I'm usually good. It will probably get harder, however, when LPK gets more opinionated. I remember when I was growing up how long it would sometimes take to get a tantrum-y younger sib into their carseat and fastened down.
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