Beat The Clock

Your child has infinite filibuster tactics to avoid being rushed out the door or whisked off to bed. But, with these wise ideas you’ll have a calmer a.m. and p.m.

- Rachel Rabkin Peachman

THE MOST EPIC battles and tantrums in my household happen when I’m getting my daughters, ages 4 and 8, off to school in the morning or into bed at night. Their daily shenanigans can drag on for more than an hour, involve non-stop stalling and cajoling, and bring us all to our boiling point.

Based on the grumblings I hear from other moms at drop-off and the fed-up texts about kids who are still awake far too late at night, lots of families are struggling with the same ordeals and keeping it off Instagram. “Parents are trying hard to stick to a schedule, while kids want more control and don’t like to be hurried,” sums up US-based family physician Dr. Deborah Gilboa, who is also the author of Get the Behavior You Want... Without Being the Parent You Hate! However, this underlying conflict of interest can be overcome with the right approach. I asked experts and parents for their most successful strategies.

morning madness STALL TACTIC your child won’t get moving.

“Children don’t possess a genuine sense of time until around age 8, so they don’t feel the same sense of urgency to leave that you do,” says Dr. Eileen Kennedy-Moore, co-author of Smart Parenting for Smart Kids. Still, even a 3- or 4-year-old can understand sequence, and creating a picture based list for your child to follow can keep mornings on schedule. Robin Immerman Gruen, of Chicago, US, taped her 7-year-old son Frankie’s morning plan to his bathroom mirror. It includes the tasks he’s in charge of completing: Going to the bathroom, brushing teeth, getting dressed, turning off the lights. “We used to have yelling and chaos every morning,” says Gruen. “Now that he knows what’s expected, the stress level has gone way down. If he gets distracted, we can look at the plan together and get back on track.”