What is my Morning like as a SAHM, I have been asked this question often by my friends and followers. So here I am giving you a candid glimpse of my Morning Routine as a SAHM.
I started with Morning Madness & complete chaos in the mornings at my home, when my first child was born. For the first 2 years, the mornings were insane & overwhelming. However, my passion to make it all work was always bigger than the mess & disorder that plagued me.
And so, I started my efforts towards simplifying my life. I started putting in place a Morning Routine for myself when my daughter was a toddler. It helped me sail through the toughest parenting times calmly & smoothly.
What Is My Morning Like as a SAHM?
I will be sharing my own Morning Routine in this post. For the uninitiated ones, please be inspired to design a Morning Routine by picking up relevant elements. I would also encourage you to have a look at 13 Inspiring Morning routine ideas for SAHM.
The Morning Routine that I follow at present has been updated and fine-tuned over the years to suit my own needs as well as those of my kids and spouse. So in case you see it as a perfect and seamless one, please know that there have been years gone into making it befitting and flawless.
Additionally, I would also like to mention, that with determination & consistency, you too can make your mornings orderly and more in control. It is possible.
The Morning Madness I Lived Through
As a stay at home mom to 2 kids, my mornings have been busy. Waking the kids up, getting them ready, preparing the breakfast, packing their snacks, dropping them to school…I have my hands and mind completely full.
However simple these tasks may sound, there is always an unpredictable & a huge sequence of events, melt downs and chaos inbuilt in each of them. And I was just going with the flow of how life was presenting itself in front of me till one day I broke down.
And this made me question my own self, my competency, my management education, my motherhood and even my individuality. I have been a go-getter and it pained me to see myself losing my ground everyday in front of my kids.
My kids did not attend the school that day and whole day my house was a mess. Does this sound like a familiar story to you…do share your story with in the comments. I think this is what Mom chipper all about. Stay At Home Moms sharing, accepting & inspiring each other.
From Morning Madness to More In-Control Mornings – My Journey of Transformation
The day I broke down, there was a complete haul at my home. No School for kids, no laundry done at home, no cooking, & no work for my husband too. I took some time off from home and kids and stepped out for some “Me time”.
That day I focussed all my energies not on crying over my state of life but how to lift it up to a happy state. I introspected and made a long list of things that were probably going out of order in my life.
Post spending those 3 hours to myself, I felt good, rejuvenated and had a fresh bout of energy & positivity to manage my tasks. And that was my Aha moment. That is when I realised, this Me time is extremely important for me or any other SAHM to maintain her sanity in the midst of all the clutter around.
And I was determined to catch this me time for me every single day. And this is what inspired me to work out a morning Routine for myself in which I can have this ‘Me time’ so as to start my day with the same energy I felt that day.
My Perfect Morning Routine
As promised, here is my Unedited Morning Routine for all of you. I have planned it in a way that it has been divided into 30 minutes block and I take on one block at a time and finish it before moving on to the next one. Have a look at resources & ideas on How to create your own morning routine here.
I have tried fitting in my Exercise Routine many a times into my Morning Routine, however I have failed miserably. Infact I ended up missing on my exercise routine completely because I just could not finish it in the mornings. It did take a lot of time for me to accept that Exercise Routine has to be a separate one for me and not included in the Morning Routine.
This is How Mornings Look like as a SAHM
| Wake Up Time
I have always been inspired by The 5 Am Club by Robin Sharma & The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. However this has never led me to wake up at 5 am. I have been a late riser all throughout my life. However, Now I love spending with myself in the morning more than my sleep and hence my alarm clock plays at 5:25 am. |
| Outdoor time
I love being outdoors and this is also the first thing I do in the morning. I open my eyes to the beauty outdoors. The sun, the plants, the flowers and the breath of fresh air are my favourite companions early morning.
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| Express Gratitude
Being thankful to the universe for giving you all that you have is the best thing you can do for your own well being. Having the attitude of Gratitude is something that changes your life frequency & also helps you do away with toxic thoughts emotions and self talks. Read more about benefits of Gratitude here |
| Chant & Pray
This forms an important part of my Morning Routine. Be it only 5 minutes, I do chant right in the morning and pray for the well being of everybody around. |
| Morning Affirmations
I read my Affirmations every morning without fail. This is my way of showing trust on my own self to achieve my dreams. Have a look here at my affirmations |
| Recommit to any Vision
I have a vision diary, in which I have pasted pics , doodled, attached some mind maps, made some lists. I sit with that diary every day for 2-3 minutes just revisiting my purpose and vision. |
| Cook Snack & breakfast
This is the time I spend in the kitchen preparing breakfast for the day & snacks for kids to take to their schools. There is usually a pre-planned & decided menu done by me for the entire week. Based on the plan, I spend 20 minutes preparing for both the meals. The snack does have some healthy ready-made components like flavoured greek yoghurt or nuts. There is also a day marked in the week for taking their favourite meal which can include a Pasta or chocolate Pancakes. However, I do try to give it a healthy twist by adding fruit to the pancake and cooking durum wheat pasta instead of the white flour. Additional tip:
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| Wake up the elder daughter
Waking her up is usually with a lot of love. I try and be very nice to her in her mornings. This is also partially because I feel; the younger one gets more attention from me just on account of being younger. So I make sure that I give her the dose of love and attention in the morning. |
| Hug her & enjoy her song
A warm hug and her song on Alexa is the right start to my teen daughter. I ensure that I enjoy the song as much as she does. By the way, she is the one who introduces me to her new favourites almost every other day and they end up being on my favourites’ playlist too. |
| Wake up the younger one
Waking up the younger one in the mornings is quite a task for me. Because he is the one who wants to have some fun while he wakes up. Almost every day, post I wake him up I find him quickly sneaking into his father’s bed and sleep again. However, it does not annoy me anymore. |
| Spend 10 minutes on bed
This is the time he wants to just spend with his father and me. He jumps, some times narrates a quick 2 minutes scene from his favourite show Paw Patrol along with his Paw Patrol Vehicle toys. |
| Make him Ready
I simply get engaged with him and make him ready. |
| Getting Ready
This is my un-compromised time to go upto my room and get ready myself. I quickly take a shower in 10 minutes and spend the rest 20 minutes getting ready following my skin regime or doing my hair & makeup. I get back down completely ready to leave for the school. |
| Kids having breakfast
While I get ready, kids are already having the breakfast that their father has already laid not the table. |
| Drop kids to school
Time to drop them to school. Me & My Husband drive both the kids to school and the time we get in the car is an awesome time in which we connect with the kids. |
| Get grocery for the day
While returning I do a quick grocery run to pick up anything urgent & some fresh vegetables for the day. This usually takes 10 minutes of my time. |
| Morning Tea with Husband
We have our morning tea together. This is like a ritual at my place. This is my time to sit with my husband and share everything I want to & listen to things he wants to talk to me. |
| Starting with chores
I usually start my chores for the day with a laundry run for the day. Organising the rooms, making beds and the list goes on and on. |
| Breakfast with husband
We have the breakfast and he leaves for work. |
| Start my Work Day
And I start my work related to my blog, personal finance management or other important things on my to do list. |
My Morning Routine Works for Me — This Is Why?
Good Moods are Contagious
Good moods are infectious and Yes they are. Getting up 30 minutes earlier and you could actually enjoy your morning and make yourself ready for an active, happy and smiley start to your day. Believe me, this is going to get contagious…
Mindfulness helps
A little mindfulness in the morning to realise that your kids are growing up fast to independence every day is a great help. It empowers you to know that this chaos is not permanent and energises you to enjoy all their little nuances and tantrums.
Order & Rhythm
All areas of trouble should be talked upon and decided a night before. So clothes, breakfast, and snack at school was discussed the previous night. Children usually like order and rhythm and hence behave better when they know what is going to come next.
Avoid Open-Ended Questions in the morning
As a rule, just try to stay away from open-ended questions like how would you want your hair to be, or what shoes would you want to wear today? Open questions like these help when your intent is to connect, know more about kids’ feelings or how they think. For quick answers and easier processing in the morning, use close-ended questions like black shoes or blue shoes today? Black hairband or clips for the hair today.
Lastly, give them respect as individuals. It might take time for them to realise the positive change you are trying to bring, but they definitely will welcome the yell free & fun mom you are becoming every day. Work with them and they will work with you to make your mornings & days better. And like in any other teamwork, don’t forget to appreciate and celebrate your smallest wins every day.
This is What is my morning like as a SAHM. I hope you would have gained some fresh perspective from the ideas and my morning routine presented above. if this is something you found useful, please do let me know in the comments down under. This keeps me motivated and going with Mom Chipper.