A mum wants to get her children ready for school the night before because she struggles with the time-sensitive morning routine – but she’s worried her idea is ‘mad’
The mum heard about the time-saving tip online but wanted a second opinion
If you’re not a morning person, pulling yourself out of bed to get ready to face the day can be a real chore – and it’s even more of a struggle if you have young children to help get ready too.
That’s why one mum has considered getting her children dressed for the day ahead before they go to bed, but she’s worried her thought process is “mad”.
According to the Liverpool Echo, the mum posted to Mumsnet about her dilemma, where she explained she has four children – two of whom have additional needs – and that getting them all ready for school each morning is a nightmare.
She wrote: “I have four children. The older two require extra help to dress in the mornings. This can take a while. The younger two simply need assistance due to their age.
“The mornings are hectic, and between getting myself and the four of them ready, it can take a very long time to get out of the house!
“We also need to get a bus, so we miss it sometimes when we haven’t got out on time (usually by seconds).”
To try and help with her plight, the woman referred to a news article she had read about another mum who dresses her children the night before and said she considered following that woman’s advice.
She added: “I read a news article a little while ago about a woman who says she dresses her children for school the night before! Now I know people will just say go to bed earlier, but my oldest doesn’t sleep at night so we are currently awaiting a referral for a paediatrician.
“Am I being unreasonable to consider what this woman does? Would anyone do this? Or am I mad to consider it?”
The mum was met with hundreds of responses from other Mumsnet users, many of whom told her it was “gross” to send her kids to school in clothes they had slept in.
One person wrote: “No. They’d be so uncomfortable to start with. They will also smell. Not washing in the morning or changing out of clothes they may have sweated in overnight.
“It just isn’t a solution. You need to get up earlier.”
While another said: “No, normal people don’t do this. I’m afraid this is definitely not the solution to your morning problems (which I share!).”
Someone else tried to be more helpful with their comment, as they wrote: “What do you already do – what’s the routine? Posters can help troubleshoot.
“I don’t think I could send my children to school in slept-in clothes and I think it doesn’t give them good habits to build off for the future – plus if they mentioned sleeping in their clothes I’m sure school would log that as a concern.”
And after reading through some comments, the mum insisted she wouldn’t be going through with the plan to send her kids to bed fully clothed.
She said: “I’m not going to do it, I was just desperate to make the mornings easier but I will try some of these ideas.
“Thanks for the supportive comments I am reading them and taking the advice on board.
“The oldest is 10 and she does not sleep till 2 or 3 am most nights. She shouts, screams get out of bed and wander around – my youngest cannot share a room with her because she is aggressive, so my four-year-old is still in my bed.
“None of us gets much sleep because she keeps the other ones up with her noise, so my other children aren’t going to bed till late either as they are repeatedly being woken up.
“She doesn’t struggle to get out of bed, she seems to cope fine on her limited sleep, but it’s the others who struggle where they have been kept up all night.”