Make Mornings Less of a Battle
As an ADHD parent, you are no stranger to the challenges that getting ready in the morning can have.
Sometimes you might feel like you have to constantly hover over your ADHD child in order for them to get through a few simple steps.
You’re trying your best to help your child get ready for school and to be on time, but somehow, mornings always become a challenge. When you remind your child to stay on-task, they seem to get distracted and off-task easily.
This leads to you being more frustrated with the constant reminders and your child still hasn’t gotten their teeth brushed or out the door on time.
If you’re feeling frustrated by your morning routine, you’re more likely to yell and become upset. As if it wasn’t stressful enough being a parent, add the morning stress of helping a child with ADHD get ready for school and you might be in full-on burnout.
Morning routines don’t always have to be a hassle.
With the right strategies, they can be calmer and you can argue less.
Keep reading for some quick tips on how to make mornings more manageable with less yelling:
1. Understand that it takes time for kids with ADHD to build habits
Being understanding of your child’s developmental needs is an important first step to approaching them with kindness and compassion. Kids with ADHD typically require more support and monitoring because of delayed executive functioning skills.
Because of this, it will likely take a few weeks for a routine to become effective and a part of your normal life. Just because it seems difficult at first, doesn’t mean it is time to give up. Try your best to stick to all or parts of the routine for the first few weeks.
2. Find ways to automate the routine for you.
As a busy parent, it can be difficult to remember to do all the parts of your own routine, let alone your child’s routine. The more that you can automate the steps in your child’s routine, the easier it will be to stick with it.
One way to automate your child’s routine is through the Brili Routines: Visual Timer app which automatically reminds you of when it’s time for your child to start their routine. Plus, you can set up routines for weekdays and weekends so you don’t have to constantly switch around what they have to do each day.
3. Include incentives in the routine.
When tasks are hard for kids with ADHD, it’s helpful to include incentives or rewards to get them started on the task. Over time, you can fade out rewards to keep up their motivation.
Using immediate rewards is also effective, as kids with ADHD often can’t delay their use of rewards. Within the Brili app, kids can earn stars for completing each task and when they have enough stars, they can use it for a reward that you and them have decided on. Plus, using an app makes the routine seem like a fun task that will lead to less pushback from your child.
Summary
When parents can use a device or app separate from them to get their child started through their routine, it takes some of the stress off of parents. When you’re not the one that is telling your child to do their routine (and instead it’s an app), you’ll find that you get less resistance and arguing and you can have a calmer and more positive relationship with your child.
To download the Brili app to make mornings easier, you can click here to try the app out. If you find the app and these tips helpful, let me know by sending me a DM on instagram.
