Getting 3 Year Old up and Out for Daycare in Morning

I know some people have said this but I'd make it as simple as possible. Forget the charts, taking away things, etc... She is only 3 and tired. Pick her up last minute and put her in the car in her jammies. I hope this could work for both you and the daycare...good luck!

Don't wake her up and get her dressed. When you're ready to go, go grab her out of bed, put her in her carseat and go. Take clothes for her sitter to change her into when she's more awake. I'm a daycare provider and I have several kids that do this. It lets them come awake at their own pace. Maybe she'll even stay sleepy enough to lay on the couch at the sitter's and get a little more rest.

I know this is late, and I haven't read many of the responses but..........I have found that if I'm feeling stressed my son can feel it. I have found that if I allow an extra 10 minutes, # 1 I feel less stressed and #2 so is my son, the extra 10 minutes allows for whining/complaining/ or even snuggling and comforting them for a couple of minutes before they are thrown into overdrive and have to hurry and get ready/teeth brushed/ hair done etc. I know you leave early but I would suggest allowing a little more time in the morning so there is not such a rushed feeling. Good luck!

If it were me, I would talk to my daycare and see if they were willing to dress her later. Take her to daycare in her jammies and have them put her clothes on later after she is happy. Worst case scenerio is that she stays in her jammies all day - is that something you can live with? It would be fine with me if it meant a happier kiddo. Wait until the very last minute to wake her up - I mean very very last. Load the car with your stuff, grab a granola bar or string cheese for her to eat on the way (or maybe she can eat breakfast at daycare, too), everyone else is ready and with shoes on, they go and pick your daughter up from her bed and stick her in her carseat. There really is no reason for her to need to wake up earlier with the rest of the famliy, for right now, if she's causing this much trouble and stress. Try to think outside the box and figure out something that you can all agree on. Maybe she can just wear some comfy day clothes to bed so taht she's already dressed in the morning? Or maybe she can go to bed 15 minutes earlier (sounds from your note that these days are 15 minutes earlier). Good luck and hang in there! This too shall pass!

I agree with the other respondents--let her be an independent as possible, picking out her own clothes the night before, having a treat for her, setting a timer for getting dressed. I particularly agree with Rachel about taking her to daycare in her pjs. My daughter did that with her daughter when she was 3 or 4 and that did the trick! Another idea, if your daughter likes warm clothes, is to throw her clothes in the dryer for a few minutes. When you wake her up, tell her the warm clothes are lying on her bed. That worked very well for a friend of mine. Good luck!

E.,
I can't get going that early either!
Is it possible to have her daycare provider dress her and feed her breakfast? Or at least could you send along some sort of smoothie, dry cereal or granola bar that she can eat after she gets to daycare? That way you could let her sleep to the last moment, pop her in her carseat and go. She could go more at her own pace when she gets there.
Good luck!

Tips:
the evening before let her choose her outfit for the next day.
Lay out a "surprise" breakfast snack that she must go to the kitchen to find.
Do you have a fun tooth brush?
We have a boy same age and the more "fun" we make it and giving him the option to be "independent" has really worked out for us.
Good luck!

I would suggest getting her to bed earlier as well. How many hours of sleep does she get in a day?

My daughter is 5 and struggles to get out of bed by 7! She does go to bed at 8:30 and does not take a nap anymore though.

I have a co-worker who uses the idea of putting the child in their clothes for the next day. She calls them "tomorrow clothes" and it's a special treat to pick them out and put them on before bed. I really liked the idea...unless the child sweats a lot...I don't see it being a problem.

When I worked daycare we had lots of parents bring breakfast for the child with them. It was no problem to feed the children because there were fewer there that early in the morning. I'd definitely check with your daycare.

E. - are you able to take your daughter to daycare in her pj's? I don't blame her for not wanting to get up and out the door. But if you're able to wait to the last minute, wake her, and put her directly in the car, it could save you lots of time in the morning as well as frustration.

I'd like to stay home every day too!

All the best,

I don't have to leave that early of a morning but I do have to get a 3 year old and 8 month old ready in the morning. I startedd a sticker chart for my 3yr old son. I just made it up on my computer and used pictures from clip art on what I needed him to do each morning. His chart has on there to, sleep in his bed all night, brush his teeth, and get dressed in the morning. When he completes these task he gets to put a sticker in the box for that task and day.
After two weeks of getting most of the stickers he is allowed to pick a prize. A whistle, book, new hot wheel. What ever he wants. Then we start over again for the next two weeks.
Also we are sure to put the stickers on the chart before going to bed so he remembers what he did to get those and it's the last thing on his mind. This has worked great with my son. We did the same thing when potty training.
We also try to lay out clothes, socks, shoes the night before so he can go right to them and get dressed.

Hi E.
Is it possable your daughter dosen't like her daycare. If that might be true you may want to look for new one. If not you could ask the daycare if they would mind getting her dressed and ready for the day. or try to move her bed time to a half hour earlier and see if she will get up on her own. Good Luck

Hi E.- how independent is she? have you tried setting a timer and seeing if she can get herself ready before the timer goes off? or my daughter, who turned 3 this spring, loves us to count when she does something. this sure speeds things up! we allow her to be ver independent- choise her outfits (out of the 5 we set out for the week). we've also left 'treats' (dry cereal in a bowl) something for her to look forward to when getting up! i would try to make it as pleasant as possible.... how about sending her to day care in her pjs if she doesn't want to get dressed? i work at a preschool and parents have done that too. the student usually gets the message pretty quickly! good luck!

It has been a long time since my daycare days. With my oldest we had to leave the house early like you. I remember feeling guilty doing this to my daughter. I ended up making it a fun time. We played the stereo loud with our favorite music and danced while getting ready. In the car on the way to daycare we sang songs really loud. We had fun (most of the time:-) ) Good Luck.

How long has she been fighting you? I agree that it could be anxiety about going to daycare. At 2 1/2 my nephew fought like crazy in the morning, and it turned out he didn't want to go to daycare because there was another child there who was pushing him every day. It's totally normal for toddlers to go through a biting/hitting/pushing phase but this boy was almost 3 and had apparently been doing it for a while. My nephew is now almost 4 and in a new daycare center and he is totally fine and looks forward to "school". That one kid who was basically bullying him was causing him all of the anxiety before. Anyway I would talk to the daycare and see if your daughter is having trouble when she gets there, or if there have been repeated conflicts with any particular child there. Separation anxiety from you could be another issue...maybe she is dreading the impending drop off and not being with you for the day. Does she still cry when you leave?
As the other posters mentioned she may not be getting enough sleep. Also, have there been any changes in your family recently that she may be having difficulty adjusting to? Maybe she is having trouble with only going for a few days, and it being kind of a mixed-up routine? My son goes to daycare Monday through Friday and on the weekends I try to keep his schedule of meals, snack time, nap time, and outside time the same as what he does at daycare because he seems to have trouble going from such a structured environment to being at home for two days in a row, and then jumping back into daycare again

Had the same problem and boy is it frustrating! Did u ever try having her favorite drink (in a non spillable cup of course..it never fails, they will spill! LOL),or snack ready for her when she wakes up. Redirecting her emotions to something she looks forward to in the morning with a favorite snack or drink may help. If its really bad, maybe putting her in the cloths she is going to wear the next day might help too, then u just get her up and put her in the car without the wrestleing act! Good luck! And just remind yourself this in another phase that u will look back on when she's older and laugh about.

Hi. I know this is late, and I hope you have already solved your problem, but if not, here is another way of looking at it:

How do YOU feel in the morning? I noticed that if I am crabby or frazzled in the morning, my son (3 yrs old) picks up on it and also becomes crabby and then we both just feed on each others' bad moods and it escalates.

Since your daughter wakes up fine near the same time other days, and you said bedtime is getting frustrating on before-daycare nights, I'm guessing she might be feeding off your frustration now even if it didn't start out that way.

If this is the case, see what you can do to make mornings (and bedtimes) easier for YOU. If you can have everything you need for the morning ready before you go to bed, then the morning won't feel as hectic. If you are more relaxed and less frantic to get out the door, maybe your daughter won't fight you as much.

As a working mother of four, I understand your frustration. One thing that worked at our home was to talk about something special that we could do if I didn't have to fight with them in the morning to get them out the door. It could be as simple as an ice cream cone at the end of the week or a picnic at the park - whatever would work for your daughter. This worked with my younger children. My older children gained an earlier bedtime by 15 minutes everyday until I didn't fight them in the morning. They also lost electronic privledges - tv, gameboy, internet....until they became cooperative.

I hope it gets better for your family soon. It is so hard to be stressed out for your work day before you even leave the house.

G.

Instead of wearing PJ's to bed try putting her in the clothes she is going to wear the next day and let her sleep in them. Then in the morning all you have to do is put her in the car.