Routine for Family Life

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that everyone (especially children) NEEDS routines. Children literally thrive on them. You need a routine for family life that includes things like cooking, cleaning, family time, outdoor play etc.

The more everything falls into a routine, the more your children know what to expect each day. And knowing what to expect will give them a sense of security and safety.

This lowers any anxieties your child might have. How many times have you changed something about your routine, only to see your kid have a complete meltdown? I know I have!

Routines, NOT schedules

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not implying you need to schedule out each hour of each day. That would be extremely exhausting and stressful to keep up.

Not to mention, it would create anxiety when a task starts to run off course. But you should have a “general” routine that is followed each day.

What is a routine?

To create a routine for your family, think about the order you do things in and what time you start in the morning. As opposed to what time you start a task and how long you spend on it.

For example, our family’s day starts with morning prayers. Then we get ready for the day (brush teeth, make bed, etc.) and have breakfast. Once that’s out of the way we start our Morning Time (sometimes called Morning Basket) for homeschool.

After school my kids have play time or free time until dinner. Then after dinner is done, we clean up, get ready for bed and have story time. Our family uses Saturdays to do our major cleaning tasks and laundry, so we would replace our homeschool time with cleaning/chores.

I know other families like to split cleaning and laundry throughout the week and do just a little each day. I’ve tried this, but for some reason I have a hard time making it work.

I prefer to do the majority of our cleaning on a specific day.

What does a routine mean for your family?

You definitely don’t need to copy my routine. There’s more than one way to create one. The important part is that you make it work for you and your family. Having a routine, doesn’t mean you can’t stray from the path either.

I’m a mom and I know that life happens! It happens whenever it wants to, regardless of your plans, schedules, and appointments. This is why I say to “have a routine,” NOT a schedule.

You could have the best, most perfect schedule planned out, but the second something comes up, your schedule falls apart.

If you have a regular routine to follow, it’s much easier to steer off course for a bit, and then just pick up where you left off. It also takes away the guess work. You know what you’re doing each day.

Having a routine ensures that things get done. Does this mean your house will be immaculate and smell amazing and your kids will have spotless rooms at all times? Of course not! Life happens people!

Back to our kids

Having a routine for family life is not going to make your children enjoy doing housework or schoolwork unfortunately. That’s a topic for another blog post.

But when they know what to expect each day, the more cooperative and mellow they will be. They will also learn how to effectively manage a household and other tasks.

I could go on and on about the benefits of routines and there is definitely more than the ones listed here today. However, I do find the ones listed to be most important.

Let me know in the comments what kind of routine your family follows and how it helps. If you have any questions, you can post them in the comments below or on our Contact page!