🪥 Realistic Morning Routines for Moms: Less Stress, More Smiles ⏰

Struggling to find your rhythm in the morning as a mom and marketer? In this episode of Kids, Chaos & Killer Campaigns, we’re ditching the unrealistic “4AM meditation” routines and getting real about what actually works when you're juggling preschool drop-offs, last-minute work calls, and milk spills on clean clothes.

Host [Your Name], a mom of two and full-time digital marketer, shares her top 3 tips for creating a flexible, sanity-saving morning routine—plus some relatable, laugh-out-loud moments along the way. You’ll hear:

• How a few minutes of prep the night before can prevent full-blown morning meltdowns.
• The power of “non-negotiables” to anchor your day.
• Why flexibility (and a spare outfit in the car) is the real mom-marketer superpower.

Whether you’re a morning person or just trying to survive until coffee, this episode is packed with encouragement, hacks, and ideas to help you start your day with more peace and less panic.

Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share this with a fellow working parent who needs to hear it!

Transcript

Eden Reid (00:12)

Welcome back to Kids, Chaos, and Killer Campaigns, the podcast for marketers who are just as likely to be negotiating snack choices as they are to be negotiating their campaign budget.

Today, we're talking about something that can truly transform your days. Morning routines.

And I'm not talking about those Pinterest perfect, wake up at 4 a.m. and meditate for an hour kind of routine.

I'm talking about realistic routines for busy moms who are juggling work deadlines, planning vacations while scheduling doctor's appointments, and figuring out if today is actually crazy hair day at school.

As a mom of two, I get it. Some mornings just getting out the door with everyone dressed, bonus points if their shoes match, feels like a major win.

So today, I'll share simple, doable strategies that have worked for me and a few funny stories along the way.

The thing I've learned as a working mom is that morning routines matter, even messy ones.

The truth is, you don't need a 27-step routine every morning.

You just need a few habits that set the tone for both your work day and your family life.

I realized this one absolutely chaotic day when my youngest daughter couldn't find her nap stuffy for school and my oldest daughter was crying because one side of the pancake was too dark and my work calendar was blowing up with new meeting invites being dropped on that same day and deliverable reminders.

And that's when it hit me, I can't control everything about the morning. However, I can control a few key things to make it less stressful.

So, tip one, prep the night before. Every little bit helps.

we make it a priority to try to pack our lunches and our backpacks the night before. Even if it just means tossing the basics together.

It's a small step, but it saves us from those frantic, where is my backpack? Or, I can't find my nap-stuffy moments that can throw the whole morning off.

I also know other moms who lay out outfits the night before. Now, we tried that, but inevitably, every single morning, my five-year-old would fight over what we'd chosen the night before because she didn't want to wear that anymore and wanted a new outfit. So it wasn't actually saving us time in our routine, but if you have a kiddo who can commit to clothes the night before, that's a great place to start as well.

For work, I also make it a priority to look over my calendar the night before, just so I'm not blindsided by an early call or some kind of school meeting or event that I might have forgotten about.

few minutes of prep at night clears a lot of mental space in the morning.

and it helps everyone start the day a little less rushed and a lot less stressed.

Tip two, create a non-negotiable morning list.

I have three simple non-negotiables for my morning routine.

The first is hot tea. Reheated once is acceptable and twice is standard. I don't actually start my day with coffee. I start it with a detox tea and a peach mango fizz stick, if you know you know.

I make it a priority to make this before I start the chaos of getting my girl's morning started so I can at least attempt to enjoy it before we have to rush out the door.

My next non-negotiable is 60 minutes of quiet work setup, checking my email, reviewing my calendar, trying to get through tasks that I can at the start of the day.

I've mentioned before that I'm a morning person. used to wake up at 5 a.m. And work out. Then I was consistently having my workouts interrupted by my kiddos who were waking up before they were supposed to. They do have a nightlight that turns green at 630 which indicates they're allowed to get out of bed. But for some reason anytime I hit our home gym and started a workout it felt like suddenly they were up all those mornings but sleeping in any morning I wasn't working out. So I shifted my routine to fit what works

for me.

So now I use that time in the morning to check my work emails, review my calendar one more time, and get focused work done when I feel my best and most focused.

And the third is making time to actually connect with my girls, even if it's just one or two minutes. Some mornings are pure chaos, packing lunches, finding missing shoes, rushing out the door, but I found that carving

Even the tiniest moment to connect with each of my girls makes a big difference in all of our days.

One morning last week, I sat and colored a very simple flower picture with my oldest for a few minutes my youngest climbed up on my back for a huggyback parade around the house. It wasn't anything elaborate. No crafts, no big games, just a few silly, simple moments.

It took less than five minutes total, but the impact lasted all day.

They were happier. The morning routine felt less rushed and frankly, I was a lot less frazzled too.

It's a small thing, but those quick bursts of attention really fill their tanks. And mine, before the day pulls us in all different directions and really unloads the chaos.

So the quick hack is

Pick two to three things that you'll do in your morning routine no matter what and let the rest be flexible.

Speaking of flexible, it's important to build flexibility into your routine. Some days, no matter how much you prep, chaos just wins.

I think of the morning we were already running late for preschool drop-off because all of us had slept through our alarms that day

and my youngest managed to dump an entire Danimal yogurt down the front of her jacket right as we were walking out the door. And by walking I mean rushing out the door.

Spoiler alert, I wiped her down, threw an extra jacket in the car, we made it to school only a few minutes late, and I was still able to hop on my first meeting of the day from my phone in the school's parking lot. Thank you for Zoom backgrounds.

But those warnings are why it's crucial to have a plan A, plan B, and a plan C.

Here are a few real life backups that have saved me more than once. One, I keep a spare outfit for both kids and me in the car, just in case that yogurt explosion happens on its way to school.

Two, I've memorized a five minute get it together routine for the mornings when there is no time for anything extra. I'm talking tinted moisturizer, mascara, swipe of lip balm, I'm done.

And most importantly, I've trained myself to remember that even if everything falls apart, showing up as I am, messy hair, coffee stains, yogurt on my shirt, and all, still

because our kids don't need us to be perfect. And honestly, neither do our colleagues or our clients.

So instead of aiming to be perfect, aim for prepared enough to pivot.

because flexibility is the real superpower that gets us through both drop-off meltdowns and last-minute marketing emergencies.

so a simple recap. Prep the night before, focus on two to three morning non-negotiables, and leave space for flexibility and grace.

You're not failing if mornings are messy. You're living life with tiny humans and building a career. Honestly, that's a pretty epic accomplishment.

So your challenge for today is to pick just one thing that you can do tonight to make tomorrow morning go smoother. Maybe it's packing lunches tonight. Maybe it's getting through your work to-do list, checking your calendar, setting out outfits. Keep it simple. Just one thing to make that morning routine a little easier on yourself.

And give yourself credit, you're doing an amazing job, even if no one can find the matching socks.

Thank you so much for checking out this podcast. I'd love to hear the topics that you want to hear discussed, so drop them in the comments or shoot me a line on LinkedIn.

I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast, leave it a review, and share today's episode with a mom marketer who may be struggling in the morning and could use some tips or just use the encouragement to know she's still doing an amazing job.

I'd love to connect on LinkedIn to stay in touch through this journey. My LinkedIn will be dropped in the show notes. You can click there and shoot me that connect request.

In the next episode, we're diving into real life marketing automation wins for small teams.

In the meantime, enjoy the kids, enjoy the chaos, and I'm wishing you all killer campaigns.