All right, Mom. Put down that coffee and grab a wine. Get ready for another episode of Nursing and Cursing, a parenting podcast that covers more shit than your baby's full diaper. I'm Kate. I'm a stay-at-home mom of three in Brooklyn, New York. I'm trying to figure out whether I should go back to work, have another baby, or spend the rest of my life waiting for my fresh direct order. Hey, I'm Christine, a video editor and a mom of two living in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Allie here, podcasting up in the mountains in South Kona, Hawaii. I work as a real estate agent and a mom of two boys. Hey, I'm Molly. I'm a teacher raising two kids in St. Augustine, Florida. And I'm Sarah, a new mom to one sweet babe living in Brooklyn, New York. Between five busy households, it's a miracle we make it on the mic at all.
Trust me, we need this as much as you do. Good morning, nursing and cursing. Hey, girl. Hey. Good morning. Good evening. Because this week's episode is all about the morning routine. Oh, my God. That's clever. It does not matter what your family structure is, what your plans are in the morning. Everybody's got a morning routine. And I don't know anybody who has it easy. I think it's a stressful time of day for everybody. That's not true, Molly. My husband has it easy. Ditto. Burn. It's chaos. It's chaos.
Oh, who's a morning person on this podcast? Me. I am. Big time. Holy shit. I love mornings. I like to get up for my kids. Me too. So what time is everybody's... Hang on. So everybody except Sarah is a morning person? I'm not, Sarah. I'm not a morning person. Okay. Okay. So that is helpful to be a morning person for sure. Yeah. And my kids are getting up. Well, you know, it goes through stages. Right now, my kids are getting up around 630, 645. I find that to be really nice. Yeah, that's great. It's kind of late-ish. My baby's up at five.
We ignore her until 6. And then my son is up at 7. Oh, wow. That's pretty good. Are you getting up with Maddie? I nurse Matilda at 6. And then I hand her over to dad to go play downstairs. And then I do a quick get dressed. And then Levi's up at 7 in my room. Mom, let's go pick out my outfit. He wants to get dressed right away. So I get ready before he comes in. Okay, cool. Yeah. And what time? I always have to back it up. Like, what time are we getting in the car? What time are we leaving the house? Backwards from there. We're in the car, 8.15.
Okay. I am in the car at 7 a.m. That's early. That is painful. Does school start at 7 30 for you?
School starts at 7.55, but I've got kids at two different schools. So there's carpools for each one. I have to get to the carpool. And I am part of it, so I'm driving one half of it. But to get one of them to the Little Mountain Cooperative, it's like you've got to be there on time or you are driving that mountain road. You're not getting your other kid into the carpool. So 7.55, but in order to really pull it off, you know, between 7 and 7.10. Okay, wow, that's brutal. So when you get in the car and it's 7.17, you're like, fuck, fuck.
Or what? Oh my God, it's not easy. It's definitely the most stressful and brutal time of the day. And I have thought about this recently. Like I have dialed in my feelings and I'm in full on, God, almost panic mode, you guys. Can you relate to that? Yes. Just go, go, go. And if you really dial into your feelings, you are stressed out and you're borderline panicking. Like that you've got to go. And gosh, of course your kids are picking up on that. And it slows them down. That's exactly what I was texting. I feel like I was texting you guys two months ago. Like I've had this radical shift in mornings.
and it's not my new approach to mornings. It's like, they're still, they're just as much of a shit show over here as they are in any household. It's the exact same shit. Shoes that were right by the front door last night fucking disappeared by this morning. Can't explain it. It's the same shit over here, but...
I treat my attitude like a whole part of the morning. Like a whole, like my attitude is just as important. Did I pack lunch? My attitude is just as important as do we have sneakers? Because I realized like, okay, my kids are only going to remember me as somebody who's constantly screaming like, your shoes were here last night. Where are your shoes? Where are your shoes? Help your sister find herself. I was like, okay, I just have to chill. Like if we're 10 minutes late, we're 10 minutes late. And yes, it's going to fuck up my morning. And yes, it's going to be stressful. But nobody will remember that we were 10 minutes late in 20 years. They will remember that I was a nervous wreck every morning. So I'm just like.
Kate, was there a breaking point for you? Like, was there an incident or did you just kind of come around to that? Because I know this is kind of recent, right? It's really recent. And I'm like, yeah, it's recent. And this is on the back. I've been a mom for 10 years. This is after one whole decade of screaming at people from 630 to 730. I just.
you know what it's like it's not even that deep and it's not like I nail it every morning it's just like I just was realizing like okay what do I remember about my parents it's not the big events it's not birthday parties it's not like the big things it's the little tiny details every single day and actually I realized like I actually realized like i realized like oh my dad never lost his temper with us and that's why i still like him because he never lost his cool and yes my dad did not do a fourth of what a mom does i'm not there's that's the whole other story my dad did not have it as hard as any of us but the fact that he never lost his cool stayed with me and i was like i just need to fucking chill the fuck out like i need to calm down wow it's true i've had you know conversations with my husband and this is like a double-edged sword because he will bring to my attention and he's done so in like a very kind way where he has sat me down and said, listen, the way you are needs to stop. I don't want to raise a family this way. The way I hear how angry you are, how stressed out you are, it is not healthy. And I've really taken a look at that and I've taken it to therapy just the whole morning routine, you guys, and have dialed it in. The other piece of that is my husband is either two things. He's out the door very, very early for jobs gone before us, or he is getting out of bed at 7am the minute.
he hears our truck drive away that is his cue to get out of bed so I'm doing it alone and so you know I really I really hurt him but part of me wants to be like oh well fuck you you don't even help me in the morning you know of course yes ditto Yeah, I routinely greet my husband in the kitchen as we're walking out the door with I can't even help myself. I know it's not healthy. Oh, nice to join us. Gotta get that zinger in or like so glad you could make it. So this is it's bringing up just a little anxiety for me because, you know, I'm on a hiatus from work right now. And when I'm working, mornings are what you guys are describing. And right now I'm not. And this is not to say that.
When you're not working out of the house, it's not stressful. There's a lot of things that we've lined up in our life right now. We happen to go to a preschool that doesn't have a cutoff time. We live very close to school. And I don't have anywhere to be. So, like, it has been such a lovely experience of just getting a break from the rush. But I'm jumping back in this fall and I'm scared. And I'm realizing, too, hearing you that.
I feel psyched that my kids wake up early because, and I'm going to actually have to work on getting them up earlier, but because it makes the routine easier. Who in the group has late sleeper kids or even Allie? I mean, I can't imagine yours are waking up naturally for that. No, it's different. Sometimes they are up at six and then that is enough time. But a lot of times if they want to sleep until 630, I don't want to wake them up before that. They need to sleep, right? They're young children.
I, you know, Molly, do you remember when I was like, it's just the morning. It's so bad. You know, everybody is freezing. We live indoor, outdoor in the mountain up here. It's dark. It's pitch black, especially during the winter months. And you guys are going to laugh at me if I say, you know, it's between 40 and 55 degrees some mornings, but that is. That feels so cold. And when you're outside, you're outside. You're outside. It's like camping in 50 degree weather.
comfortable you're in parkas at the breakfast table they're complaining that they're freezing you know we're just wearing my shoes i don't want to get dressed i'm trying to put clothes in the dryer whatever and get out of here at 7 a.m so i came to you molly and was so upset and you said ali you have to get up earlier you have to and so i did i started getting up between 5 and 5 30 and doing it all excuse me doing it all Yeah. And then waking them up and basically just putting them right in the car and it's like breakfast on the road or whatever. Perfect. Yeah, you got to get up before them and have all your – if you're together, it's easier to get them together. And I've said it. I've said it on this podcast. As a teacher, there are the families and like it is what it is. And I'm a mom and I get it. But there are the families who roll in late every day and they look like chickens with their heads cut off. And it's frazzle, frazzle, frazzle and all these excuses. And teachers will say the morning routine starts the night before. Right. Which is like set your clothes out, have the lunches done.
get your kids to bed on time, get the order together the night before. It's not easy, especially when you got like, it's not, but when you let them stay up a little later, it backfires when you just give it, it blows up in your face the next day. And also if you're working, if you and your kids are not getting home until six o'clock at night together, it's not as simple. And you also have to be at work at nine o'clock in the morning. Cause I've done that too. And I know everybody on here has, when you have to get yourself ready in the morning and get your kids ready in the morning and you're not going to drop off in your sweats and coming home to change afterwards. It's a whole, it's your, yeah, it's so hard on lunch. It just feels like for,
I feel like if I have so many things that I need to do when I'm trying to get out the door, I don't get to like, I don't get to see my, my daughter. I mean, I mean, I mean like see her and like, how are you doing? I love you. I don't know. She's only one, but for me, I feel like that really matters. Yes. And so the less I have to do by doing it the night before and giving my, like we're giving ourselves some breathing room to just like hang out and be together. That's awesome. And Sarah, you've got the whole like, oh my God, make sure the pump parts are washed and packed. Yes. Yeah. If you forget one thing.
that's like with the hill you do not drive this hill again so if you want to be just soccer practice after school or to head to the ocean like you better make sure by 6 30 you have it all in the truck because you're not coming home during the day right blows Oh, my God. Sorry, I lost my train of thought. What were we talking about, you guys? Were we talking about HelloFresh? Yes. Okay, Chrissy and I tried HelloFresh. It's that meal kit delivery service that shops, plans, delivers step-by-step recipes and pre-measured ingredients so you can just cook, eat, and enjoy. We both loved it. There's three meal plans you can choose from. You can get a classic, a veggie, or a family. Oh, yum.
Yeah, we got a family one, a vegetarian family, and I made patatas bravas for a family of five. I know you guys are impressed. What did you make? Oh, you guys, I made a cherry drizzled pork chop with this delicious couscous and tomato salad. It was the bomb, you guys. My husband loved it. The cherry pan sauce had like cherry jam. It was so delicious. And it was rad because I never cook meat, you guys, and I actually felt comfortable and confident doing it because it comes with these giant cards with pictures on it and step-by-step instructions. It's so easy and fun. Wow.
No, you felt like such a badass getting that meal on the table. And I know it only took you 30 minutes because this food comes all prepped. It takes 30 minutes. I love that. That's why I'm totally going to subscribe because HelloFresh takes all the guesswork out of meal planning and grocery shopping. There's no meal planning. There's no grocery shopping. It all comes to your door and it is the bomb. The bomb. And so you guys. .com. So if you want to try it, we have a deal for you. For $30 off your first week of HelloFresh, you could visit hellofresh.com slash nail30 and enter the code nail30.
That's in all capitals. So, again, for $30 off your first week of HelloFresh, just visit HelloFresh.com slash Nail30 and enter the code Nail30. Awesome. Thanks, guys. So, here's a question about the morning routine. Who is, and I think we've talked about this before, but I've got to check in. Who dares to make lunches in the morning? Never. I do. I make lunch every morning. That's insane.
Me too. I do. I don't know why. It sort of feels like, I mean, it's not like I'm making anything fresh and delicious, but it sounds hard to make it at night. It sounds harder to me. Could it make sense to you? Because I sometimes make it while I'm making dinner. I just have the container out and I'm just filling it in while I'm stirring the pot. Wow. That's exactly what I do, Molly. Molly, it's so crazy. It's all out. I never thought about that before. You're already like washing dishes and stuff. Wow.
Well, I'm getting my mind fucking alone. Well, you're going to save, like, how much time in the morning? I don't know. Maybe I'd have some of those fucking patatas bravas to go is what you're saying. That's right. I'm thinking of you in the dark, cold in the dark, making lunches, and I want to just slap my face. No, then at night, and then it's just in. Forget it.
Yeah. I mean, if I'm making my kids so tuna salad, which you might be right, like don't ever send tuna to school. Sorry. I do because my kids love it. Ditto, Allie. Ditto. I make that for them the night before for some reason. Well, you're losing. I feel like sandwiches that sat in the – Cannot make sandwich for kids. Okay, wait. But I'm going to say one thing. You guys were packing your food the night before. Yep. And it's real food. Are your teachers warming it up for your kids or they're eating it cold? Eating it cold. Eating it cold. I'm sorry. My kids would not – I'm not talking lasagna.
But my kids wouldn't open a cold thing of rice and eat cold rice at lunch. They wouldn't eat cold. I don't pack shit like rice. You're packing hot stuff in a thermos? I am. I'm doing all manner of things, but this is another issue that calls, this is like tides in the morning. This is all one thing. My kids, like so many public school kids, only get like 20 minutes to eat. 10 minutes is spent dicking around. So really they're only sitting in front of their lunch for 10 minutes. And that, I feel like that, I want to say is a big fuck you from the DOE to me. I mean, it's everywhere.
But it means that I have to give them a real breakfast because I'm not sure how much food is going to go into them at lunchtime. And I cannot be dragging people who are broken to their activities in the afternoon. So I'm making a real breakfast. So that takes time. I'm making like eggs or pancakes. So fucking that fucks my morning up. But then I feel like, yeah, I have to pack warm food so that if they're sitting at their lunch and they're only going to eat for 10 minutes, at least I got some real bites in. Well, that's, you know, that's on you.
Lucky your kids are very lucky. But they would survive without it, and now you're fucked because they expect that warm little toasty mac and cheese or whatever. You've got to set the bar real low. That's what I'm making, grilled cheese melts. How did you know? I do also all manner of things. I think that I have maybe admitted this on the podcast before. I fucking hate to cook. I'm realizing it. I hate it. Is anybody else with me? I'm embarrassed. I hate it too, Allie. I hate it. It's the worst. I hate it. I just throw things together in a pot.
and eat it like it's like fried whatever you're saying you don't make your own cook you just take cool things and like make them warm yes that's all i ever do i i mean if there's one thing that i have gleaned from social media it's that meal prep is very helpful and i spend like an entire sunday meal prepping just like vegetables different types of rice or grains and whatever else and then i just throw those things together that's great That sounds so great. I cannot imagine spending a weekend meal prepping. There's no time. No. Kate's got three kids and one of them is 10. There's activities. Right. We're out as a family of four doing activities. I'm not home. We've been through this. Sarah, what I'm saying is like, it must be nice. No, you guys are spending the time. Dot, dot, dot. At 630. Right. So I'm saying I hate it so much. I hate it so much that I can't do it at night. I put everything off to the last second, but I actually have to put food somewhere. I think I'm the same. I think I'm the same for me too.
All right, guys. Okay. I'm going to try this whole – I'm going to – tomorrow I'm going to take a one-person challenge. Tuesday night I'm going to pack Wednesday's lunches and I'm just going to fucking see. It's going to change your life, dude. It's awesome. Kate and I have said this before too, but like if you have any midday time, I sometimes pack at 1 p.m. for the next day's lunch. I know. When you told me that you were like doing turkey and cheese wraps at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, I was like, well, wow. If I had just met her, we would be – Poor Augie is basically eating rotted food. Okay. We have to move on. Nailing and failing at Skies? I got a great nail. Okay.
I get a lot of shit delivered, nothing exciting, just like, you know, Amazon for days, et cetera. And I really hate, it's going to make me sound like the fucking laziest, snobbiest bitch ever, but I really hate breaking down boxes. Like I just, it's just the last thing that I can do. It's the last thing I can do at the end of the day. I just can't with the tape and they have to be flat. I mean, whatever. I am laughing so hard because I'm like, you're like whipping up some hot gourmet shit for your kids, but you can't break down boxes. I can't break down a box. So I.
I challenged my kids to break all the boxes down. And what do you know? Not only did they break the boxes down half the time just by fucking dragging them out onto the street and smashing them, but now they're like, Mom, do you need anything else broken down? Are there any other boxes that we can break down? It's just my life. It's just changed my life. It was amazing. Get them to work. Badass. Outsourcing. Okay, well, let's see. I have a fail. Okay.
I went grocery shopping today and I was down the ice cream aisle and picking out what flavor do I want for podcasting tonight. Got myself, God, I keep forgetting about the slices, Kate. I think they're in a different section. But no, I got myself some Ben and Jerry's half-baked. And the fail, though, is that I left the groceries in the car for three and a half hours. Jesus Christ. It was not the kind of thing where, oh, just throw it in the freezer and get it back up. It was all it. It was yogurt, ice cream, milkshake. Okay, that sucks, dude. Ben and Jerry's in Florida.
Trapped in a Florida car. And the turkey and stuff that I got was next to so many cold things. Some of it was fine. But yeah, a couple of yogurts and a... My very valuable Ben and Jerry's. Molly, you know what you've got to do? You've got to take a cooler bag with you to the grocery store. That's what I do. Totally. Well, usually I just unpack. I don't know where my head was today. I never unpack. I just put it all on my kitchen floor in a cooler bag for like six hours and deal with it later. Brilliant. Genius. Genius. I have a fail. I have a fail. My daughter, who turned one yesterday on Mother's Day. Happy birthday. Thanks, guys. We were upstairs and I was just kind of cleaning up and she was playing in her bathroom, her and Levi's bathroom upstairs. And she was really quiet. I'm like, what is she doing? And I peeked in and she's.
gnawing on the toilet seat which is covered in levi's urine just oh she was just gnawing on oh yeah and my nail is that on thursday this thursday i'm going to palm springs by myself with my friends leaving the kids for the first time leaving matilda for the first time so super a little nervous but super psyched how many nights are you going for i'm going just for two nights three days two nights it's a quickie beautiful perfect i know so great pretty thanks guys i'm psyched give it to me I got a fail um my five-year-old is really into calling names guys I know that's terrible it hurts me it hurts me so deep to my soul like his brother will do something and he'll be like oh idiots okay can you you can imagine Leo doing this right he actually sounds so cool I know and he knows it but it kills me and so the other night we were in that bathroom the boys were showering and he did something and he called his brother an idiot and I got in his face and I was like
It is not okay to call names, Leo. It is not okay. We do not call names in this family. It is okay to say, you are so kind. Or it is okay to say, I love your new sneakers. And I was giving him all these examples of what it was okay to say. And so Phoenix is in the shower. And these are his words. His brother, who's seven, chimes in. He's like, right, Leo. It is okay to say, hello, mister. Are you uncircumcised? Oh, my God. It is okay to say, hello, ma'am. Do you have fat boobs?
I tried so hard to be like actually it's not okay to say either one of those things. Oh, God. You can't make it up. Why does Allie always have the best feral? So good. Fat boobs? I was like, honey, that's not a thing. What are you talking about? I don't even have any boobs. Where are you getting that? I have one fat boob and then one saggy boob. I wish my boobs were fat. I have a minor nail. Today, while I was buying a bottle of wine for...
uh, tonight so that I'd have a glass of wine for the podcast. Um, I was talking to the guy behind the counter and I said, I don't know why I come in here two times a week. Like I should just be buying multiple bottles every time I come in. And he was like, yeah. And then you get the discount. And I was like, excuse me, you get a, you get a 10% discount if you buy six bottles of wine at one time. Or as we call it around here, a six pack. Okay.
That's like $5 off though. So Sarah knows where she's getting her wine next week and you're getting six bottles, right girl? Oh yeah. It's nothing, Sarah. It's like $6 off. Moms, we wish you the best of luck with your morning routines. We are struggling with you when you're getting up at the crack of dawn. We love you. Guys, come to our iTunes page and hit us with a review and tell a friend. That would be so cool. Okay. Have a good week. Bye.