Consistent routines help children of all ages and their parents move through the various events of each day with success and less stress. Effective routines develop good habits and life seems simpler when driven on autopilot. But, what happens when you need to make a temporary change to a well-running routine?

How can you break a habit to get a different result?

This challenge arose for my family recently. My kids, ages 7 and 9, have a strong after-school routine for riding the bus home. Our Friday afternoon schedule changed and now I need to pick them up from school rather then have them ride the bus in order to get my daughter to an appointment on time.  Knowing how strong their habit is for getting on the bus at the end of the school day, I knew I needed a way to cue them to do something out of the routine.  Reminding them before school on Friday wasn’t going to be enough because too much time pass and their minds would be involved in many other activites.  They needed something physical to remind them throughout the day.  I choose something similar in effect to tying a string around a finger to trigger a memory.  I painted both of their index fingernails blue and told them that every time they saw their blue fingernail at school to say, “Meet mom at the car after school.”

How did it work?  The success rate was 100%.  Both kids made it to the car.  However, my son didn’t make it to the car until after he got on the bus, the bus pulled out of the parking lot and he realized his mistake when he saw his blue fingernail on the bus.  The bus driver kindly pulled back into the lot and my son finally arrived at the car.  The reminder cue worked, but too late.  So we still have some work to do on shifting this well-ingrained routine.

There may be times in your life when you need to temporarily alter routines that work well for your family.  In these instances look for ways to cue a different behavior in addition to talking about the upcoming change.

Kelly Foster knows routines won’t eliminate the sometime chaos of life with kids, but they do help!  Need help establishing organized in your home?  Contact us.