Morning Routine to Get 3 Year Old Out the Door!!

When our daughter would go through this at times.. Like no Bath!
No shoes! Or not wanting to get dressed..

I would do races.. "Lets see how fast mommy can dress. you.. Look at he clock when the number is (insert number) you tell me to go.."

Then I would dress her as fast as possible.. Of course we would laugh because maybe I would mess up the buttons or put her pants on the wrong leg..

I would then write down the time it took and the next morning we would race again..

Usually after a few mornings, she would get back on track, or I would have her help to see if that made a difference or just let her "do it"..

Sometimes, I just told her, I needed her help, I needed her to get dressed on her own. She loved being a "big helper."

Same with bath.. My husband and I would be so tired and just want her in and out.. so I would bathe her one night and he the next.. The rule was she had to be totally bathed and hair washed. Of course my husband would cheat and our daughter would yell, Dad did not wash my neck! Or dad used soap not shampoo on my hair!!!! She would laugh and laugh, she loved it.

I knew a mom at our daughters day care that once just snatched her child up in just his diaper and took all of the clothes in a bag and took him and dressed him at school.. He just refused to get dressed and she had to get to work.

You may need to start getting up earlier for a while.. yes, 30 minutes earlier. If she cannot be rushed.. it is your only choice.

This is what I did with my son and it has worked really well. Mornings used to be a battle for us, but it has been much smoother lately. We got a big poster board and made a schedule for the morning. I would write the time down and what we needed to be doing and I found some pictures on the computer that I printed and cut out so my son could glue them to our schedule. He's almost four and, of course, can't read, so the pictures help him know what to do. He can match up the time from the poster to the digital clocks around the house.
For example, our schedule reads:

7:45 am - Eat breakfast
Here my son glued a picture of a plate of bacon and eggs

8:05 am - Get dressed
This line has pictures of clothes

Making the schedule was a fun project, he liked matching up his stack of picture to the corresponding entries on the poster and gluing them on. At the end of the schedule I have 25 minutes built into our morning for playtime. If my son follows the schedule he gets to have time to play or watch TV before we leave. If he screws around, he doesn't get that time. He knows that he has to stay on task and I don't have to yell at him to get him to follow directions. I just ask him what time it is and what should he be doing at that time and he does what he needs to do.
Maybe something similar would work for you and your daughter?

I give DD two choices I can live with and if she doesn't choose, it's my pick. If she starts to fuss, I try to dress her as fast as possible (though I prefer she try to do it on her own because I know she can, mostly). I also weigh battles. Is it really worth the fight to dress her before breakfast? Can she wear the boots instead and I just pack the shoes in case she needs them? Practice getting dressed on weekends, too. And sometimes, when I just need to get a laugh, I do things like put socks on my ears or pants on my head and pretend I have no idea they don't go there and let her correct me.

Have her sleep in just her undies or better yet the outfit she'll wear the next day. This tip was given to me by my co-worker. It works like a charm. At first hubby thought I was nuts and resisted, but then when he saw how well the morning went, he caved. My 10y will even do this on his own now sometimes.

My 3 year old has days where he doesn't want to get dressed either. Heck...he has days where he doesn't want to do much of anything I tell him :)

Anyway...I have found a few things that work best.

1. Laurie A. mentioned races. My son is pretty competitive already and I will tell him we have to get dressed before Daddy can get dressed. Or at bed time my husband will tell him to see if they can get him bathed before Mommy gets her Pjs on and face washed.

2. I tell him "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Either you help me and let me dress you or I will dress you with a battle and you will cry. I do not want to make you cry so please help me out here." He often makes the better choice but some days he does not.

Hang in there!

Have you tried a sticker chart? She gets a sticker if she cooperates with getting dressed.

Another option is to just have her go to school in her PJs one day and see if that doesn't motivate her to get dressed after that. I'm sure the preschool people have seen it all.

Otherwise, I'm afraid you're going to have to put up with the tears when you're firm until she understands that you mean what you say. It sucks, but this is a battle of wills, and you have to be strong enough to win.

easy. take control, be the parent. she is acting like that because you are letting her. you have taught her that bad behavior is okay. discipline her, makes rules and expectations and stick to them. you will not cause her psychological issues, she wont hate you etc. It is okay to be the parent and expect your child to behave. you have to start early and then it is not a problem. get some control, dont cave. get her up, put her clothes on her or make her put them on if she is able. take her to the bathroom, wash her face, brush her teeth and fix her hair. take her to the kitchen and feed her breakfast. take her to the car, put her in the carseat and go. it is not rocket science. don't be afraid to be firm and use real discipline. you will be glad you did in the long run.