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Here is a game day morning routine that actually works. Not perfect. Not Pinterest worthy. Just functional and real and something you can actually do with kids.
The Night Before Is Where the Routine Actually Starts
Lay out what everyone is wearing. All of it. Every piece. For every person including yourself. Game day is not the time to discover that the spirit shirt or jersey is in the dryer or that nobody can find matching baseball socks.
Pack the game bag the night before. Snacks, blanket, extra layers, the bag tag that means you can actually find your stuff in the stands. Everything in the bag before you go to bed.
Prep dinner or at least have a plan. Even if the plan is rotisserie chicken and bagged salad that is a plan and a plan is everything on game day.
Check the weather. Sounds obvious. Is not always done. Check it the night before so you know what everyone is wearing and what extra layers need to go in the bag.
The Morning Of
Give yourself twenty minutes before the kids wake up if you can get it. Even ten. Coffee, quiet, a few minutes to talk to God before the chaos starts. Game day mornings that start in chaos tend to stay in chaos. Give yourself a buffer.
Feed everyone something real before the game. Not just a granola bar in the car. A real breakfast that will hold them until after the game because concession stand food at eight pm is not a dinner plan.
Get yourself ready before you get the kids ready. Every single time. Non negotiable. Because if you do not you will end up at the game in whatever you grabbed in the three minutes you had left and you will spend the whole night feeling like you showed up to your own life unprepared.
Load the car before you load the kids. Everything in the trunk before anyone is buckled.
Leave earlier than you think you need to. Always. Parking, getting kids out of the car, finding your people, getting settled in the stands, all of it takes longer than it does in your head. The sports mom who arrives five minutes early is a completely different human being than the one who arrives five minutes late.
The One Thing That Ties It All Together
Decide how you want to feel at the game before you leave the house.
Not how you hope things go. Not what you need the team to do. How you want to feel. Present. Grateful. Enjoying this instead of just getting through it.
Then drive to that game on purpose.
The chaos is coming regardless. The morning routine just determines whether you meet it prepared or scrambling.
Prepared is better. Every time.