This Mother Is Under Fire for a Timesaving Tip
Would you let your kids sleep in their outfits for the next day to save time? (Photo: Getty Images)
Savvy, busy parents often come up with creative shortcuts, from making lunches ahead of time to laying out kids’ clothes the night before. But Madeleine West, an Australian mom of six, has taken timesaving tips to the next level by occasionally dressing her kids for bed in the clothes they’ll be wearing the next day rather than in pajamas.
While sharing her advice for managing six children, West, who is an actress and the author of Six Under Eight, told the Daily Mail: “Oh, and if you’ve got a particularly early start or busy morning, dress the children in their clothes for the next day the night before. Pajamas are optional for me. I figured if they’re in clean clothes and getting into a clean bed, they’re fine.”
Naturally, this has sparked a mixed reaction from parents. Some applauded West’s “clever” shortcut and admitted that they also sometimes nix pajamas in favor of next day’s clothes. One user, @nat_tsarina, posted on West’s Instagram: “I do this too — such a time saver in the morning when we all need to get out of the house … and get to school and work.” Instagram user earth_mumma wrote: “I just wanted to say I, too, on occasion do the same thing with my 5 year old. I thought it was pretty clever — he’s warm, doesn’t have to change when he’s sleepy, creates less washing and for all those reasons, gives me a small break. Not everyone has 6 children so until they’ve walked in your shoes they should keep their comments to themselves. Great work gorgeous lady.”
But not everyone was impressed. On Australia’s Mamamia.com, one person commented: “Put kids to bed in clothes for the next day?! Really hope that was a joke.” Another person wrote: “Um don’t they have breakfast or brush their teeth?! PS I think sleeping in clothes sounds terribly uncomfortable.” In a Daily Mail article about the controversy, one commenter wrote: “She makes them wear next day’s clothes to bed? Wow, how efficient! Also have them eat next day’s breakfast and lunch along with yesterday’s dinner and you will save heaps of time. At least she’s not putting her kids in the washing machine to sort out dirty clothes and ‘dirty’ children at the same time — that would be organised! Let’s just hope this didn’t give her any ideas.”
Madeleine West defends her timesaving tip. (Photo: Getty Images)
After getting a lot of flack for her tip, West took to the Daily Telegraph to defend her actions. She emphasized that she does this only occasionally, “when the following day’s schedule is thick with dance concerts and soccer finals, birthday parties and unexpected guests, or I am working and will be called to set at 5 a.m. (ouch), I will bathe my kiddies and pop them in tomorrow’s clothes before story time and bed.”
Julie Morgenstern, author of Time Management From the Inside Out, told Yahoo Style that it’s fine to save time this way on occasion, as long as the kids are sleeping in comfortable clothes, such as stretchy pants with elastic. West noted that she doesn’t put her kids to bed wearing their full school uniforms. Instead, they sleep in tracksuits or leggings, and a T-shirt that can serve as the base layer the next day. “There is no way I would snuggle them up in a pressed shirt and starchy tunic,” she wrote. “I spend far too many hours slaving over the ironing board as it is.”
It takes West about 45 minutes, on average — less than eight minutes per child — to dress her six kids, including doing their hair and tying their shoes. “When I know I will be absent on such a morning due to work, I feel it is kinder to my kids, and to whomever is generous enough to be caring for them, to ‘partially dress’ them the night before,” she said. “Clean clothes, on clean little bodies and into a clean bed. If there are any little accidents of the type small children are prone to, naturally a full set of fresh clothes (plus linen) is called for. Same applies if they have drooled, snotted or dribbled any other form of gummy gooeyness on themselves.”
West also said: “I do not send my babes out into the world in the same clothes day after day, unwashed and unloved, despite what many may assert from the safety of their electronic devices.”
Morgenstern thinks that critics should give West a break. “The mechanics of running a household of that many kids of different ages is daunting,” she said. “Anybody who is running a household with six children need to be respected for any way they figure out how to save time and keep things running smoothly.”
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