Socks are the Secret
For some reason I, a parent of a second grader, was talking to a parent of a kindergartner about our morning routine. I can' remember now if I was bragging about how we are now late less than 5% of the times (and so no longer get letters from the otherwise excellent principal about the importance of being on time) or if I was just commiserating about the odd fact of how difficult it can be to get a handful of small humans to a place at the same time every day.
But I was all "So then we eat, and then at 8:30 stop eating, and brush teeth and hair, and if she's not ready to walk out the door by 8:40 then we won't be watching TV later that day," and I had to stop for a digression about despite my daughter's reasonably self-driven mornings, I have to intervene to make sure that socks are chosen and really actually chosen early on, not at shoe time. "Screw up the socks, and it can cost you 10 minutes; there might not be the right sort of socks for the chosen clothes or shoes; maybe the drier needs to be emptied of socks, any sort of disaster can intervene."
At this point, one of the true master parents of the hill-side, Jenn Ash-Maher, spoke up to tell this story. Jen has three children, and soon after a close friend of hers had her third baby, she called up to ask about how it is possible to manage three children. Jen's answer was "Put Socks on Early."