I will be the first to tell you that I am NOT a morning person- never have been, never will be. I can stay up til 3 am no problem! But once that alarm goes off at 7am... I wanna crawl in a hole and die. Now, I should also say that this issue is NOT solved by going to bed earlier, trust me... I've tried. Most nights I'm out by 11pm, midnight at the latest. This, however, has not improved my feelings toward 7am. We are not, nor will we ever be, friends.
Now, when you have children, specifically school age children, there is this little thing between the months of Sept thru June that requires you, and your kids, to be up at obscene hours of the morning. This thing is called school.
I have a love-hate relationship with school. I LOVE that I get to send my children off for 8 hours every M-F for someone else to deal with. I could never be a teacher. I have the utmost respect for teachers. I volunteer in the kids classes and this has only solidified that fact.
I hate that in order to get my 8 hour break each weekday, I am required to get not only myself up and out of bed at 7:00am each day, I also have to get my children up and out of bed, and dressed, and fed.
My children are also NOT morning people. It is an extremely unfortunate trait that I seem to have passed down to them. I fight with them every.single.morning. No lie. Our school mornings are often full of "I hate yous!", "I'm NOT wearing that!!", and the every popular.."but I'm siiiiiiiiiick!"
Cohen (7 years old) will typically lay under the covers, ignoring me as I'm tossing his clothes up on his bed, until I have to threaten grounding him. (the threats will more often then not end in him being grounded for some set amount of days and him screaming at me that I am "sooo mean!"). Oh, and I have tried to drag him out of bed myself... literally... but he sleeps on the TOP bunk, and I am 5'4". Short of climbing up into bed with him.... dragging him out is not an option.
Ashley (5 years old) is an entirely other set of fun-ness in the AM. When she finally DOES decide to wake up, typically about 15 mins AFTER I started trying to rouse her, the first words out of her mouth are.."I'm not wearing what you picked out for me."
"You don't even know what I'm going to grab yet."
"I don't care... I'm not wearing it."
"Fine... you pick something." (or.. my fave, if it's the end of the laundry cycle and she only has ONE jean/top/bottom option..... She will without a doubt HATE whatever it is and throw it across the room as she screams..."I"M NOT WEARING THOSE!")
"I hate all those clothes. I'm not going to school." (cue pulling covers over her head)
After some bribes and/or threats, depending on the day, we stumble downstairs where I try to get them to eat breakfast (if there is time... sometimes they screw around for so long getting up and dressed that there is no time.. like today.) After breakfast.. or no breakfast, the "go brush your teeth" battle ensues. I have to ask them at least 3 or 4 times to go upstairs and brush their teeth. They will usually go upstairs.... but there may or may not be any "brushing" going on. This is a fact that is usually only discovered AFTER they have already boarded the bus and left for school. Right now we are batting about a 50 average.
Then comes the coats. (Gawd, I heart winter... *ugh*)
Cohen, "I wanna wear my sweatshirt!!"
Me, "You can't, it's 32 degrees outside."
"AGH!!!! WHHHHYYYY NOT?! It's fine!!"
"Because you will freeze. Put on your coat, the bus will be here any minute!"
Ashley, "AHHHH!!!! My coat doesn't FIT!!!! Moooooommmmm, it's too small!!!!"
Me, "Ash, it fits fine! Please just put it on and get outside!! The bus will be here any second!"
(for the record: her coat is a size 7.. she wears a 5, a 6 at best. Her coat fits her.)
The next few minutes are followed by me pushing them out the door to the sights of our waiting neighbor. She is always dressed for day and rarely looks as disheveled as I typically do (my outfit of choice is whatever I happen to sleep in the night before- generally sweats that may or may not have baby spit-up on them, my Sorel boots (with da fur) they are always right by the door, and my husbands HUGE winter coat, as mine is never where I put it the night before, and lets not forget the ROCKIN bed head. Oh yes.. I am a hot mess before 8:00am.)
She greets me with an empathetic smile.... "Rough morning?"
She has one child at home.
"You have no idea."
