Back to reality
It never ceases to amaze me that during the school holidays the kids by some miracle manage not only to wake up early on their own accord but get up as well. And yet as soon as school is back in, my ground hog day starts all over again.
It’s the same every morning for me, and it drives me bonkers. My alarm goes off at 7, I get up and put the coffee on, poke the ten year old from a safe distance, tickle the six year old until she gets up for a cuddle, and then we have a race to see who can get dressed first. The six year old always wins, always. (Partially because she thinks ahead and chooses her clothes the night before and lays them out on the end of her bed every night) Then I go back and poke the ten year old from a safer distance, open her curtain and windows, pull the duvet off her, and alert her to the time. I go to the kitchen to have my coffee with the six year old while she has her breakfast, (who by this time has gotten dressed, put her pj’s in the wash, brung her school bag out, been toilet, and made her bed) and then I go back to the ten year olds room. By this time (usually 7:45) my patience is beginning to wear a little thin, happy mummy is turning into grumpy mummy. The ten year old does tend to actually get out of bed at this stage.
By now the six year old has not only had her breakfast, but also brushed her teeth, washed her face, packed her bag, put some shoes on, and is playing in her room. All she needs is her hair done and shes set to go. The ten year old however is usually having a fashion crisis. She doesn’t know what to wear, she wants to know what her friends are wearing, she wants to look cool and doesn’t care how long it takes or if she doesn’t have breakfast. This child is more than happy to be late for class if she looks cool.
Guess which child is high maintenance.
My goal every day is to be out the door with both kids by 8:30, I like to be out doing my own thing by 9. I am usually still in the school grounds (or lets be honest, not even there yet) when the bell goes at 8:55. The embarrassing part? We live a mere matter of metres away from the school gate. 7 houses away to be exact. I can see the ten year olds classroom from where I am sitting right now.
I am glad though that it’s not just me that has this problem every morning. There is another, and it is a standing joke between us every morning. I have no idea who he is, but there is a man who lives just as close to the school as I do and yet every morning him and his son are running late. We share the shame of the teachers knowing how close we live and the fact that it’s always us who are the last ones to get our kids to school. We joke about our crap parenting skills but really we know it’s the kids fault..
Yet oddly enough these kids are quick to leave school at the end of the day, they are home by 3:03!
12
Feb
10 year olds huh? Nice to know it’s more of a global problem than just our 10 year old. (I can just hear her saying “whatevah!” as she reads this!) I share in your pain, Maz!
Hahaha yes you have one of these difficult creatures in your house too! And I have been told that worse is yet to come.
I went into her classroom this morning to drop off her homework (much to her horror.) On my way out I accidentally said ‘Bye Baby’ she was just mortified. I am the most uncoolest mum evah.
Yeah ya sit there and say “I’m going to be a cool parent, not like my olds were to me.” And then they go and shift cool on you… to somewhere completely different. That and they change the name, so when you say “cool” and “hip” no-one under the age of 15 has ANY idea what the hell yer on about.
I still say things like ‘awesome’ and ‘yeah baby’ and it embarrasses the hell out of the ten year old. And then I get all like ‘what? whats the problem? I’m a totally cool mum!’ And shes like ‘what evah, SAD!! so shame.’
Hahahah she sounds like she speaks FLUENT ten year old! I had no idea THAT was such a widespread language either. This makes me feel bettter!
We will always be like totally cool Bren, like always. You know? Totally.
Like TOOOOOTALLY! And like… yeah!
Right on, dude.