6 Kids, 3 cats, 1 dog, Mom, and Dad

Getting Ready or How to drive me nuts in the morning.

Only me and Youngest Daughter have an appreciation for being on time and an understanding about what it takes to be on time. She'll ask me when we have to be somewhere, and then ask when we have to leave the house, and then decide what she has to do to meet that deadline.

For everyone else in this house being on time is optional. They all assume the best case scenario (nobody else in the shower for example) so then it isn't their fault if they are late. The alarms goes off at 6am. They all stay in bed until 6:10-6:15 and then all try to get in the shower (I called it...I was there first) at the same time. Instead of picking clothes, packing their stuff, eating breakfast, they go back to bed because they're waiting for the shower. They get ready in a serial mode when they seriously need to do some parallel processing.

The real pain is when they have to drive so that they can go to work, pick up siblings after school, go to practice. etc. They wander the house saying let's go, like they are actually ready to go.

Oldest Daughter: "Let's go!" (wander into kitchen to cook a bagle).

Middle Daughter: "I'm going to be late!" (wanders off in search of lip gloss)

Son: "Let's get out in the car!" (goes off in search of a book)

In their minds every single one of them thinks they're on time because they said "let's go" at some point in the morning.

My feet hit the floor when the alarm goes off and I get up even though I'm the absolute last one who has to leave the house. I'm all but ready to pull my hair out with the insanity of it all...Maybe they should get a mild sedative prescribed for daddy...

Posted by bbarton at September 22, 2003 10:33 AM