Thursday, September 8, 2011

mornings and sock toes

I am not a morning person.Not even close. Perhaps it is some sort of genetic trait to be passed on to children. Perhaps it is simply a learned behavior. Whatever it is I have no idea. I can say however,that undoubtedly I am raising 2 non-morning people. AJ who is 13 and Sammy who is now 7.
What is a morning person~ Nate wakes and bounces out of bed, twittering and chirping and babbling about something.smiles and giggles and requests for breakfast at 5:30am. Am I being punished for something? Seriously, no child should be that chipper before I have had coffee.



I appreciate a slow start to my mornings. Prayer and coffee in the one spot of my house that is bathed in intense light. Moments of reflection on the clean of my kitchen and the sparkle of my sink. I enjoy the slow waking of the day.

It's school time here which means no quiet mornings.No blissful cups of coffee unless I plan to be up at 4:30 am. Did I mention I am not a morning person?
Every morning here is akin to the front lines in Afganistan. Getting all the kids and the hubby out the door in the morning is chaotic at best. Thankfully hubby tries not to wake me up until he has to (to remind me to pump before baby girl wakes up) Tyler leaves at 6:30am, AJ at 7:30, Sammy at 8am and Nates lessons start at 8:30. In that time I have t make breakfasts and nurse a baby.

 It takes me almost an hour and a half to get Sammy out of bed each day and ready for school. Gentle wake ups  followed by more insistent directives to get up and get dressed. We have found shoes and socks he will pout on so far this year. Our big issue...cold pants. He HATES THEM. With spazzing screaming flailing flapping intensity. I have tried sitting on them,ironing them,blow drying them, tucking them underneath me while I sleep.Nope not having it. Today I woke him and was told "you just don't wake people like that" followed by screaming about cold waist bands on his pants. Then I looked, he was wearing pants already....Hmmmm OK. WIN he wore the ones he had on. It's a solution I can live with!



He then spent the next 25 minutes looking at me cross-eyed and telling me his shirt was too long,that he wasn't going to school in the rain,that breakfast smelled funny and I shouldn't wear purple. He went to school against his better judgement.
He came home a mess. Homework and an unacceptable snack have set him off and he tried to run away. He is now chilling out in his room until he feels like being around us again. His homework is still undone and he still has not had snack yet.
It's only the second week of school here people. I am tired already.  Five days in and I am already in a funk. I am re-reading Unconditional parenting in the hopes of gleaning some better insight on how to fix this