Every school morning with my daughter seems to end the same way – with me yelling at her to hurry up.
Lexie is not a morning person. She is like her daddy. She is slow to wake up and the kind of person who can keep hitting snooze on the alarm and going back to sleep. I am not this person. I tend to pop awake but even on the days where I am dragging, I know I need to get up, pack the kids’ lunches, get them ready for school and so on. So, I get up and do it. I may drag for a few minutes, but I trudge through the routine until I am awake.
Jase is like me. While he sometimes does fall back asleep, usually he gets up, turns on the light and then climbs back in bed to eat his breakfast in a half awake/half asleep stage. Yes, both kids eat their breakfast in bed. We have never eaten breakfast at the table. It is usually a breakfast bar, cereal or something easily transported to their rooms or even the living room. Maybe if they ate at the table, they would wake up easier. But then again, I wouldn’t be down there as I have my own morning routine. No one likes eating at the table, so it is not a battle I am willing to have.
One day before Thanksgiving break, it was a pleasant surprise for me to go into Lexie’s room to find her already awake and watching on her iPad. By 7 am she was dressed and in my room asking if I was ready. Of course, she wasn’t fully ready. She still had hair and teeth to brush, socks and shoes to put on, and medicine to take.
Ten minutes later, I am back to yelling at her to hurry up.
Ugh.
I hate this. I hate yelling at her to hurry up. But she seems to run at a snail’s pace. Everything seems to take so long with her. I attribute some of that to the fact that she is trying to watch her iPad and get ready at the same time. She can’t brush her hair and watch something or talk to you. It just doesn’t happen.
I guess I am spoiled with her brother who I never have to tell to hurry up and get ready. He wakes up, gets ready and leaves for middle school without much guidance. (I do have to remind him to brush his teeth.)
I know something needs to change.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.” ~ Albert Einstein
The problem is figuring out what works not only for me but for Lexie. I know right now that neither of us enjoy mornings. She hates waking up. She hates me yelling at her. And I hate the yelling too. I hate sending her off to school upset. It makes her day start off bad, and it makes mine start off bad.
The next day my husband got involved in the morning routine. It took a lot of reminding Lexie to stay on track and get ready. But it worked. She was ready on time with no yelling from me. A good start but now we have to keep up with it or if it doesn’t work find something else that will because yelling is no way to start the morning.
Into Another World 