Modern Mom: The Morning Battle - A No Win Situation

It’s 9:00 a.m. and I’ve just arrived at work. To the casual observer, I’m an organized professional ready to face the day ahead with energy and enthusiasm. What they don’t realize, however, is that I’ve just returned from battle...morning battle, that is. It’s been a rough one today, and I don’t think there was a clear winner. I let my son sleep a bit later than usual. Most likely that was my first mistake, as it left us precisely 28 minutes for him to eat, dress, wash, and get to the bus stop. There was, much to his dismay, exactly no time for dawdling, playing, or lollygagging. We needed to be in synch – to work together to meet our shared objective. Only he wanted nothing to do with that plan. He wanted to stay in bed; he wanted more butter on his pancakes; he wanted more syrup on his pancakes; he decided he didn’t like the syrup and didn’t want pancakes after all but wanted yogurt instead; he wanted to hide instead of get dressed; he wanted to find a missing piece to one of his toys; he wanted to engage in water play rather than brush his teeth; and when, with not a second to spare we got in the car to drive to the bus stop, he pointed out that I had forgotten his glasses. Yes, that’s right, I forgot them, not him. I wanted to be the mother with limitless patience, who calmly guides and provides encouraging support. Instead, I was the mother who was worried that my neighbors could hear me yell that we were going to miss the bus and that he would have to go to school in his pajamas if he couldn’t get dressed. In the end, we made it to the stop just as the bus pulled up…neither one of us wearing our pajamas. We’ll do it all over again tomorrow morning, but I have a new strategy. I’m going to start the process tonight.