Mad mornings

Mornings you'll hear me say a bit more than, "Let's go!". More often than not, it's "Hurry up, we're going to be late!", if not, "Hurry up, we are late!".

The husband is a great help, getting Ben ready, and Jon as far along in the process. All this while I'm heating up their lunches to pack into thermos jars and insulated bags, getting water-bottles and juiceboxes ready, and preparing a simple breakfast that we always just end up eating on-the-go, whether we are early or running late, and whether one or both boys have school.

But Jon, and he's not the only one who isn't a morning person, can be quite the dawdler and will be dragging his feet to get out of bed, to go wash up, and now that it's winter and with more to put on (cap, gloves and all, besides the layers), the dressing up part takes even loooooonger.

The rest of us could be done 10 minutes ahead of time, and ready to head out the door, but Jon, dear Jon, he will just be putting on his socks. And then he will change his mind about whether he wants an extra layer over his attire, before he finally reaches for his coat, and sometimes forgetting his backpack, in the daze to put on his shoes! And I tell him, ditch the laced ones, go for the velcros; better yet, "Just grab your shoes, and wear them on the way!"!

Running late again this morning, because Jon wasn't budging when he should, I tried not to be switching lanes, what with traffic now heavier since the closure of a major highway, and more vehicles diverted to the main road outside our place, and using the highway we always take to school as their detour route.

"You know, Jon," I heard myself say to him, and Ben who was right beside Jon, driving as quickly as I could but still keeping to the speed limit, "I do not want to be driving dangerously, just because you take your own sweet time, and we still have to try and get to school on time." Rather a tardy slip from the school office for lateness, than a speeding ticket or more to be sorry about.

But I resisted turning it into a pep talk, for that wouldn't have been the best way for the boys nor me to start our day. Not that I haven't said enough already. At the supermarket on my own after that, I was asking myself if I had been curt, whilst trying to cool down and take a few deep breaths! But this should not have to happen day after day.

What will you do? How do you get your family out of the door in the morning, without having to always rush them or yourself, and especially the one(s) who's never in a hurry to go anywhere?

Should I wake Jon up as early as when I hit the showers? Whether or not he wakes up early or at the usual time, I've realized though, he will take as long as he can to get ready. But I do not want to have to turn something as basic as this into a bribery of sorts (or call it by some nicer-sounding name), although at one point when Jon was younger, getting ready for school was something to aim for on his rewards chart. Neither would I want to turn it into some punishment, having (or threatening) to remove this privilege or that. Is there no other way? Stuff that we can get ready the night before, we already are doing, like what to wear, chosen and set aside ahead, and backpacks lined up near the door, to grab and go!