In my house, mornings are often chaotic. We aren't morning people in this house. I usually work really late at night and so the concept of getting up at 6:00 a.m. does not suit me well. My husband works nights so when he is home, he often stays up late simply to keep with his regular schedule. So, our night-owl-ness, makes our mornings harder by nature.
So in the mornings we start the job of getting everyone ready and out the door. It's a mad house of running around: yells from my husband "I can only find one shoe", screeches from my daughter "Mommy, I want to bring my Barbie blanket today"....hugs, kisses, "I love you"s, "Have a great day"s, "Learn Something"s and out the door we go.
But in the midst of the morning craziness, one person is left standing in their jammies after everyone gets dressed...the person who 20 minutes later has to get down to the Courthouse. Me.
Yep, although the others can get dressed at their leisure and take all the time they need...I'm left with no time. Every morning I am usually woken up by my son H, who always climbs into our bed in the middle of the night. I then get up, change L's diaper, and start getting the kids ready for daycare, one by one. I usually start with my daughter J, because it takes her the longest to get her outfits picked out, hair brushed, and find any accessories she wants to wear. Next comes L usually and with a drooling baby this means putting layers and layers of clothes on him. Finally comes H, who is generally easy, except when I try and talk him into giving his Batman shirt a rest and trying one of his other shirts.
And then since its the dead of winter it takes forever to get everyone bundled up and out the door. Once I manage to do this then I run upstairs and get ready for work. By this time, I hardly have any time to get myself ready.
And this is the routine everywhere we go. If we go on vacation, I am the last one who gets to pack, and so inevitably something is forgotten. At family pictures, I am the last one that gets a chance to get ready so I am always semi-disappointed with my look in some fashion. On road trips, I'm always the last one out the door, so I'm the one to blame if we don't have the GPS or the snack bag is left on the table.
If you think about it, this concept is backwards. Of all the members of my family I am the one that has to dress up the most to leave the house (well, Miss J has me beat in the summer with her ' I only wear dresses' mantra). Yet I am the one with the least amount of time to get ready. The one that has to look professional, gets about 5 minutes to look the part.
I laugh when I look back on my life pre-kids and remember how my "get ready routine" used to take a good hour. A nice long shower, perfectly set curls in my hair, a full face of makeup. Now, my routine has been widdled down to about 20 minutes top (if I'm lucky). I can't imagine if I had 4 kids...I'd probably have to sleep in my clothes to save time.
So the phrase "Ladies first"...well that's only true pre-Mom years I can assure you. If we want to be truly honest, then I vote we change the phrase to "Ladies first....Mommies last". All in favor, say I!
Mandi
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