Looking back on ‘A few whiles ago’ from May 2014, I thought it was time for an update on how our mornings are going. Here is a sample taken over a few days.
Tuesday
7.35am
Rhea is crying in our bed. Lara is eating her breakfast at the table.
8.00am
Steve: ‘Lara, can you get into your clothes please?’
Lara: ‘OK.’ She continues playing with her stuffed toy.
8.05am
Steve: ‘Come on Lara! Can you get into your clothes please? Rhea, clothes darling.’
After a bit more coaxing, Rhea gets dressed slowly while playing catch with Lara and the stuffed toy.
8.09am
Steve: ‘Can you put your socks on please Lara?’
Rhea asks if I can do her hair. I’m doing something else and don’t reply.
8.11am
Steve: ‘Rhea, do you know where your shoes are? Why don’t you put your jumper on, it’s freezing outside.’
Rhea: ‘Whatever. I’ve asked mum to do my hair like a thousand times.’
8.17am
Lara: ‘If you do this it goes sideways.’
Steve: ‘Does it darling? Can you put your socks on?’ She finally does so.
Lara: ‘I’m so going to the library at lunchtime. One to see if there are any tiara books. Two to return some books. And three because it will be cold. Go into the bathroom [daddy], you don’t have to follow me everywhere.’
Rhea: ‘If I had diabetes would you let me have a pet dog?’ She explains that on Operation Ouch, a girls had diabetes and if her temperature got too hot it would lick her.
We have a kerfuffle about putting a jumper on, whether their readers are in their bags and where Rhea’s reader is.
8.33am
I put their bags in the car.
8.35am
Steve leads them to the car. Despite my limited involvement, I am spent.
Wednesday
7.50am
Rhea: ‘Oh – I’m cold. I’m too cold to get changed.’
I remove her pyjama top and put on her singlet for her, asking if she wants to try her longer trousers that cover her legs. She reluctantly agrees. Lara is eating breakfast at the table.
Rhea: ‘Can you do my hair?’
I’m making their lunches and don’t reply.
8.10am
Lara is still not dressed. I ask her what she wants for lunch.
Lara: ‘Can I have a lunch order?’
Me: ‘Not when we have to ask you five times to do everything.’
Lara: ‘You always say that! Stop it!’
Me: ‘If you do it as soon as we ask this week you can have one on Monday.’
Rhea: ‘Can you do my hair?’
I brush it with her hairbrush.
Rhea: ‘Not with my hairbrush, it doesn’t take the knots out!’
Mum arrives to take them to school at 8.30. Lara is still in her pyjamas.
Me, to Lara: ‘I have to go soon. Do you want me to do your hair?’
Lara says she does when she’s dressed.
Me: ‘I don’t have time for that. Grandma can do your hair.’
Lara: ‘OK fine I’ll just put my singlet on.’
I do her hair.
Lara: ‘Brush it more up the top it’s too knotty! And put it straight not on the side.’
Meanwhile Rhea is still complaining that her trousers are too long and too scratchy. Eventually I leave Steve to it with them. Mum has also had enough and waits for them in the car.
Thursday
7.30am
Steve: ‘Rhea, what do you want for breakfast?’
Rhea: ‘Blah blah blah.’
Steve: ‘Nutra grain? Toast with tomatoes? Pancakes? A boiled egg?’
Rhea: ‘Blah blah blah.’
Steve: ‘OK, I’ll get you nutra grain then.’
Rhea: ‘The second-last thing you said.’
Steve: ‘Pancakes?’ She agrees, he makes them and dishes them up.
Rhea: ‘They’re too small! Why are mine smaller than Lara’s?’ She whinges for five minutes until Steve agrees to make her some bigger ones. Meanwhile Lara is reading then comes to the table to have her breakfast.
Rhea: ‘Mum, can I tell you something? I wish Maggie was my mum. She’s so nice!’
Rhea has another tantrum because her new trousers are uncomfortable, then we have a disagreement about what sort of bread she should have in her lunch – I think wholemeal like the Guide to Kids’ Lunchboxes that’s stuck on the fridge and she wants white bread. I finish making their lunches and go outside to get my bike ready to go, reaching for my bike chain and eager to leave.
Rhea: ‘Can I help you mummy?’
And then:
‘Can you help me get my jumper on?’
How about I do another morning-routine update in four years. I hope we’ll all be amazed at how far we will have progressed by then.
