A Challenge

Blogging pal, MM, has given me just what I need to get this blog going in 2019. She's asking us to join her in writing 8-10 posts from the Minnesota Writing Project Instagram prompts. I love this idea for several reasons: 1) I like supporting my colleagues at MWP, 2) I like reading the posts of others who have taken on the challenge, and 3) I like having the motivation to write and a little help with the topics, too.

So, the challenge: Getting out the door without losing my cool.

I want to raise kids who go with the flow and take things as they come. Yet just about every morning I sabotage this goal by shouting (or stating with obvious urgency) that we are late and "SHOULD BE DRIVING IN THE CAR ALREADY!" Then we all scramble in tense frustration until we are belted into the car and moving along. Finally.

My kids are just kids. They want to spend part of their morning throwing paper airplanes at a designated target and building a fort with every available throw pillow and blanket for their rubber-banded together stuffed animals. They can't help that we need to leave in 5 minutes from the time they've started this play and both still need to brush teeth and put on socks. They're kids!

So, my challenge is to keep calm as I remind them that these things need to happen and they need to happen NOW. Sure, we could get up earlier so there's time for airplanes and forts along with brushing teeth and sock adorning, but in my 8 years of parenting, the lateness seems to happen no matter when we get up. It creeps up on us every single day, and while I can't change the creeping, I can change my reaction to it (which is exactly the life lesson I'm trying to impart on my kids without actually modeling it all that often).