on parenting

Thursdays are my least favorite day of the week. Most people despise Mondays, well I loathe Thursdays. And yet, every single week they smack me in the face just like the annoying buzz of my alarm clock.

The kids are worn out by Thursday. Every Wednesday we spend a glorious evening sitting in the car at dance, followed up with a grease filled meal in their carseats from the lucky choosers pick on our way to church.. I have gone back and fourth on whether or not to cut Wednesday night church activities out right now because it is so miserable getting there but they love them. So I motor along. Driving through the city at a snails pace to get us there, 15 minutes late every week, running 4 kids in like a crazy person, Bella in dance clothes, Will galloping down the hall to soak up every second of choir he can.

This past week, we were under a severe thunderstorm warning. It took me 35 minutes to drive the usual 15 minute drive because lets face it no one knows how to drive in the rain anyway. Especially if you live in the state of Alabama where a single drop of rain might as well equal an all out monsoon. So I'm 15 minutes into the drive and we still have about 15 minutes and 10 miles to go, and think, lets just go home. Wednesdays are seriously a long day for us. "Nooooo.. we love church, we have to go. We don't care if it's raining. We'll just be late, we're always late. No one cares." Sure. So we truck on, we arrive 10 minutes later than our normal 15. We get home late.

The kids are even grumpier this morning. They argue over breakfast. Over syrup. It's a hot commodity if you live here. Every single one of the children I gave birth to fight over who gets to sit with the syrup bottle in front of them at breakfast. A syrup bottle, it's like the pirates lost treasure chest or something. And then the real battle begins..getting Will ready for school. He doesn't like to get ready for school and on Thursdays it is harder than normal. He actually only has one easy day - Wednesday - when I tell him he is racing Miss Tonya and he better win :)

So this particular Thursday, he actually is in a good mood. He could care less about syrup, he's eating cereal. He brushes his teeth first, manages to find both of his socks and decides he doesn't need to gallop around the house like the Duke. He simply gets dressed. ah-mazing. He brings me his sneakers and I tie them. By some small miracle, Will is ready first. At 6:45. He is so proud of himself. I can hardly believe it... I didn't have to argue or beg him one time to get ready for school. I am so proud of him I told him he can have a surprise because he is ready for school first.

I move my attention to the grumpier old daughters that are currently fighting over a hairbrush and who is actually the owner of the flashlight that isn't going to school with us today. I ask Will to get his coat and get ready to get in the car. note..It was over 70 degrees here last week and I was talking about his windbreaker lying right by his backpack. We go to get in the car and Will is wearing his Northface jacket that was hanging on the coat wrack. The coat wrack is now literally hanging from the two holes in my wall.

I quietly asked Will, Did you jump up to get your coat? He said, You told me to get my coat mommy and I wanted you to be proud of me. I am ready first today. Do I still get my surprise? and I responded, you sure do buddy and it looks like Daddy does too when he gets home..

Our children learn to react to situations from watching us react. Sometimes as a parent it is best to pick our battles..