Friday Playdate » Blog Archive » the hardest part of my day is over by 8:00 am: a classic Mommyblog post

Things I do between 5:00 and 8:00 am: shower, dress, primp, make coffee, dry hair, make lunches, clean out school bags, start laundry, check e-mail, manage blog that posts on west coast time, wake children, dispense medications, make breakfast, supervise breakfast, clean up after breakfast, remind kids to get dressed and brush teeth, make beds, get kids into shoes and coats, clean glasses, drive kids to school, walk kids into school, hug everyone, drive home, move laundry, clean up kitchen.

And then the real workday starts. Of course, by then I am exhausted and ready to crawl back into my bed, but at least my kids are in school.

I was reading my archives this weekend, because I had a gigantic case of Writer’s Block and while my other writing commitments all come with easy content (cute shoes! or a jacket! or oooooh this DRESS!) this blog is harder. And I was wondering what it was that I used to write about all the time, back when this was a real Mommy Blog and not just random accounts of my attempts to buy better mascara.

I wrote about what I did all day. Because that’s what Mommy Bloggers do.

My day today has consisted of all of the above (except the laundry, which I haven’t gotten to yet) plus some writing and some site design and some tinkering around with other people’s writing and lots of emailing and IMing, some of which was actually related to the writing. And now it’s time to go get the kids at school, which means an afternoon of supervising the turtle report and then playing with my neighbor and her son and eating dinner and bathing the kids and duct taping them to their beds so that I can do a little more writing or maybe watch some TV with my husband.

And then I will get up at 5:00 am and do it all again tomorrow.

There is probably some bigger conclusion here about how things change when the kids are potty trained and able to get their own snacks, but I don’t know what it is. You all figure it out. I have to go be the mommy in the carpool line, and I think I need to start some laundry.

18 Comments so far

What is this school you speak of?

I can’t wait.

Yes, I, too, am unfamiliar with this term “school”.

I vaguely remember a word similar to it years ago, but then it was a word filled with angst and *gasp* work. Now? School sounds a lot like “vacation”.

I don’t wake up until 8 many days. Now I feel like I am behind. But maybe that is why I stay up to 1?

i am not a mommy yet, but I expect I will be someday.

eh… better is a relative term.

Laundry…is that a 4-letter word? Actually when I think of how many non-events get published in the mommyblogworld, it’s kind of funny to see that others out there do the exact same thing. Over and over and over again.

…although I think the biggest fallacy of motherhood is that things get easier once they start school. People used to tell me how it would be fantastic and I could go back to work full time and they’d be oh-so-independent and I’d be as free as a bird.

Sure they’re independent… after the non-stop supervising is done and you’ve answered every question and seen to every little thing that needs….well, seen to.

I just spent a WHOLE morning going through all the school and kindergarten notes and filling in response slips, paying fees, writing events onto the calendar and generally getting up to speed with what’s going on….A WHOLE MORNING!! I didn’t get near my own work.

Oops, sorry….ranted a bit there.

Things I do between 5am and 8am: sleep. It does wonders for my skin.

Oh my Lord, you all are making me totally despondent. Are you telling me that life as a mom does NOT get easier once your children are all, say, five or older? Because if that is the case I want to crawl back into my bed right now, pull the covers over my head, and cry a little bit. My girls are 3-1/2 and 1-1/2 and it is HARD. I keep telling myself it has to get easier. If it doesn’t, I’m going to have to increase my caffeine intake even more. And I don’t know if that’s healthy for anyone.

Oh, and Susan–how in the world are you able to wake up so early? Do you go to bed at eight? Or are you one of those enviable people who does not require much sleep?

I am dreading the fall! As of right now I have one in school, and it’s only three afternoons a week. But in the fall he’ll be moving on up to Kindergarten and my second will be starting preschool two mornings a week.
It is currently 9am and we are just starting breakfast. We are not morning people. God help us when we have to dressed, fed, and out the door by 7:30!

There Susan! We’ve cured you on your writer’s block! It sounds like your readers would really like to hear more about how the school years are different (good and bad) from the preschool years.
If you’re taking requests, I’d also like to know about how you adjusted into SAHM role from WOHM as I’ll be doing this soon. There! Assignments.

I would do the up at 5am thing, but my brain simply doesn’t work at that hour. I’m quite the genius at midnight though!

the goal, says the mother of adult children and a 13-year-old, is to make them self-sufficient so you can sleep until 8 and they have managed to shower, dress, feed themselves and *shocker here* TAKE THEMSELVES TO SCHOOL!!!!!!

then you will wonder where your babies went. sigh.

Does it ever get easier to wake up at 5am? I just don’t know how to train myself to do it every day, but it would sure be great to utilize those extra two hours.

Things do change?
Dammit, I just got the “life without sleep” thing down!

Everytime now that I come to your blog I see the words Thin Mints and then I forget everything.

I used to be so excited for preschool and all that TIME I would have. Then I realized all that time includes getting Starbucks and then the grocery store and putting it all away and then going back to get him. By then I’m usually sweating. Cause oh yeah I’m carrying around a 22lb moose of a 7.5 mo old baby in between who does things like poop and nap and he wants to eat all the time. Geesh.

Oh and like Pamela tell me more about school vs preschool and raising boys cause I need to know more! Have you read Raising Cain? My book club is reading it…wondered if you had?

Susan says: I have not read that, but I read Kindlon’s other book, about raising spoiled children, and LOVED it. Highly recommend.

You are my life. Except I do not wake early….

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