Herding Cats is Making Me Crazy
Saturday, October 3, 2009 at 2:05PM I thought I’d just give a quick run-through of this past Friday morning. A somewhat typical morning in my family’s house.
4:41 a.m. – My alarm goes off. I make the snooze bar my bitch for a little bit, by 4:55 a.m. I’m out of bed. Kick back some water, head off to the Y and have an awesome spin class.
6:45 a.m. I cruise back up to the house. It’s the wifey’s first day of work. Before I left earlier, I had re-set the alarm for 6:30 a.m. to wake her up while I was gone. I slowly look up and no lights are on.
“Shit!”
6:46 a.m. I open the back door and I hear someone stomping up the basement stairs, turn the corner…it’s my daughter. She continues, then stomps up the stairs to the second floor. She’s carrying clothes. I think to myself..well, that’s a start!
Daughter – “These mommy!! I WANT TO WEAR THESE!!!”
“Oh fuck..” I say as I drop my gym back. I walk into the kitchen to make a quick cup of coffee and WWIII in its very infancy upstairs. I think, "bye sanity..it was nice knowing you. It was such a short relationship."
7:00 a.m. Slowly I walk up the stairs..
Wifey – “Grayson, get your pants on son!!”
Son – “IIIIIII AAAAAMMMMMM!!!!”
Wifey –“Macy..no, you cannot wear that you wore it yesterday and it’s dirty, put this on now!”
Daughter – “But it’s blue!!! I’ll look like a boy!!”
I hesitate for a second before reaching the top of the stairs, only because I remembered there’s still a ton of beer in the fridge. Then I continue up… I look in my son’s room and he’s still in his little red undies tapping on his fish tank…jeans still on the floor. My daughter brushes by me to go down stairs – still wearing the pink dress she was told to take off. Wifey, checking her ass out in the mirror to see if she has panty lines.
Me – “Macy…get back in your room and change please. Grayson – are you trying to get your fish to help you put your pants on? Come on man – it’s simple…one leg at a time, button, zip – score – you’re all done!”
My daughter falls to the ground screaming and crying. Son – “I FORGOT DADDY sheeeshh..never give me a second to do ANYTHING!!”
My chest puffs out and I start stomping towards my son’s room, “son, you’d better respect me…do you hear me? Don’t talk to me like that ever again!! Now put your pants on now!!” He falls to the ground crying, but somewhere in the crying he manages a, “yes sir.”
I turn feeling as though I’d won one battle. “Macy, get those clothes on now, or I’ll put them on for you and you won’t like that!!” She stands, walks to her room and throws herself on top of the clothes she should be wearing.
7:11 a.m. - I storm in our bedroom pissed. “Fuck!” I mumble under my breath. The wifey is all: “I know, I just don’t understand why it’s got to be so damn hard. Every morning I have to…..” her voice slowly turns into Charlie Brown’s teacher as I start to pull my work clothes out to iron.
Five minutes later, my son walks in our room, STILL in his underpants, holding a picture from his room and says, “Daddy…what was the name of this fish I caught again?”
It took a second for the disbelief to fully hit before I could speak… “Grayson..is this a joke? Seriously, are you kidding me?
Son, with his arms out, eyes big, true confusion on his face, “What daddy? What do you mean?”
Me – “Seriously…are there cameras in here? Are we con Candid Camera? Is that douche gonna jump out holding balloons with my family laughing and tell me it’s all been a joke?”
Son – “DADDY!!! Just tell me what the name of this fish is!”
Me – “FIVE minutes ago I told you for the 4th time to put your pants on and you’re still in your skibbies!!! What are you doing? Son – you have to focus!!! GO…PUT…YOUR…PANTS….ON….NOW!!!!”
Son…immediately becomes the victim, starts crying, stomps off angrily and screams, “Daddy you’re so mean, I just wanted to know the name of the fish!!!”
This went on for another 10 min. before I turned into the atom bomb, flew myself into each kid’s room, dropped myself from their precious angle-filled skies, and exploded. There was a lot of tear debris, screams could be heard for miles, the cat was in the basement trying to tunnel out of the house, but no lives were lost.
We should be able to fire our children if they don’t perform simple tasks well when asked. Then, you put an ad in the paper, interview new children, and hire the right ones. Then…life would go on blissfully with beautiful songs, rainbows, helpful – well behaved children giggling and bringing you beers….ahhh…if only.
Reader Comments (9)
i always thought they were called "skivvies" but you taught me that it's "skibbies." interesting.... learn something new every day.
OMG funny, in a crazed, looney kind of way. When I have mornings like that (and there are many), my alter-ego Psycho Mommy comes out from hiding. She yells, she rants, she has a killer look designed to stop a rhino in its tracks but somehow her 9 and 11 eleven year old kids seem to take her in stride. "Oh boy, Mom's lost it again" (cue eye-roll) Sigh....
I'm sorry but all I could picture was your cat...with a hard hat on, a pick-ax, and a shovel...tunneling for all his might.
Hey I'm meaner 'n you. One morning my daughter (7) had not dressed in her school uniform by the time we had to leave for school. I sent her in her pyjamas. Yessir I did. She went into her class, and the morning Assembly in her little lilac pussy cat shorts and t-shirt. Later she was sent to the office to change into the uniform I'd left there.
Did she learn her lesson? Did she hell. Worked for 2 days, but now we're back to it taking her 25 mins to wash her face, brush teeth and put on socks, a shirt, tie, skirt, and jersey -- unless I ride her arse, in which case she can do it in, like 7!! Every.Single.Morning.5.Days.A.Week I have La Guerre D'Uniform and after 6 years of it, mayan am I tired of it. So you'll pardon me if I say that I think it's perfectly acceptable to stand there yelling at them whilst holding a glass of gin in one hand ;)
So, next time, don't atom bomb, just make em go to school in jarmies.
Actually you mentioning your cat reminded me of this clip. I've never been able to look at our cats the same way since I saw Eddie Izzard do this!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rryNobB_rvw
All children households with children go through this same routine, unless they have pod children. Don't feel bad. I make my daughter lay her clothes out at night now.
Holy crap, I can't believe you get up that early in the morning to spin AND iron! What kind of man are you? (Oh yeah, I think you mentioned that type A thing before.) So far I can only relate to the little girl who wants to wear dirty clothes from the day before. I didn't bother fighting that battle though...
Anyway, I love spinning and hate ironing. So I guess my hubby does the ironing around here too, that's the only way it'll get done. My method is the "toss in the dryer for a few minutes" method.
MyBottlesUp - what's up lady - thanks for stopping by. Yeah - I think you can use both. at least when you google both they both seem to mean the same thing.
Kat...I'm sorry..I stopped listening after you said you could stop a rhino with your eyes. TEACH ME TEACH ME!!!!!
Hahaha..Jamie - I should have gone on a bit of a tangent there and played that out a bit, huh? Great visual..
Jabulani - can you record yourself saying what you typed as a comment? God I'd love to hear that British accent say shit like jarmies, arse, pussy....cat, and such. That's awesome you had the balls to do that to your kid. I bow before you oh goddess of teaching your kids through awesome acts of embarrassment.
KBnB - love the pod children idea... Ever read the book "Flat Stanley?" We had the kids lay their clothes out so they look like flat versions of themselves & so in the morning they could just slide right into them. Worked for a week. Now - they couldn't give two shits.
Leslee - I'm a huge fan of the dryer technique. Wish it worked for dress shirts. And the spin class thing..yeah, 4:40 a.m. SUCKS!!!! but it's the only time of day I have to do it. I'm a glutton..
I'll never grasp how my mom did it with 5, ranging from 6 to newborn....Hilarious commentary. Gotta love your life as a parent. Too funny.