Ok…so my grammar isn’t perfect, but if you’re from the South, it sounds like home to you.
This morning proved interesting, to say the least.
Chicky was up at the crack of dawn…straightening her hair and beautifying herself for her first day as an “unofficial” senior. For some reason, I woke up raring to go. We tend to be the early birds in the family.
I headed into the kitchen, fed Molly, but never saw Aubie and Pele. They sleep with Rooster. Apparently he had not gotten up yet, and they were still in his room.
I saw Chicky heading to his door, just about to wake him.
This has become a daily ritual with them. She yells at him to get up, and he grudgingly obeys. He doesn’t want to miss his ride, after all.
Throughout the years, I’ve tried to train Rooster to get up to an alarm. He just cannot seem to do it. Well, he can, but only when it’s something important, like math team competition or a flight across country to attend a soccer tournament. But any ordinary day…no way, no how.
It’s not for lack of sleep, because both kids hit the sack between 9 and 9:30 each weeknight. Yeah, I’m a meanie, but I know that teens need more sleep than is the common perception.
So, I did what a good mom should do. I stopped Chicky in her tracks and called her into the kitchen, where I explained my plan and the reason. If Rooster doesn’t learn to get up on time now, he’ll never learn. It’s a habit that he needs to develop. If not, he’ll eventually miss college classes and even work. I figured that paying the repurcussions now would be a whole lot better than losing pay or a job later on down the road.
And so Chicky and I read devotions (quietly so as not to wake up the sleeping males), and we headed off to school.
I gave my friend, the Attendance Lady, a heads-up and asked her not to excuse him when he arrived. And then I headed off to file papers in the records office during first period, which happened to be my Planning.
And I fretted.
What would Rooster say? How would he handle himself? How angry was he going to be at me?
It didn’t take me long to find out.
The clock ticked until it was 8:20, nearly an hour into the school day. The Attendance Lady found me in the file room and told me that Rooster had just arrived, looking a bit bewildered. She asked her customary question, “Why are you late?”
She said he shook his head in confusion and muttered, “Nobody woke me up.”
The Attendance Lady and I both laughed, and I was relieved that he seemed to be in okay spirits. However, I dreaded seeing him later and took great care to avoid him in the hallways.
As I waited for him in the car after school, I played out possible conversations in my mind. And then I saw him coming.
He made eye contact, grinned a sheepish grin, and shook his head. And then he relayed his morning.
He said he woke up with a start and noticed the dogs still sleeping. He started to go back to sleep but took a peek at the clock. Shocked to see it said 7:47, he jumped out of bed under the assumption that the clocks had stopped functioning. He went through the house looking at the clocks, but all of them said the same thing. At the same time, he discovered that Chicky and I were missing, as were our cars.
He heard the shower running and realized that the Mr. was still home. He, too, had overslept and was late for work.
Like father, like son.
Rooster waited until the Mr. was ready so he could drive him to school. Nary a word was said.
Rooster had figured that since the Chickster had been looking out for him, things would continue this way indefinitely. To which I responded that, “This ain’t a hotel where you can request wake-up calls. Just because we stayed at a Hawthorn last weekend doesn’t mean we’re the Hilton.”
Lesson learned.
Maybe (as evidenced by the pile of dishes that he mysteriously lets pile up every time it’s his turn to wash).
One day, I’ll share the story of how I got Chicky to be ready on time. It’s a good one.
Filed under: children | Tagged: parenting, teenagers | Leave a comment »
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