LAURA DOWRICH-PHILLIPS
?On Tuesday morning I woke up at 5 am and by 7.30 am, I had baked a whole salmon, boiled sweet potatoes and plaintains, scrambled eggs, packed the baby's bag for daycare, packed lunch for me and the hubby, ensured the other kids were fed, whirred up a smoothie and pulled myself together for a day of work.
By the time I sat at my desk I was feeling pretty pleased with myself for getting through another morning. And every day I wonder why I am not greeted at the office door with a bouquet of flowers, a tiara and one of those large paper cheques that Publisher's Clearing House shows up at people's doors with.
I think that every day I deserve a prize for making sure the family unit is watered, fed and deposited at their respective places of interest intact.
I am pretty sure I am not the only parent who feels this way. When you have kids, peaceful, calm mornings just don't exist and just remembering to put on deodorant before leaving the house is a big achievement.
My co-worker says I am a supermom and wonder how I do it. How do I do it? With a lot of prayers, fussing, and sweating.
My mornings actually go pretty smoothly until breakfast. After that it's a race between time and my nerves. Many times, my nerves lose.
I think my children actually wake up once they've eaten and then they act like it's the first day they have to get ready for school. Ever. In life.
Practically every day I have to remind the six-year-old that after breakfast there is a routine. Brush your teeth, put on your shirt, get your socks and put on your shoe. Everyday. Yet every day after breakfast, I find him building his lego empire, seemingly unaware that he has to go to school. Almost every day he has to be reminded to get his bag and lunch kit and yes, there have been days when he opens the car trunk in the school yard, only to realise he forgot one or the other at home.
The older one is a little better but many times, he, too, has to be reminded to look for socks, or clean his shoe. It's like they have no memory of getting ready for school the days or weeks before.
As for the baby? Well on Tuesday morning, after he had his bottle, I had to play the where did you put the bottle game until I got fed up, rebuked the devil and enlisted hubby in the search.
He found it eventually, under the playpen where I swore I searched.
Funnily, as hectic as my mornings get, I am always prepared for it. I wake up in warrior mode. Maybe it's because I am a morning person and that's when I have lots of energy.
In the evenings, however, I want no prize, just my bed and a thick blanket. To steal a phrase from a former colleague, in the evenings I become a dry husk. I hit the proverbial "Mummy Wall", that point at which you just cannot wring anymore energy out of your tired bones to even care.
My kids, however, despite their long, activity filled days, are always full of energy in the evenings. So when I just want to put my feet up and enjoy a cup of tea, they are running, playing football in the house, practicing karate or arguing, as they often do.
It's only when they are all in bed do I allow myself to truly exhale and savour the quiet before I start prepping for the next day, when I have to get up and do it all over again.
Maybe one day, I'll get that tiara.