Tuesday 25 January 2011

HURRY UP! IT'S TIME FOR SCHOOL

I wonder how many households are like Troy's on a weekday morning. Putting an ear to our front door, all you would hear is increasingly loud shouting.....

"Hurry up! It's time for school"

"Are you still in the bathroom?"

"Aren't you dressed yet?"

"It's nearly twenty five to nine already!"

Mrs Troy has already long got up, made Troy Junior's packed lunch and headed off to work. She starts work at 8.30am so leaves home before eight o'clock. So that leaves me with the responsibility of getting Troy Junior to school on time. It is only an eight minute walk door-to-door to the school and children are not supposed to be left there on their own before 8.45am when the doors open and the school assumes responbility for the children. So getting there at the right time should be easy.

And in fact it is. We normally arrive at 8.45am if not a minute or two earlier. We have never ever in the last four years since moving here been late. So you are probably wondering why all the stress and shouting in our household every morning?

Frankly I don't understand it. I get up at 8.15am and am washed and dressed and ready to walk out the front door at 8.35am - prompt, every day - you could set your watch by me. So I ask you - why does Troy Junior need to shout and make such a fuss every morning!

11 comments:

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Sigh. I have a similar scenario every morning with my daughter. I'm usually bathed, dressed and sitting in the car having made her breakfast, lunch and sorted everything for the dog. Exhausting.

Lane Mathias said...

Ha! Troy Jr sounds a very conscientious young man.

Sadly it's the opposite in our house. I take on the role of the talking clock. Or rather at 8.15, I become the shouting clock.

Catharine Withenay said...

Oh - ha! ha!
I wish it were that way in our house!

Joe Stein said...

Sorry, Troy, but that sounds tame compared to us. Our flat resembles a war zone with pitched battle lines between the older and younger members of the family from 6:45 am to 7:35 am every day. (We start early down here in the smoke.) Occasionally, one of the younger ones will temporarily cross the lines to support the older generation in an uneasy alliance against the other kid, but usually only because they’ve managed to have their first fight of the day between themselves earlier than usual.
I have been known to pull the unworthy trick of pretending to be R-E-A-L-L-Y angry earlier than I should be in the proceedings, (there seem to be set rules about this kind of thing) because at that point they usually shut up and get ready quicker.
I might be making this out to be worse than it is because this morning was particularly bad...but only slightly worse. (I mean how long can it take an 11 year old to put on his socks!)

Grumpy Old Ken said...

Is it dark at 8.15?

Troy said...

Debs - yes but in my case it is Troy Junior chasing me not vice versa!

Lane - I suspect when Troy Junior becomes a teenager that I'll be the one doing all the chasing.

Catharine - as I said to Lane above, I'm sure there will be role-reversal at some stage before his school days finish.

Joe - gosh! You almost wrote a manual there.

Grumpy - I guess it depends how thick your curtains are.

Trish said...

Troy Junior seems very like my son. He's a stickler for time, doesn't want to be late and is a bit obsessive as to the timings of routines in the morning. I wake him at 6.52, he gets up at 6.58 for shower, breakfast at 7.25, leaves the house to get the bus at 7.50. It's funny, if he's ready by 7.45 he sits and waits until it's 7.50 before leaving.
Weekends are totally different - he'd stay in bed all day and no amount of chivvying will shift him!

Helena said...

How I'd love a punctual house. It's often "Oh, by the way, mum..." I'm faced with. I don't think they've heard of the night before....

Suzanne Ross Jones said...

This sounds familiar. Only it's me doing the shouting otherwise the 14-year-old would take all day to get ready.

Have to confess I'm very impressed that you can get ready in 20 minutes. Most days I get up at 5.30 and we're still struggling to be ready to leave at 8.

XX

Anonymous said...

It's the same here. Constantly saying, "come on, hurry up!" but we're always on time.

CJ xx

Troy said...

Trish - your son certainly sounds like a stickler for time. Can't believe he spends all weekend in bed when he could be out enjoying the delights of Spalding.

Lena - welcome here for the first time and hope to see you again.

Suzanne - I don't get my breakfast until after the school run so that 20 minutes doesn't include food and drink time.

CJ - yes but who's doing the chasing, you or Amy?