How do you get your teenager up in the morning to go to school? I think that’s the million dollar question. I struggle with it every morning. Here’s a typical day:
——–
You wake up to your alarm at 6 am and have to get your teenage child to school at 7 am. He’s in an advanced level class that he can’t miss twice a week. However, he’s been missing or getting to the class late and it’s making you stressed out.
Every morning you go through the same thing. Your alarm goes off, you jump out of bed, take a shower and get dressed and then you keep going back and forth into his room to wake him, however, every time you do that, he is back asleep. You feel like you can’t do anything because you have to keep going back into his room to wake him up.
You go into the kitchen to make a sandwich and then while the bread is open and the ham isn’t even on the bread, you have to go back to his room to wake him up. He tells you he’s getting up but you know he’s not. So you go back into the kitchen, you spread the mustard on the ham, you place a slice of bread on top of the bread that has the ham and mustard and you get a butter knife to slice. As you’re slicing the sandwich in half, you’re screaming to your son, “GET UP! WE’RE GOING TO BE LATE.”
You’re now feeling a rage inside of you. You know that if he doesn’t wake up within the next couple of minutes, you will be late for work or you will miss your train into the city, making you late for work or you will miss your appointment to meet your friend.
He’s still not getting up. This goes on for more than an hour. You are on the edge right now. You go to check your emails. You find that your deadbeat client, the one who still hasn’t paid your bills net 60 days, is sending you a nasty email, saying that you’re a bad business woman for asking for past due payment.
You go back into your son’s room. Now you’re screaming at him to get up but he still isn’t budging.
You go back to your emails and see another client insisting on excess work but won’t pay for it. He feels that the article that you got him in Newsday was placed on a “bad” date and he’s angry that his business isn’t booming as a result.
You go to wake your son again. This time you tell him you have to leave.
You’re going into the city today and you check the train schedule. You just don’t feel like driving. There’s a train in 10 minutes. You’re never going to make it. The next train is in 20 minutes. You may make that train.
You go to check your wallet to see if you have any money for the train. You check your backpack. It’s not there. The last time you saw it was in the office the day before. Ashley, your executive assistant/office manager, found it in your coat. You check your coat.
You think about calling Ashley but it’s way too early. It’s not in your coat. It’s not in your backpack (you dump out the whole bag). It’s not anywhere in your house. You run out to check your car. There it is under your gloves and hat.
You run back into the house. You go back into your son’s room. “Are you up yet? It’s now 7:30 am and you are a half hour late for school.” You know your son is anxious too. Today he finds out about his first choice colleges. You’re feeling on edge about that too.
He’s up. He’s looking for your wallet. You tell him you found it and that you’re leaving. He apologizes, gives you a hug and tells you he loves you.
You want to cry but you hold it back. You get into your car and drive to the train station. Of course there are no spots around the station. You find a spot two long blocks away. You know you still haven’t gotten in your workout for the day and you want to make sure you’re home at a decent time to be able to do it, otherwise, you’ll miss it again.
You walk over to the station, slide your Amex card in the slot when the conductor tells you to pay the bill. You tell him you’re not sure which zip code to use. He tells you the one you put in was right. He says something nasty to you and it makes you angry.
You get on the train and the bag you’re carrying falls and all the contents go all over the place. You look up and say something David Burne would say, “how did I get here?”
