Mothering, like many other professions, seems to have whirlwinds of activity interspersed with lulls of relative calm. I have heard many mothers mention the 5 o'clock hour with displeasure. Dinner needs to be made, the kids are getting tired and hungry, toys are strewn all over the house, and Daddy is coming home from work all at about the same time. While I don't have to get anybody off to school or work at a certain time, it seems that the first hour or so of a morning is full of activities that all need to be performed at roughly the same time.
In our house, we don't have one child who is always the early riser. Any child could be the first awake, but the most frequent one is Meriel. She nearly always wakes up very hungry, but she can play quietly for awhile. Once I hear her awake, I usually try to get Simeon comfortably asleep without me. Oftentimes this doesn't work, so then he is awake too. It's usually a matter of minutes until Hollis hears Simeon and Meriel playing and wants to join them. Eris is my late sleeper, unless she is wanting to read a book. Just this morning, she got up early to finish a book so she could take it back to the library and check out a new one.
So generally the three youngest wake up within minutes of one another. Here's a sample schedule of events.
7:15 Meriel wakes up. I hear her up and come out of the bedroom. She sits on the couch with her
blanket. I go to the bathroom.
7:17 Simeon wakes up. He's fussy and wants to snuggle and nurse a minute. Meriel says she's hungry.
7:18 Hollis wakes up and needs to go to the bathroom. I set Simeon down to hurriedly get her diaper
off. I change Simeon's diaper while I'm at it.
7:27 I start getting breakfast ready: boiling eggs or cooking oatmeal or toasting bread. While I wait, I
try to quickly brush and braid my hair. It's too hot and humid to leave my hair down and the
longer I leave it loose, the more time it takes to get the tangles out. In the meantime, Hollis
needs help getting her panties on the right way, Simeon needs to be stopped from banging on the
bedroom door, Meriel needs help finding a book, Simeon needs to be stopped from banging on a
glass cupboard with a block... You get the picture.
7:37 Breakfast is ready. I get everyone settled with a cup of milk and bowls or plates. I give Meriel
the charge of giving Simeon pieces of food on his tray. I run upstairs to hang up laundry. If I
don't get it up first thing in the morning, it often rains before it has a chance to dry. It's not so
bad now, since dry season just started but it's still better to get it up early.
7:58 I come downstairs to a very messy table. Sometimes I have everyone come up and hang laundry
with me to try to lessen this inevitability, but some days everyone is just too hungry to wait. I
serve up seconds, help Simeon get a drink of milk, and clean up some messes before they spread
too much.
8:11 I grab something to eat. I usually take bites between helping Simeon eat and drink, taking dishes
to the outdoor kitchen, helping Hollis and Simeon wash up, and doing whatever else needs to be
done for the morning.
8:17 Eris wakes up and starts reading. I ask her if she wants to eat, and she says, "Not now." I tell her
that she needs to eat soon because I'm starting to clean up. No response.
8:22 Just as I'm about to wipe off the table, Eris decides she wants breakfast. I pour her some milk
and get her a dish. I wipe off the table around her and sweep the floor.
8:25 Eris is finished, so I wipe up her spot. If she forgets to take her dishes to the sink, I have to
decide whether to do it myself or call her back to do it.
8:31 It's about time to start school. But before that, Hollis comes in wanting a drink. I haven't washed
the cups from breakfast yet, so I do that and then get her a drink.
8:36 Now Simeon wants a drink, I hunt around for his sippy cup. When I can't find it, I end up
helping him drink from a regular cup.
8:42 I'm about to call the girls in to start school when I notice that Simeon doesn't smell so nice. I
change his diaper.
8:47 About this time, I notice that it's starting to get dark. I run upstairs to grab the laundry as big
drops start coming down. I find places to hang the damp clothes to finish drying, while Simeon
does his best to take everything down as fast as I can put it up.
9:12 I start singing our beginning of school song and the kids come running. I sit down, and Simeon
sits in my lap; he's soaking wet. It could be from grabbing a full cup off the counter or from a
very wet diaper. Either way, he needs to be changed.
9:30 It doesn't seem to matter how early we are up, we never manage to start school before 9:30.
There are many variations of this schedule. Events happen in different orders or at different times. But it's always a rush of activity from the moment of waking. One day all my children will be potty-trained, one day they will be making breakfast for me, maybe even one day I will have a dryer, or maybe we'll have to all be up and out of the house at a certain time. So this is written as a memorandum, so I will always remember these days, and as a tribute to all mothers across all time who have very busy mornings. May we always prevail and make it to the early afternoon lull.
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