“I don’t hear any brushing!” I yell as I come up the stairs.
Every morning while the kids yammer on about who won the game last night or whether they have art today, we rush them along through breakfast, then herd them upstairs to brush their teeth. I think they’re finally making progress only to be assured of my stupidity with shouts and giggles. I come upstairs to find my daughter at the sink while my son lies on the floor yanking her feet. Shouts and giggles echo down the hall.
I order my son to get his books, socks, and glasses while she brushes. Five minutes later, he is rolling around on the floor and still isn’t ready. “What have you been doing? Get ready for school. We do this every day.”
I could understand them having trouble getting the hang of this if it were a choreographed Broadway routine, but none of this is new. Yet every day we say the same tired things.
We are stuck in some bizarre time loop where everything happens over and over again. “It’s like the movie Groundhog Day,” my husband observed the other night. We are reliving the same day every single day.
It’s hard to get through the monotony of regular life. Days become routine because we follow a schedule: school, homework, play, dinner, more play, bed. It’s not a tough schedule to learn, even if we break it for a night for sports. I’m not sure why after so many years my kids can’t figure out that after breakfast comes brushing teeth, not rolling around on the floor. When has that ever been in the schedule?
After school the kids have boundless energy. They come home in a whirlwind and drop their mess in front of the door. Brother annoys sister during homework by drawing pencil marks on her paper or singing. “Stop it!” she yells constantly. I referee while trying to balance chopping veggies and helping with math. We do this every day.
Hours later, bedtime ritual craziness begins. “Mom, I’m ready for bed.”
I go into my daughter’s room to find her not in pajamas and her clean clothes not put away. No outfit has been laid out for tomorrow.
“Dad, I’m ready for bed.”
My husband is telling my son to clear the books off his bed and put his clothes away. “Have you brushed your teeth?” he says.
My husband and I go back to our room and read. We wait. Yells and giggles come from the bathroom. “I don’t hear any brushing!” I shout.
My son slowly walks by our bedroom door numerous times doing a stupid dance. “Get ready,” I say, unimpressed.
When it appears my son is ready, he has forgotten his book or his glasses or to go to the bathroom. Why can’t they get this right? We do the same thing every night.
Before bed comes brushing teeth, then books. Again, no surprises. I’ve never told them, “Hey, go jump on the bed for 20 minutes and get those wiggles out.”
The next morning, my son wants to know who won the game. After breakfast, the kids race upstairs to brush their teeth. Shouts and giggles echo down the hall. “I don’t hear any brushing!” I yell as I come up the stairs.
Mom in the Muddle 
I can relate to this!!
Oh, Groundhog day! I had this same conversation the other day with a girlfriend. And then I wrote a blog post about it 😉 All Mummies can relate! I love your honesty
As a Home School Mom – it was hard over the years to wake up the kids; realizing that they were up with Dad, the night before, doing Math and Science until midnight sometimes. You schooled when your Dad had the time. Dragging their feet down to our 2nd floor “school room” in Pajamas, I would send them back up to get dressed. “It might be home,” I said, “but you never know who’s going to walk in the door. And, it’s better to be cleaned and dressed so you can focus on your work. Well…sometimes it worked, sometimes, not…but, after 21 years of Home Schooling, I am grateful for the time I had with them; brushing teeth, running around, having sock fights at 1 in the morning and just being kids.
Love it!! Getting out of our PJ’s at home during the week is going to be a real challenge for my four — and me — who love to be comfy at home when we start home-schooling later this year. You’re right. You never know who’s going to drop by. 🙂
Were you homeschooling before? I have to get dressed every day. I don’t feel awake until I’ve showered and have some clothes on. My kids don’t seem to have that same mentality. Just underwear seems to work for them.
Just starting. The middle-schooler is first, so I can nail down a curriculum that works for both of us. Then the other three will follow, 6 mos to a year later. We love our school, but long for more flexibility and the overseas opportunities in my husband’s work. Putting our name back in the expat hat is something we’ve wanted to do for a while!
I also get dressed first thing. I might not “clean up” until after coffee, but I feel weird walking around the house without clothing on. My children don’t feel the same way about apparently. At least two would just about live in their undies (unchanged, at that).
Overseas sounds cool. Good luck with homeschooling. I know you’ll do well!
I empathise 100%!
Just remember Bill Murray did eventually escape but unlike Bill, you probably be sad when you do. Or at least that’s what I tell myself.
I have never seen the whole movie. I couldn’t take it. Maybe that says something. 😉
when you said, your son comes to the door multiple times doing a stupid dance, i laughed out loud. so does my son. it’s the same over here. can be frustrating, just remember the whole thing is ridiculous and smile.:)
I always think to myself, “Surely he doesn’t do that in the middle of the school day when his teachers want him to do something and he knows the routine. Surely.” I don’t want to know.
oh – i think they do. i’d be willing to be on it.
I’d offer to swap my kids for yours for a few days, but I doubt it would make even the slightest difference for either of us.
I bet they’d at least reveal some surprising truths about their parents, gabbing away when they are supposed to be getting ready. You don’t have any secrets, do you?
I think I actually went back to work, taking the early shift, when my son was 8 just so I didn’t have to be the one to tell him to put his shoes on before going out into the snow. It made me nuts.
Nice. Sounds familiar.
This is another main reason I’m going back to work next year, Elyse.
I’ll warn you. When I got to work the first day my screensaver showed an untied LL Bean boot. I couldn’t believe it!
Yes, yes, exactly, yes.
It’s that goofing around in the bathroom that makes me livid. Every. single. morning. Unless we’re going someplace fun, then they’re ready in a flash. I find that interesting.
I guess the bright side is that they’re having fun and not fighting. But yes, it’s always in the bathroom, which is tiny, and then I have to go in there and get things moving along.
I was thinking of you this morning when I heard my kids goofing around down there. Just one more morning and then we’re on Spring Break!
Nice. At least they like each other enough to goof off with each other, right? One day it will be door slams and screeches and “leave me alone.” I’ll be rushing them then too though. 😉
Wish I could say it gets better when they’re teenagers, but sadly it doesn’t. Every parent knows your pain. 🙂
Great. Stuck on repeat for ten more years!
Sounds just like my house! At 13 and 11, my kids would never brush their teeth if it weren’t for me. Never.
I suspect one day all this madness will change and the kids will learn to use a toothbrush without being told. I hope.
~FringeGirl
Oh gosh, I hope so! I have a friend whose husband is a dentist. Seems it strikes them from time to time too. 😉
aaaahhhh, me tooooooooo! (And I only have one kid to get ready for school at the moment – I’m afraid your post doesn’t give me hope for the future. Hhhhmmmm, thanks.)
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Oh boy do we live in parallel worlds! I think you should totally freak them out and after dinner tell them you want them to go jump on the bed for five minutes after they get their teeth brushed. Who knows, maybe it would inspire them to brush instead of goof off so they have extra bed jumping time.
With my kids, you do something once, you start a habit. Aren’t yours that way?
I was just thinking the same thing yesterday! My kiddos are little (2 and 5). I was saying to my husband that I need a button I can push on myself that says the same thing over and over: “Don’t hit your sister. Don’t hit your sister.” Or “Milk is for drinking. Milk is for drinking.” 🙂
It must be why they never listen. We sound like battery-operated toys.
One of our favorite movies!! You know it’s bad when — on the list of things to do (one for weekdays, one for weekends) that hangs in each kids’ room and in the family area — “brush your teeth” and “change your under clothes” is ON THERE. I got tired of saying it.
Now it’s just, “Number 4, everyone!!!” or “What number are you on?” before I proceed to the breakfast or snack part (the reward which immediately follows the chore).
Mornings are the worst. Today, I did the madness without coffee because I wanted to listen to the radio in bed for just 15 more minutes. Never again.
I have thought about a chart. So sad that we need one. And those two things would be on it at my house too.
That sounds hectic – I dread to thing what my girls will be like!
You just echoed my morning with my boys. Loved this post!
I nodded through every word! I hear you and feel the same. Thank you for not sugar-coating the inanity of your daily life. As I face my own Groundhog Day today, here’s to finding the joy in all the daily craziness!
Nope, no sugar around here. I used the last of it in my cookies. My daily life is boring and redundant. Reality, baby. 😉
You just described my daily life. Sometimes I’d like to put my voice on a tape recorder on an endless loop saying stuff like: Pick up your clothes, brush your teeth, stop putting peanut butter on your sister.
I wonder what the kids say about us on the playground? “My mom, she is always writing that damn blog. I had to remind her to make dinner again. Can you believe she tried to hug me at school yesterday. I couldn’t believe it.”
Thankyou thankyou thankyou…..my life is normal! my children are normal! feel a little happier that my groundhog days are just like yours x
I feel a bit comforted in knowing other people are as boring as me, don’t you?
This could have been taken straight from my own blog!!!!!!! It is exactly the same in my house! Must be the nature of the beast known as children!
And don’t forget that somewhere in the mix someone will lose a tooth or break a window…or lose a tooth while breaking a window…
That would be a terrible Groundhog Day!
Yes. Kids don’t like sequences. However, in the movie that you reference, he has to get it right–complete with all of his imperfections–and just be. Dirty teeth and clothes on the floor and all. 😉
That sounds about right then. 🙂