Monday, July 19, 2010

Why am I always LATE?

So, before I had kids I was always a pretty punctual person (unless it was work, then I seemed to be a little more of the "Thank goodness I made it on time" person). If I was going to a movie, I made sure I was at least 20 minutes early. If I was meeting people for dinner, I was almost always the first one there. Doctors appointments? Always early.
Then we had Adelae. I went from being 15-20 minutes early to being about 5 minutes early. As she got older and I had less stuff to pack, I started showing up early to places again.
Then we had Brinna. I don't know why, but I can NOT seem to get out of the house on time. We are always showing up to places right on time or late. I hate being late. It makes me anxious. I feel like I've inconvenienced the people I'm suppose to meet or the staff. When we're barely on time to church, I feel like we're making a big commotion when we come in with our two kids.
Now, we're not usually more than a few minutes late, but I still feel like it's rude. I hate it when someone tells me they're going to show up at 12:00 and they show up late with no phone call to explain the reason. Yeah..I'm kind of weird like that!
In order to map out the reason we're always late, I decided to log our timeline when we were getting ready for church last week. Church starts at 10:00 and we need to leave by 9:45 to be there on time.

7:30 Everyone wakes up. We play in bed until about 8:00
8:00-8:15 Change Brinna's diaper, Adelae's pull up, make coffee
8:15-8:45 Breakfast for everyone (except me. I just enjoy my coffee)
8:45 I turn on the computer while Ben entertains the girls. And this is where it all goes downhill. I wind up spending way more time on the computer than I planned. I get lost in cyberspace for at least 30 minutes.
9:15 "OH CRAP! Why didn't you tell me what time it is? The kids are still in their pajamas. I have to get ready. Ben, you have to get ready. Crap!"
Theoretically we should have plenty of time to get ready. I mean, there's two of us to dress the kids and get them ready. I usually have the girls clothes picked out the night before, so all they have to do is put them on.
The next 30 minutes goes a little like this
Me; "Ben, can you please dress the girls while I get ready?"
Ben; "Sure. Where are the clothes?"
Me; "on the couch."
Ben; "Ok."
I proceed to the bathroom to put my makeup on and try to do something with my hair.
I come out and the kids are still in their pjs.
Me; "BEN! I thought you were going to get the girls dressed!"
Ben; "I couldn't find the clothes."
Me; "Um..They're RIGHT here!"
Ben; "Oh, can you get them dressed if you're done?"
Me; "UGH! Yes, it's fine." (said in a very sarcastic tone)
Ben; "Ok. I'll go get dressed now."
From this point on it's a flurry of activity and a lot of me saying "COME ON! We're LATE! Let's GO!"
I can usually push us out the door by 9:45. That's on time right? Nope! Because once we get in the car it's Ben saying "Oh, I forgot my wallet." And me saying "Oh, I forgot Brinna's bottle." Or "Whoops we didn't bring any snacks." Or other things that are similar. So, in reality we don't usually head out of the driveway till 9:50 or 9:55.
I can hear what you're thinking. "Hey, just don't turn on the computer!" I mean, that's 30 whole minutes! Yeah, tried that. I wind up watching morning news shows and not doing anything any way. It's like when I had kids, I lost all my motivation to be on time. I WANT to be on time, I just have a MUCH harder time actually DOING it. I keep trying to convince myself that I'm not the only one that has this problem. Other people are late right?
Ben thinks that I make too much of an ordeal about us being late. I was raised that it's rude and disrespectful. Is it really? Are we really late if we're just 5 minutes late? And if not, what's late? Is it 10 minutes? 15 minutes? At what point do you say "Oh, just forget it. We're late. I'm not going?"

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