Morning triumph

I get up at 3.45am to do some work before the rest of the house wakes up. The early bird catches the worm. I tick so many things off my ‘to do’ list before 6.10am when my first riser comes downstairs. A triumph.

I feel great. I have already made a significant dent in today’s work demands. All those emails fired off to people, now it’s their problem while I return to being a mum of three. And there is still plenty of time.

Getting breakfast. Getting everyone ready for school. A bit of spelling practice. Making the packed lunches. Water in three bottles. Two PE kits. One Forest School kit. One violin. Three reading records. All three reading books. “Shoes!” I call out. “Coats!” next. Then “teeth”. There are bodies moving around the house, bumping into each other on the stairs and in the hall way. Fighting at the coat rack. Trampling on fingers as they search for shoes under the stairs. “Shoes!” I say louder this time. I can see they cannot find them. “Well, where did you leave them?” biting my tongue to drop the words “I told you when you came in yesterday to put them somewhere you could find them.” There is another child in front of me, playing with bluetack. “Have you done your teeth?” I can’t find my own shoes. “Was that two minutes brushing?” I give up under the stairs, did I leave them in the porch? “Hair, have you brushed your hair?” The volume is rising. My volume is rising. The clock is ticking. The TV has been turned on. “Turn it off!” I am now shouting. “Mum, did you sign my form for cooking?” Oh grrrrr. “Can I do it tomorrow?” I call back from upstairs when the hunt for my own shoes continues. There is a child on her iPad on my bed. Feet bare. “Why is it the same every morning?” I am in full on mode now. “We go to school every day. What you need to do is the same every day – get dressed, have breakfast, socks and shoes, teeth, hair, bag, school stuff, coat. Get moving.”

By the time we leave, I have abandoned walking and grabbed the car keys. All three girls are in tears. “Sorry mummy.” And I’m offering bribes for after school to encourage a pivot on the collective mood and the possibility that we still make it to school on time. Or indeed, at all. Some triumph.