Get to school on time
If screaming until you’re blue in the face does nothing to speed your kids along in the morning, then here’s a thought – don’t!
Schools today have to count a child who arrives late as absent for that whole half day of school. With education authorities cracking down on absenteeism, this means schools are cracking down on children being late for school.
Whilst younger children may simply slow us down by having a tantrum about what cereal to eat or a last minute decision to swap jeans and a T-shirt for a fairy costume, we can usually control this by being tough on ourselves and pulling the whole morning routine back 15 minutes earlier.
However it’s teenagers who can prove the most tricky to rouse from the house. So how do you get them to school without losing your cool? Here’s one mum’s story…
I had to reach breaking point to discover a ‘less is more’ solution. I felt so ashamed when I got a letter saying my son had been late for school 32 times. But no matter how early I woke him or how loudly I yelled, Joe invariably left the house too late.
The day after getting the letter, I threw Joe out at 8am, hurling his shoes and school bag after him. But he banged on the door, begging to come in to ‘do his hair’ (he’s 13 and obsessed with getting the spikes just right). His cries were so plaintive that I eventually caved in. On my train into work, I phoned Joe’s pastoral teacher, in tears, in front of the other commuters!
His teacher had some golden advice: she said I should make him responsible for his own time-keeping and tell him I wasn’t going to chase him any more. And for the next week, he had to report to her when he got to school, to show he was on time.
I told all this to Joe and the next day he still took ages getting dressed and eating breakfast. But I felt really calm as I’d relinquished responsibility. Then he put on a spurt of speed and amazingly, was out of the house by 8am. And I hadn’t nagged him once. I realise now, my nagging had been counterproductive as he’d been rebelling against it.
We haven’t had a hiccup since. It was a big lesson in ‘letting go’.