I have always been an “on time” person. In my family if you were on time you were late, but I still consider that being on time. If you give me a time we need to leave I will always be ready by that time…no earlier…but no later. That is, until I became a mom to a toddler. Somehow the rules have changed and my new idea of on time seems to be 10 minutes late…no matter what I do…I am 10 minutes late. It drives me nuts!

The downfall is that I never figure in the unexpected, and there is ALWAYS the unexpected, which then in turn should make it expected.I know how long it takes for me to get myself and him ready to go, but what I don’t figure in is the battle over putting on shoes, or the coat, or making sure we have our sippy cup and snack for the trip, or the toy that he NEEDS to come with us. That particular toy? Always missing and is always REALLY small and hard to find.

Once we actually leave the house there are usually other things that could cause a delay.

  • My hands are always full of crap because my son refuses to carry anything. Therefore those things always drop onto the floor as I try to open doors causing everything else to fall and roll…
  • A huge task is keeping my son from getting dirty as we navigate from the house to the car. Tons of grass and dirt call his name as we begin.
  • My son will do anything NOT to get into his car seat some days. Now that we have a mini van he can easily roam the van once he jumps in. Therefore, I usually have to carry him into the seat and buckle quickly. This isn’t an easy task.
  • I usually forget something in the house.

Then we are finally off. Most likely 10 minutes AFTER the time I wanted to get going. It stinks. I get anxiety from being late! It’s even worse when I am staying in PA with my family because if on time is late…then 10 minutes late is VERY late!

So I am working on it. I have a feeling I will finally get things right just in time to have a second kid to throw it all off. That seems to be the case in motherhood. Once you get the hang of something, it all changes and you have to learn it again. Such is life

I’ll get there…

What are your “get there on time” tricks? Or are you always late?