Monday-itis

“I don’t like school,” Ax said to me. And I replied calmly, though perhaps with the hint of an eye roll, imagining him at his outdoor wonderland preschool, which I know for a fact he enjoys: “What don’t you like about school, darling?” “I don’t like how on school days it’s so rush-ish and I have to put on clothes and pick my toy for show and tell and do everything so fast.” Looking down, sullen, feeling the heavy burden of dressing, toy-picking, and eating in a set amount of time.

And then I used one of my ninja mama moves, The Repeat-It-Back, and said, “Oh. You don’t like to rush in the morning.” And he exhaled. “No I don’t,” he said. “So can you help me figure out what could we do to make it less rush-ish on school days my love?” Would have been a really great thing to have said.

But I didn’t say that because I was maybe rushing or just defensive. I moaned about how hard it was to get him to bed at night because he wanted to stay up, and then about how hard it was to wake him up in the morning because he wanted to stay in bed.

Then I pointed out how instead of picking out his clothes the night before he likes to pick his look du jour out in the morning. Basically, I blamed my five-year-old for the fact that in the morning, especially Monday mornings, it can feel like a rush.

The truth is, I don’t like to rush either. I could hang out all day long doing what I want to do when I want to do it. And I’m lucky because I actually have a day like that quite often. It is Sunday. I have trouble transitioning to weekday mode. I like staying up a bit later and sleeping in a bit later on weekends, having a more leisurely morning time breakfast, watching Ax play trampoline on the blow up mattress in the living room, lounging. Yes. Sunday is my kind of day.

Monday, the getting dressed and getting out, the being out and about at a certain time, I feel Ax’s pain. Or maybe Ax feels mine. Maybe if I felt better about getting up and out he would to. Is there a way we can get everything done that we need to get done on Monday while still feeling relaxed and languid as if it were Sunday?

Or maybe Monday-itis, confined pretty discretely to Monday morning, is something I can tolerate and don’t need to change anything about, don’t need a Monday morning hack. Just notice my discomfort with the shift from Sunday mode to Monday mode and keep going anyway.

Nah. I’m gonna get my Sunday mode going even on Mondays. I’m gonna see if I can do more while feeling at ease. At least I’m gonna give it a whirl. Why not?