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Sarah Jessica Parker Doesn't Delegate the Morning Rush
Filed under: Celeb Parents
Sarah Jessica Parker loves being a mom, even if it means rolling out of bed in the morning to get her son, James Wilkie, 6, off to school. "'I don't delegate that job of getting my son dressed and out of the door in the morning to anyone else unless I have to because I'm working," Parker recently told the Daily Mail."It's not so much that I think I'm so incredibly interesting to be around," says Parker, "But I feel like I would lose out and be worse off if I didn't do it. I'm not saying my son wakes up in the morning and is inspired by me, it's just that I love being his mother."
I know how she feels. Just last week, my pediatrician mentioned that my 6-year-old might be ready for an alarm clock. An alarm clock? I thought. What would happen to our early morning cuddle time? If I could invent a mechanism that only allowed her to pick out one outfit a day, our morning routines would be sheer parenting bliss. I'm not letting an alarm clock stand in the way of that.
"Children are so cute and talkative when you get them out of bed, vulnerable blabbermouths, but when they get older they talk less," says Parker, "As the days fly past, it's only going to be a few more years that he likes me. Maybe he'll always love me, but he might not always want to be around me – he might not always like me. He's borderline embarrassed by me already, so..."
James Wilkie was born just a few months before my own six-year old, so I know exactly what Parker means. There's something about six that's so much bigger than five. Six is tangible evidence that babyhood is slipping through your fingers. It makes your want to hold on just a little tighter.
Not everyone loves the morning madness like Sarah Jessica Parker and I do. If yours makes you wish you had someone to delegate it to, here are a few tips to make mornings go a little easier, including:
- Start with the sleepiest kid. If you've got more than one child to drag out of bed, start with the highest need child first to give them a head start on the morning.
- Make breakfast a no-brainer. Whatever you choose to feed for breakfast, make it simple and make it non-negotiable. My kids get cereal or frozen waffles with fruit and/or yogurt on weekday mornings. There's nothing else on the menu.
- The goes-without-saying rule: Get everything ready the night before. School outfits, lunches, backpacks ... take a half hour before bed to get it all ready and in a central location so that mornings aren't spent chasing down a lost mitten or, worse, your car keys.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
3-18-2009 @ 11:33AM
Nicola said...Amen to that. My son is 5 and I feel exactly the same way. These period of Mommy love and wanting to be by my side at all times will come to an abrupt end. It only happens once in a lifetime and this is that time. It can be exhausting, but I wouldn't give it up for all the world. My husband doesn't understand it, so maybe men have an inner sense of the bond that they will share with their sons as those boys age. They'll get all of the older guy time and then the adult man time. This little boy stage is all ours and I plan to treasure every moment. Mornings and all.
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3-18-2009 @ 2:00PM
Karen said...My son is 9 (3rd grade) and we still snuggle in the mornings some. I wake him up slowly, rub his back, talk about the day ahead, etc.
I think "morning rush" is such a disservice to kids. It starts the day out on a bad note. Get up earlier. It really isn't that hard, you just have to decide to do it. Or maybe it means giving up the 10-11pm viewing hour. Whatever it takes, it is so important to have a non-rushed morning.
I personally think a hot breakfast is important (usually oatmeal in our house) and cereal and waffles (sugar foods) are usually weekend only food. It doesn't take much more time to make a smoothie, cook some oatmeal or eggs than it does to make pancakes from a box.
I also agree that morning is not the time to be making decisions. It is the time for implementing the plan you made the night before. Clothes, lunches, breakfast choices should all be decided ahead of time.
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3-18-2009 @ 9:41PM
Sherry said...Sorry, not a tip or idea for you, but what business is it of your pediatrician whether or not your child uses an alarm clock? Is the use of an alarm clock somehow related to the physical health of the child? I wasn't aware that they had an Alarm Clock 101 class at medical school.
3-19-2009 @ 1:59AM
bluepaintred said...On the other hand, learning to wake up to an alarm clock is a very good skill to have. From the earliest time I can remember i was woken up by my dad (or mom) calling my name from the top of the stairs to wake me up. Now, at 29, I CANNOT wake to an alarm clock. I wake up INSTANTLY to my name, but do not hear an alarm clock at all.
My husband puts his alarm clock on my bedside table so that he has to get up and walk around the bed to shut it off and i do not wake up.
So when my oldest son turned eight we bought him an alarm clock. next year, our middle son will get an alarm clock of his own.
I still get my morning hugs and we talk over breakfast, but for me, my parents not letting me have an alarm clock was a great disservice
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