Ian and Sophie getting back from school!
“Wake up kids! It’s time to get ready for school!” I turn on the lights and give each child a little nudge.
With sleepy eyes and stretching, there’s the common response, “Okay, dad.”
I rush back downstairs and begin my routine of getting lunches ready while looking at the clock like a hawk. If I don’t see any kids downstairs dressed, I yell upstairs.
“It’s seven o’clock! You have five minutes to be down here dressed!”
I then resume finish getting lunches ready at the same time getting breakfast ready. It’s called mulitasking under pressure!
Five after seven, I yell up to my twins, “Time to eat breakfast!”
My twins finally make it downstairs and begin eating. I begin combing hair and getting backpacks ready. I take a quick look out the window to see if the carpool family has arrived. Of course, they are just pulling up!
I yell to my twins, “They’re here!! Quick! Brush your teeth, get coats and backpacks on!!”
I speed up putting lunches in backpacks then get coats. The twins finish brushing their teeth and put their coats on. I give them each hugs and kisses and out the door they go!!
Within the next fifteen minutes, I begin prodding my two oldest daughters to speed it up! It’s jazz band practice, so it’s an early morning for them! Five minutes later, I look at the clock.
“You have ten minutes to finish getting ready and eat breakfast!”
Of course, with middle schoolers, I am playing a whole new ballgame here. There’s the extra attention to hair, makeup, clothes and the whole ball of wax that comes with a preteen and a teenager getting ready to go to high school next year! My sixth grader is still making the adjustment to the whole hair thing. No make up yet, which is a good thing!
Five more minutes have past. Abigail, our sixth grader is already at the table eating. Where’s Madison my soon to be high schooler? Of course, still in front of the mirror fixing her hair!
“Madison, it’s time to eat!”
With that newly acquired teen attitude that I think was inbred, she responds, “Okay dad! I’ll be there!”
Finally, she breaks away from the mirror in the bathroom to come eat, only to look at herself in any reflective surface on the way to the table. Including another mirror in the dining room.
By this time, our fives minutes have past and it’s time to go.
“It’s time to go! Brush teeth, I’ll get your instruments in the van!”
Finally, they make their way to the van. Abigail gets in, backpack in tow. Madison, before getting into the van pauses for a moment to take one last look in the reflection of the van window to primp. We are off! Five minutes later, I pull up to the middle school.
“I love you! Have a good day at school!”
They jump out, tell me goodbye and the van doors close. At this moment, I am met by silence…..
Have any of you had the experience of dropping off and picking kids up from school? Or are you currently doing this daily responsibility? As long as my kids have been in school, I have had this responsibility of being their personal chauffeur.
All our kids have attended or are currently attending a charter school where every parent drops and picks their kids up from school. It’s a given that parents have to be actively involved when their kids are in a charter school. As long as I can remember, every morning has always been like clockwork to get everyone out the door. Luckily for us this year, we car pool with another family who come and drop our twins off at school and then we pick up in the afternoon. There was one year when I was dropping my two oldest off at school, then at midday dropping my twins off at preschool, then going back and picking up the twins, then picking up my two oldest from school. I was basically making four trips back and forth to school in one day. Time management was of the essence if I wanted to get anything done during the day! I am sure there are parents that know what this is like and some that may be experiencing this very scenario right now as I write this blog. Believe it not, my wife and I survived!
Being a chauffeur to my kids is important to me. I enjoy having an active part in their lives and being the last one that they see before going into that big building of learning. The van ride to school is a moment for me to influence them and remind them to do good. We talk about treating others with respect and being a friend to all, being an example for good to others and others will follow, taking advantage of this time to learn all that they can from their teachers, and to remember who they are by having integrity and respect for themselves. After picking them up from school, it’s a time to greet them with a smile and talk about what they learned in school and what good things happened while they were at school. Dropping off and picking my kids up from school is a time for me, as a parent, to make school a positive experience for them…so yes…call me a chauffeur!
Newfangled Native American 