Hubby and I have never been punctual people. It wasn't SO bad before we had kids, but now it's worse than ever. We make a horrible team when it comes to punctuality. I am the typical woman who has to have her hair and makeup perfect before I go anywhere (at least I was before I had A!) and hubs...let's just say he is easily distracted. I will be all set and ready to go and he'll decide that it's the perfect moment to sit down and play the piano or his guitar. Or, he will decide that an hour before we're supposed to be somewhere is an ideal time to start cutting the grass or start a household project. You can now imagine why our families often tell us that family events start 30 minutes before they actually do!
Things got even worse after I had a baby. I nursed A and it often took him 40 minutes to nurse. Then I'd have to allow time for him to poop, in the beginning this meant a diaper blowout, and time to clean him up and change him. Let's not forget all the time it took to pack the diaper bag. By the time that was all done, it was time for him to nurse again! Oy!
A few months after he turned 2, I decided to potty train my son. This did not help my punctuality problems. I completely potty trained him in less than two weeks, but we barely left the house during that time. When we did leave the house, I had to make sure he pottied before we left and when we arrived at our destination. I also had to make sure I had a large bag packed with wipes, a few changes of clothes, pull ups, and a plastic bag for possible wet or dirty clothes. Between his potty habits and my bag packing, I continued to be 20 minutes late for everything.
So here I am with a three year old. Surely by now I have things under control and I can arrive 10 minutes early to everything right? WRONG!! Enter: the terrible threes, the magical time when everything is a battle. Every normal daily activity turns into a power struggle. Getting A up in the morning: a fight. Not that I'm not grateful that my son sleeps until 8:30am every morning, but he needs to be at preschool by 9am three days a week. Getting him dressed: a battle! Making sure he potties before we leave : a war! Add on extra time if he has to go #2. He usually screams, "Mommy, I need privacy!" and sits on the toilet reading books and magazines for 10 minutes.
Getting him to eat breakfast is also a struggle. It's gotten to the point where I feed him breakfast in the car now, mostly because we are running so late. The problem is, it can even take a while to get him in the car. This has to be done carefully because if I'm too rough with him or rush him, he will spend the 20 minute ride screaming at the top of his lungs and who wants to listen to that at 8:45 in the morning??!!
So three years and a few weeks after my son was born I continue to show up to things 10 to 20 minutes late. No matter how much planning I put into it, something always seems to happen at the last minute to cause us to be late! Now that I'm pregnant with #2, I'm terrified! How in the world am I going to manage getting anywhere close to on time with my "independently minded" three year old and a nursing newborn?
I'm so screwed!
I Hubby slows me down even more so then my 2 girls. I was always late for everything even when i was single. I never seem to give myself enough time to get ready. It's ok, just let him eat in the car. I did it every day w/ my oldest when I worked full-time. it's so hard to get a 3 yr old to do something when they don't want to but don't give up, he'll come around.
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