{"id":2435,"date":"2013-10-22T16:05:31","date_gmt":"2013-10-22T20:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/barefootandpregnant\/?p=2435"},"modified":"2015-09-19T15:52:05","modified_gmt":"2015-09-19T19:52:05","slug":"self-discipline-vs-the-snooze-button","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/barefootandpregnant\/2013\/10\/self-discipline-vs-the-snooze-button.html","title":{"rendered":"Self-Discipline vs. the Snooze Button"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
Maybe the problem is that I\u2019m pretty much okay with just good<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A few weeks ago, the kids and I were watching Stuart Little 2. It\u2019s not my favorite kids movie, but they like it and it has Hugh Laurie in it, so it gets a pass. As we watched Geena Davis make the most implausibly elaborate 7 am breakfast ever, dressed to the nines, natch, and sporting the fakest perpetual smile in fake-ville, Sienna sighed, \u201cI wish you could be like that in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

I bristled immediately and started to reply sarcastically, \u201ckeep on wishing, kid, cause ain\u2019t no mama like that at 7 am.\u201d But as I opened my mouth and looked her way, I realized that she was watching the movie with this wistful little smile on her face that I didn\u2019t recognize. I shut my mouth and watched her for a while before figuring out what it was. It was serenity.<\/p>\n

I understood, then, that she wasn\u2019t wishing for the elaborate breakfast or the pearls or Geena Davis. She was wishing she could wake up to a cheerful (or at least not half-asleep and grumpy) mother, who wasn\u2019t rushing to throw cereal on the table between desperate gulps of coffee.<\/p>\n

7 am is pretty darn early, especially when you throw a baby who doesn\u2019t sleep reliably into the mix. Most of the kids in modern America wakes up to hasty cereal and parents in various stages of the pajama-to-clothing transformation, swilling coffee and shoving homework folders in backpacks. That was how mornings were in my house, and I\u2019m pretty sure it didn\u2019t scar me for life. And yet, that look on Sienna\u2019s face made me ache a little. She may be the type of kid who needs peaceful, calm mornings to face the day. Or she may just want peaceful, calm mornings before she faces the day. Either way, it only requires some minor changes from me to make that happen. Changes I\u2019d like to make anyway, since I\u2019m trying that whole showing-instead-of-yelling thing with my kids.<\/p>\n

Right. Minor<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The next day, I announced that everyone would make their beds and get dressed before they came to breakfast, and we would all eat together, and that\u2019s how it would be every day from now on forever<\/em>. I set the alarm early, got up instead of hitting snooze, got dressed, made the bed, and helped the kids get dressed and make their beds.<\/p>\n

It was a much more peaceful morning. Sienna said, \u201cthis is nice, Mom!\u201d I felt really proud of myself with all my maturity and self-discipline.<\/p>\n

That was two weeks ago, and we\u2019ve managed to repeat that performance exactly once. Self-discipline does not come easily to me. I know, I know, it doesn\u2019t come easily to anyone. But I\u2019m just the absolute worst about it. It\u2019s not that hard to get up 15 minutes earlier, make my bed, and change out of my pajamas before leaving the bedroom. It\u2019s actually pretty simple, and the difference it makes in the day is enormous. And yet. And yet<\/em>. Sleep after the snooze button is too delicious to resist.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s because I\u2019m absolutely terrible at working with myself. I\u2019m a champion at self-defeat via internal prizefighting. Disciplined Calah will dutifully eat small portions without snacking and have two small squares of dark chocolate after dinner. Disciplined Calah will sometimes even do this for months at a time. But inevitably, just when Disciplined Calah is starting to feel like she can relax a little because she basically owns<\/em> this self-discipline business, Excessively Excessive Calah will make cookies and eat a dozen in three minutes flat. After the first one, Disciplined Calah will begin to whisper warnings that will grow louder and louder with each cookie, until Excessively Excessive Calah hulks out and roars \u201cI\u2019LL SHOW YOU DISCIPLINE! I BET YOU DON\u2019T HAVE THE DISCIPLINE TO EAT TEN COOKIES AFTER YOU ALREADY FEEL NAUSEOUS! TAKE YOUR DISCIPLINE AND SHOVE IT, YOU MISERABLE TYRANT!\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s really making me appreciate how awesome my kids actually are, though. When it comes to self-discipline, they put me to shame. The Ogre will tell them to stop complaining and they\u2019ll just\u2026stop. When the Ogre tells me to stop complaining I start complaining about how patriarchal he is. No matter how much I really want to just shut up already, because even I am annoyed by the sound of my own voice, my inner hulk of excess will not stop until ALL YOUR COMPLAIN ARE BELONG TO US!<\/p>\n

Even now, I want to keep typing, but I promised the kids I would close my computer at 3:30 when the girls get home from school, and it\u2019s 3:24. I don\u2019t even know what else I have to say at this point, because there is no pithy realization about how I\u2019m secretly a self-discipline ninja that I\u2019ve stumbled upon. I just want to keep typing in case there might be, and I haven\u2019t found it yet. But. Self. Discipline.<\/p>\n

Aaaargh.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago, the kids and I were watching Stuart Little 2. It\u2019s not my favorite kids movie, but they like it and it has Hugh Laurie in it, so it gets a pass. As we watched Geena Davis make the most implausibly elaborate 7 am breakfast ever, dressed to the nines, natch, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1110,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,100,295],"class_list":["post-2435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-motherhood","tag-parenting","tag-self-discipline"],"yoast_head":"\nSelf-Discipline vs. the Snooze Button<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A few weeks ago, the kids and I were watching Stuart Little 2. 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