It’s a school morning. And getting the Ramsey family out of the house is our version of D-Day. Kids have to be woken up, showers taken, breakfast prepared and eaten, Pip the dog has to be tended to and backpacks rounded up. Plans from the night before are enacted. The kids climb down the net into the family van and hit the shore. And on some days, just for fun, we throw in laundry, exercise, the dishwasher and, oh yeah, the fact that my wife and I have to get ready, too. The clock is ticking and is unforgiving. My wife’s an elementary school teacher, so she has to be at work at the crack of the crack of the crack of dawn. It’s organized chaos — and there’s no time to lose.
I can proudly say that my six-year-old’s underwear doesn’t end up on the outside of his pants. Well, on most days.
The last three years have been chaotic. My wife has a new job. I have several new jobs. For the two years I was on SuperTalk, she was single parenting because I was working 13 hours a day between two jobs and a freelance career. Now, things are still as chaotic — but I have more flexibility in my schedule. I can engage more as a parent. My respect for single parents is immense — it takes both of my wife and I being on our A-game to get everything done.
I used to think you had to sacrifice career for family and family for career. How stupid could I have been? Now I know family is the golden thread that sews everything together. For better or worse we’re a team. And I know this dream team will only be together for only a short time. So I’m going to enjoy every second of it.
I just wish I had gotten out of the house with the same color socks.
Matched socks are overrated.
mjy mornings dressiing were the same color shoes, Same style. different colors.
Bonus points were given to any student that told me I had different color shoesl
that takes courage for a student to advise his teacher she had on different shoesl
What a delightfully normal family. Being organized and a well-oiled machine is over-rated. Living through chaos is the real test of family. We had dawdlers, non-morning grouches, non-tooth brushers. We dealt with it by calling ourselves “The Travelling Circus” (we always had dogs, cats, fish, an occasional rat, gerbil, rabbit or ferret). Our 40-50 year old “kids” are still non-morning grouches, dawdlers, but they are leading successful lives (defined as being happy and enjoying their careers) and we are proud of all of our family members.