Hurry up! 快点!

Aunty Windy, one of my forum mummy friends, shared an article with us. It is a meaningful reflection of a mummy with 2 gals who always say hurry up to her kids because she is always rushing from place to place. Something her elder daughter said finally made her stop saying these words. It is such a nice story with pics so pls do read it.

After reading this article, I felt quite guilty. Especially since I just beat RL's hands a few days ago because she refused to wear her uniform after 3 verbal warnings from me. I was rushing for work and a 915am photoshoot so I already warned them the night before that they need to wake up very early in the morning. I warned her 3 times to quickly start dressing up while I was washing up and getting dressed. But when I came out of my room, RL is still half naked, her shirt beside her and reading a storybook on the floor. She looked like she had all the time in the world and she ignored all my warnings. That made me mad.

With hubby leaving the house by 7am everyday, morning rush is always something that I have to deal with the two girls. Even when I was not working, I will always say to them 快点,快点! 迟到了! 不要慢吞吞。 不要做梦。 It is not that I am super kancheong but they really take a long time to wake up, drink milk, brush teeth and get dressed. 1 hour in fact from the time they wake up until the time we leave the house.

Inevitably, they 'waste' time asking for extra milk (RL's fav delay tactic cos after I made more milk, she hardly finishes it), asking me to tie hair (RA & RL), choose hair tie (RA & RL) negotiate to bring dress instead of PJs (RL), choose dress (RL sometimes RA), choose which soft toy to bring to school (RA sometimes RL), negotiate to bring bb bites or biscuits to school (RL), choose shoes (RL & RL). If they wake up at 8am, we reach school at 9am thereabouts. A bit late for BF sometimes cos the other kids have eaten and my gals are lazy to eat separately from her classmates unless it is BF that they like eg. cornflakes or French toast.

Nowadays, morning rush is worse because I accepted my ex colleague's request to help work temporarily part time for a few months to tide them over. I accepted the job mainly they allowed me to work part time and I wanted some adult company. Lunching alone on weekdays is quite lonely so sometimes I even skip lunch. My working hours are 10am to 4pm so most days I can afford time to send the gals to school at 8+, 9am, go home change, have BF before I go to work.

But sometimes, there are meetings, early starts to the day and I end up having to wake them earlier and earlier. Since they are such night birds, they sleep only at 11pm on most days. It is really hard to wake up at 745am. RA's classmates Sihan reaches CC at 7am cos her parents are both teachers. And her other good friend, Valerie reaches school at 730am everyday. I know there is no excuse. My kids have the luxury of time. Reaching school between 830-9am is considered late. So nowadays I got more reason to ask them to hurry up cos I need to take 2 buses to get to work and I don't want to be late.

But even though I am guilty of asking them to hurry up on weekdays mornings, I relax after school hrs n on weekends. We bring them to the playground before the sky turns dark, let them cycle or play. After parking our car, they take turns to jump off the kerb or staircase if there are no cars. As we walked home, they search for snails in the dark garden pathway especially if it rained that day. If not they shout with glee if they spot a cat or a dog. Sometimes, they point out the moon and stars in the night sky. On fri night, I let them both sleep in the same room knowing that they will take longer to fall asleep. Read as many stories as they want instead of the usual 2 per night. In the weekends, they play at the playground, look for caterpillars in my limau perut plant (they love caterpillars), spot heart shaped leaves, birds or feathers on the ground.

It will be a tough battle not to say hurry up at all in hectic Singapore. I even say it to my hubby before we had kids so I won't set resolutions that I cannot keep. But what I will try to do is try my best to stop saying 'hurry up or 快点' on weekends. I will try out 'what will you like to do? No need to rush. Take as much time as you want' instead.

And I will like to see their reactions too. ;)