Today I woke up with my kids standing over me in dismay!  Apparently I had overslept and was late for the Monday morning marathon I dread, wake up calls, breakfast,  locating the books and homework, assembling the backpacks, etc… In the first few seconds, before my eyes were fully opened, I thought, isn’t it still Mother’s day? Wasn’t I just served breakfast in bed and treated to a massage like a Queen? This got me to thinking about a conversation I had with a girlfriend weeks before when she announced at dinner that she had “quit the mornings”.  I sat there with a stunned look on my face, dumbfounded and perplexed. “We can quit the mornings?” I said silently to myself. How had I not heard about this before.  How had I not thought of that? After all, I’ve been getting up every morning at 6:30 or earlier for over a decade now? When all I had to do was “quit the mornings”? I sipped my drink in dead silence so I could hear all she had to say.

‘I’ve been getting up, stressed out, making breakfast, finding belts, making sure uniforms were perfect, packing backpacks and arguing with kids all the away to school for over 12 years. Then my kids would get out of the car and go on about their merry way and I would sit in the car upset, near tears about everything that had just happened. It was a terrible way to start my day”, she said. So she decided to call a meeting with her family and tell them that she would no longer be doing the mornings. An idea she had gotten from another mother at school. The plan was, the nanny would be coming in earlier and their dad would have to get up and get involved to help get the kids off. She went on to say that she now wakes up peacefully, washes her face and goes to workout before work. A much more productive and healthy way to start the day. Now when she picks up the kids at school she is happy and much more useful to her children. She lovingly helps them with their homework, they all discuss their days and she happily makes dinner. There is no resentment leftover from the dysfunctional mornings they used to have. She is just a much nicer, kinder member of society and human being in general.

Wow, well this all made perfect sense to me. How was I going to quit the mornings? I began plotting. I didn’t have a nanny to do the mornings for me. Hmmm. So, after much thought, I called a meeting with my husband and kids and told them my idea of quitting the mornings. It was met with blank stares, of course, but we came to a solution. I can quit Mondays, not all mornings. The kids are old enough to take on more responsibilities and get themselves dressed, pack their own snacks and get their homework in the folder. Now daddy does breakfast on Mondays which gives me a chance to have one morning to get up on my own, meditate and workout before I start working and writing. It’s not the dream I was sold at dinner but it’s my version of a little slice of heaven. I like saying I quit Monday mornings and encourage you to try it and get your family involved so you are no longer a one woman show. It’s a great way to start a conversation with your mommy friends. ‘Did you know I quit the mornings?” Try it and look at their faces.