Whatever Gets You Out of Bed in the Morning

Little boys' briefs have it all backwards, literally. When a newly potty-trained youngster sees his prize package of Disney/Marvel/Nickelodeon character briefs, he inevitably puts them on backwards. Why? Because the main feature is on the backside, where the wearer cannot see it. The front just has a piddly picture, sort of the "B Sides" of underpants. And who wants to see something piddly on his underpants? Not my son, anyway.

I was not thinking about this important concept when I awoke this morning to the hint of daylight creeping in through the blinds. I was thinking about how certain I was that I did not want to get out of bed. Not because I was too tired--I'd gone to bed before 11 and the time was now after 6, and I actually felt rested, which is unusual for me. I didn't want to get out of bed because the list of things I wanted/needed/hoped to accomplish today was so daunting that I just wanted to avoid it by hiding under the covers for a bit longer.

Then my son appeared in my doorway and cast another vote in the direction of my stay-in-bed campaign by asking if he could snuggle with me. Then my daughter appeared, and the vote was unanimous--Mom can stay in bed as long as she likes. That's when the Veto sounded. When the toddler wants out of her crib, no one else's vote matters.

And when I realized I had all three kids right there by my big tub and it was bath day, I felt pleased that already I would be knocking one pebble off the mountain of tasks I had set up for myself today. When it came time for kids to dress, I pointed out to my son that, in case he cared, his underwear was backwards.

He was quick to explain. "I like to see the big picture, so I put them on backwards!"

Big picture, hmmm? Was I seeing the big picture when I looked at my day? And if I looked at my day backwards, would I see the big picture a little better?

When I awake in the morning, maybe my tasks won't seem insurmountable if I ask myself, "What will matter to me when I get back into bed tonight?"

Despite everything I'd accomplished yesterday, I fell asleep last night thinking, "I don't want to yell anymore." I had thought the same thing the night before. I'm sure if I make it my goal to not yell, my children would sense an imbalance in the universe--at least initially--and compensate with their own negative behavior, which tends to help me yell.

So tonight when I go to bed, I just want to be able to say, "Today I saw the big picture. And that mountain I thought was so big? That was just a bump in the road."