Mornings are pretty rushed in our house. My daughter gets up around 7 am and is out the door by 7:15 am. We’re even more rushed when I take my daughter and her cousin to school. My university is fifty minutes away, and I need to get on the road.
With my semester at an end, I can afford to give my daughter a little more time, and that’s been a good thing. She loves to play with her cousin, and our tight time margin every morning (and her cousin’s frequent late arrivals) left little time for that this academic year. Now that I don’t have to be anywhere, I feel better giving her and her cousin some quality time.
This morning, that meant ten minutes.
Yesterday evening, my daughter was upset about cleaning up her elaborate horse set-up, the thing she’d most like to play with her cousin. I struck her a deal. I said she would have time to set up the horses before the cousin came if she got up early. If she would get up early, I promised to give them ten minutes of playtime, regardless of when the cousin showed up.
She agreed.
I woke up her ten minutes early, and by 7 am, she had eaten a muffin, gotten dressed, and arranged the horses just so.
The minutes ticked by. No cousin.
I assured her, “I promised I would give you ten minutes, and I will.” The cousin showed up about 10 minutes later, and they enjoyed their short horse excursion.
Don’t tell my daughter that I set the clock for twelve minutes. I know I spoil her!