Hello, Happy Monday... assuming it is a HAPPY Monday of course and that Monday hasn't spent the day being a gigantic A'hole and chewing you up into tiny little bite sized bits.
I saw Monday eyeing me off this morning like I was some kind of done deal.
It was not long after I opened my eyes and sipped on the luke warm morning coffee my hubby had kindly left me on my bedside before he left for work at crackers. Just for the record, it wasn't luke warm when he left it... but it may have been by the time I actually woke up.
He's a good man that hubby of mine. He brings a coffee upstairs every morning when he comes to wake me up and say goodbye. The theory is that one can't get cranky about being woken up when one's waker uperer has coffee in their hand right? AND the sweet smell of freshly brewed coffee is wafting up your sleepy nostrils is supposed to be enough to make your insides smile and entice you to open your eyes and be all happy about waking up.
That's the theory anyway, except that it doesn't work if you fall back asleep and the next time you open your eyes it is OHCRAPWEAREGOINGTOBEFLIPPINGLATE o'clock.
That's what time I woke up this morning, and that's when I saw Monday making eyes at me.
Yep, it practically laughed out loud when I called out to the boys in their rooms "ARE YOU READY YET" only to hear back "Yessss" from one and some kind of unintelligible sleep talk from the other two.
SHIT, clearly we were going to be REALLY late.
Turns out one of the kids was kinda sorta semi legitimately feeling sick and felt the need to stay in bed (at least until after the school bell had rung), and the other could not even be bothered faking it and just asked instead if he could use his 'Get out Of Jail Free Pass' for the day so he could stay in bed longer.
I was faced with choices people.
I could put on my gloves and prepare to fight fair and square with Monday who by now was pretty damn sure it was already in the bag... or... I could say "Screw you Monday" let the sick one stay in bed, let the other one stay in bed and use his 'Get Out of Jail Free Pass' and focus all my efforts on getting myself ready for work and the one who was already to school before the clock ticked over to the time at which you actually have to walk them into school and fill out one of those 'We are late because _______' notes.
So I chose that - the "Screw You Monday" option.
Some days you just gotta do what you've gotta do right?
In case you are wondering what our 'Get out of Jail Free Pass' is - let me explain.
A few years ago we got so sick and tired of our boys pulling fakeys on us in order to get a day off school. They were really good at bunging it on and it usually ended up with either the hubby or I needing to take a day off work to stay home with the 'sick' child... only to find that they miraculously recovered around morning tea time.
Soooo frustrating.
Apart from the fact it meant we took an unnecessary day off work, it also left us feeling totally duped by our precious cherubs and so we introduced the 'Get out Of Jail Free Pass' which means that - once a year - the squids are allowed to take a day off school for no particular reason.
There is no need for pitiful excuses, lame attempts at appearing sick, or all the general effort and malarky that goes into a half decent attempt of faking it.
They get one day off - no questions asked.
The trick is... once they have used it, that's it! That pass is invalid and they are done for the year and no amount of faking it will be deemed worthy of a day off.
They have to be burning up, hospitalised or seriously maimed to stay home from school after they have used their Free Pass.
It works.
It really does - because they choose wisely when to use it.
When they say they are too tired or theydontwanna go to school, we simply ask them do they want to use up their free pass and stay home or would they rather save their free pass for a cold rainy day where they can stay snuggled up in bed?
We usually find that after a little bit of careful consideration they opt to save their free pass for another time.
Except for today, today they used it... and you know what? With Monday smirking at me the way it was this morning - I was quite happy to oblige their use of the 'Get Out Of Jail Free Pass.
Gotcha Monday!
Until next week...
How has Monday treated you?
Do your kids pull the fakeys on you or do you have some kind of a Get Out Of Jail Free system too?
