Uncle

Remember when you were a kid and your friend, brother, sister, neighborhood bully, etc. would pin you down and torture you until you said, "Uncle!!"??

Where did that come from? Why "uncle"? Why not "macaroni" (my favorite word in the English language) or "snicklefritz" or "marshmallow"?

Wonder how the uncle-thing got started....

Deep thoughts by Lauren.

Anyway, I'm screaming UNCLE today.

I give.

I surrender.

They win.

Enough is enough.

6:00 is our new wake-up time. It is what it is. Any time after that is just gravy.

There is nothing I can do to keep them in bed and asleep until 7am. Well, there might be something out there, but I don't have the energy to figure it out.

I'm tired of fighting it. Tired of walking them back to bed. Tired of being the grumpy mommy who's first words to her children in the morning are, "You should be in bed."

Not that I want to go in there like Snow White, with cartoon animals around me, singing a song with a big smile on my face. That's not even realistic. Especially before coffee.

But, I do want to say, "Good morning, sunshine. It's nice to see you!" like I used to. It's just the nice thing to do.

I have a plaque in my kitchen that reads, "Because Nice Matters." I should move it next to my bed to remind me of this when the kids get up at the crack of dawn.

Because I truly believe that "nice" does matter. And, among many other things, I want to be a nice mom to my children. They deserve it.

Most of the time.