Back in December, my high school senior daughter got a case of senioritis … BAD. Every morning her alarm would go off and she’d hit the snooze alarm. And again. And again. Eventually I had to wander in and tell her to get out of bed. Five minutes later I would turn the closet light on. And then the bathroom light. And so on. I figured her two week holiday break would get her back on track, so I let it go.
Then January came and along with it the first day of school. The alarm. The snooze alarm. The lights. And the prodding. It looked like it was all here to stay. Graduation isn’t until this coming May, which meant I was facing months of this same cycle of behavior.
So I became grouchy. A couple of weeks of this and I found myself stomping into her room one morning, throwing the door open and saying rather loudly “get up!”
What will she do when she’s in college next year, I thought to myself. How will she ever do this on her own when she’s no longer under my roof?
And that’s when it hit me. Come September, she will no longer be under my roof. She’ll be away at college in a dorm room having to take charge of her own life. I won’t be there to wake her up. I won’t be able to have breakfast with her. And I won’t see her smiley (okay, maybe half asleep) face every single day. 
So I went back into her room and rubbed her back and gave her a kiss and said “time to get up, beautiful”.
And I’ve been doing that every day since.
Guess what?
I’m happy at the start of every day. I get to connect with my daughter.
She’s happy and gets up in a somewhat better mood (she is a teenager ? ) In fact she even mentioned it to me one day – she said how much she likes waking up to a little affection.
Two sides of the coin. To different possibilities.
Some parents run in and scream for their kids to get out of bed and everyone leaves stressed.
Some parents choose the relaxing approach and start the day out in a great way.
Some people wake up in the morning and approach life in a cause/affect manner. What will happen to them and what will they have to deal with?
Some people wake up in the morning and approach life as if anything were possible. What can they make happen today?
You can go either way. Only you can choose what side of the bed you’ll get out of and how you will approach everything you do.
Only you.
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