I'm too tired to get up when the alarm rings at 6:50 a.m..
I hit snooze and I'm up by 7.
I try to get Red up.
It takes him a few minutes to get going.
I put new clothes on his bed last night.
Within a few minutes he's sitting up pulling the tags off and getting dressed.
He goes down for breakfast.
I hear silence --I know that he has finished eating and he's sitting there biting his nails.
I awaken Blue -the independent one.
I can leave him and know that he will follow through.
I head down stairs to put a fire underneath Red.
I give him his meds and send him upstairs, so that Blue can come down.
We have to keep them on opposite floors in the morning.
Unfortunately, upstairs they meet.
A few punches and dirty remarks later...
I march up the stairs to break up the non-sense.
Blue comes down to eat.
I follow him down to put Red's lunch together and make coffee.
The bus arrives.
I call for Red.
No answer.
I march back up the stairs.
There he is laying back down underneath the freaking covers!
I can physically feel my blood pressure going up --my heart pounding. I am pissed!
"What are you doing!?
The bus is here!
GET UP NOW!"
"I'm too tired," he says flatly.
He has not brushed his teeth, washed his face, put on socks or shoes.
I stomp back down the stairs and wave the bus on.
It's not fair to make EVERYBODY late just because my child is being lazy.
After they leave -I head back up to his room.
"Would you like to loose your computer or get ready for school?"
"I'm too tired."
The computer is removed.
He doesn't put up a fight.
He doesn't move.
I make a series of phone calls to the school -trying to find someone to talk to him.
No luck -no one is answering.
I am on carpool duty for Blue and his middle-school friends. I have to leave.
Dad makes an attempt to get him up. Still -no movement. Dad has to leave for an appointment.
When I get in the car, suddenly, I realize that I have a meeting at the middle-school this morning.
I have to discuss a game-plan to get Blue through the next 5 weeks of school without feeling so totally overwhelmed that we end up back in the Psychiatrists office.
I run back into the house and yell back up the stairs to Red,
"I have a meeting this morning. You better be ready by the time I get back!"
When I pull back up to the house, he comes out immediately.
"Why don't you understand mom? I am just tired this morning."
"You say you want a job. Yet, you have worked-based learning this morning where they are teaching you work skills and evaluating your job readiness and you decide not to show up this morning.
You are showing us, that you are not ready for employment.
People who hold good jobs, push through being tired.
They show up for work...on time!"
"Well...employers are unfair! Why can't they understand that someone is just tired."
"If you're running a store ...you open the doors and customers come in, but you don't have any employees there to help the customers...YOU LOOSE MONEY.
The employer has to make money to stay in business and to pay their employees!
You say you want to work on movies. A movie has a budget.
They need everyone on the set, or involved with the movie to show up and do their job on time or they run out of money and they can't finish the movie.
They need people who are dependable!"
"Well...people just need to understand that I'm tired."
"Guess what dude, I'm tired. I didn't feel like getting up this morning either. But I push through it.
I didn't feel like picking your friends up yesterday and spending 3 hours at the pool
--but I pushed through it.
This week...I'm going to show you what it's like for me to be too tired to do my job of taking care of you.
'Mom can you make me something to eat?'
'No -I'm too tired?'
'Mom can I have a friend over?'
'No...I'm too tired.'
I'm going to be too tired to do my job and lets see how that works out."
"NOOOO!"
"You know what ...it's your life and if that's the way you choose to live it...that's fine.
There are lots of people who are just too tired to go to work on time everyday.
But if you want a good life, you push through being tired to go get your education so that you can get a good job.
If you want to lie around because you're tired --you will have a Lie-Around Life.
You won't have your own apartment, with all the nice things that you like.
You can live with the Lie-Around people in a group home, because I will not support laziness."
"I don't want to be poor and not be able to eat whatever I want."
"Well that's what people who are too tired to go to work and school have to deal with."
"Well...why do I have to go to school all-day? There are people who have half-days."
"Those are the Lie-Around people...unless they have jobs the other half of the day."
As we arrive at school and he finally gets out of the car he asks,
"When can I have my computer back?"
"I don't know...Lie-around people don't have their own computers in their rooms."
"But what am I supposed to do?
I'm going to be bored!"
"Well...you're so tired --you can get some rest."
And this is my life all before 10 a.m. on a Monday.
