Getting up on time is a learned behavior

You’ve got a lot of choices.  If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you’re not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice. – Steven D Woodhull

I've been thinking a lot lately about my readiness to have my baby go off to college this coming fall.  I go between wondering if I'm ready or if she's ready.  When our oldest went off to college, it was different, she was still in the same town and we could go "rescue" her within minutes.  Our youngest will be going hours away.  We've lived through letting our oldest child go off to live somewhere else and not knowing where she was the majority of the time. The missing her not checking in on a daily basis.  We have been through all those firsts once, and I know we'll be able to do it again.  Still it is not easy to imagine both kids gone.

So this begins my little series on, "Is she ready for college?"  The "she" is for me and for her.  (A little disclaimer...I have no idea how long the series will be, even if it will be regular posts...remember it is all about random thoughts!).

I think one of the prerequisites for being ready for college is that the young adult should be able to set an alarm, not sleep through it and be able to get up all on their own.  My husband and I have our doubts about the consistency of that task being accomplished without our assistance.  We know and have witnessed her ability to do so.  We are morning people and rarely need the alarm clock.  Our youngest, on the other hand, is a night owl and loves to sleep in.  To cut her some slack, I guess every person can attest to a time in their life when they slept through an alarm or two.  Unfortunately for her, we have enabled her to not fully learn the task.  We wait until the last minute to verify that she is "moving".  While I think she is getting better at the task, there have been days when she benefited from the reminder to get up.

My random thought for today...Lesson # 1....To succeed in school as well as to remain employed in the future requires the young adult to make the choice to learn the skill of getting up on their own and to do so often enough it becomes a learned behavior.  

As far as the rest of the quote above, I think she's well on her way...she always smile when she gets up and is "ready" to venture out the door.  She's learned the beauty of her smile has it's benefits to melt her parents hearts and to forgive the grumbles we receive when we "remind" her to get up!  She reminded me of the importance of the smile when she created the picture for me years ago.  I'm sure she'll be smiling this morning...I hear dad preparing her lunch for her as I type....

Remember to always smile...