Don't inherit THAT trait!

By Jenn

I have a confession to make. (Don't judge!) I am a procrastinator. 

I am terminally late with everything. (Christmas cards should go out before the 24th of December?!) In fact, I am terrible with deadlines. (Shhh, don't tell my editor, Julie.) It was always a strike against me in school. Yes, I was the student who waited until the last minute to get her work done. Thankfully, I was able to maintain an A average in spite of my irresponsibility. Besides, if I missed a deadline, I was the only one who suffered.

Then I had children.

Suddenly there are reports to be written and permission slips to sign. There are meetings and conferences to remember. The children have to be on time to school.  EVERY DAY!

You would think that by the time my oldest was 11 years old, my bad habits would have been turned around. You would think. They have, in fact, become worse. There was a time when I only had to remember my own information. Now I need to remember the information of five people. FIVE. My brain gets very overloaded.

Many mornings I have awakened to the choral strains of, "Mooooommmmm! I need my [fill in the blank of item that has to be completed, signed or purchased by that morning]! Where is it? I HAVE to have it right now, Mommmmm!"

Of all of the traits I wanted passed down to my children, this was not one of them.  Brains? Check. Integrity? Check. Procrastination? Not so much.

When you look at your children and can see eyes that are so similar to your own or when you notice that they set their mouth in the same quirky way that you do when they are concentrating -- well, it warms your heart. 

When  you hear them screeching from down the hall that they have once again procrastinated and are running on adrenaline and a prayer -- it doesn't so much warm your heart as make you shudder. And really, at times like that there is only one thing you can do...

...blame their father.

Comments

[Karen]

Ok, I have a bad one...Even after reading this article yesterday about procrastination here's what I did. Yesterday was a busy day, work, walmart, eat, etc. In the evening as I lay next to my 1 yr old in bed to soothe him to sleep I realize how exhausted I am. My 6 year old has homework to do and obediantly went to do it. She came back in the bedroom with a question on how to do the word problem. After explaining it to her she still did not understand. I thought to myself, how can I explain this to her when I can barely keep my eyes open and she has 4 more of these type questions? So instead of resisting the urge to sleep I asked her if we could do it in the morning. I thought that if I went to bed at that time that I would get a good nights rest and be able to tackle it in the morning. Ha! I don't know why I always forget that I don't get a good night's sleep because my son always crys for a bottle at least twice at night. So when I get up to fix him a bottle, I notice my daughters homework sitting on the kitchen table and for a brief moment I thought...You know, we really don't have much time in the mornings to work on it, it would be quicker if I just did it for her. But that thought left my mind as soon as it entered because surely she would mention to her teacher that her mom did it for her. I think it's pretty pitiful that I even had the thought but sometimes procrastination often turns into desparation.

[Robin P]

Oh my gosh, I had totally forgotten to write Lillianna's note to her teacher about being absent these past 2 days and then I read this post. Thanks for reminding me.
I try not to procrastinate but most of the time I do.I live by the motto,"Don't put off til tomorrow, what you can put off indefinitely!"

[Karen]

You think procrastinating is a bad trait to inherit. Try a son who is even more impatient than his mother! I didn't know it was possible to be more impatient than I am!

[Adriana]

At least your 11-year old remembers what's due! My 11-year old has taken my procrastination trait and built upon it. He forgets entirely. Oy!

[Darlene]

You are exactly right! I need to remember things for my four children plus mine, and half of my husbands. That's thinking for five and a half of us. My brain is too small.

Great post.

[Jeremiah Lee]

I was hoping that becoming a full-time dad would allow me to stay away from deadlines, because I've always been a procrastinator...but it appears that from the more experienced full-time parents that this is not the case. So...I gotta fix this too. Ancarett, you said that you're better after 40 years, how did you stop this habit, maybe I can get it done in 5 years or so. Although, I'll likely do it in 39.5 years, just before the 40 year deadline.

[Ancarett]

Hah! I am going to take your final words to heart.

I'm a procrastinator and I'm learning to deal with it after more than forty years. My eldest is more of the adrenaline-junky procrastinator who screeches like your child. My youngest procrastinates with such happy indifference as to what is due that it makes me proud. If you're going to do something, you might as well do it well, eh?

[kat]

It is remarkable to me sometimes to see what traits kiddo#1 has of me and his father. He'll do something in the exact same way and it'll just floor me. I do hope that he however will have a better singing voice than both me and the dad.