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Comment by spookthesunset | Hacker News Reader

The joke “I’m sorry we are late, my toddler had to put on their jacket” isn’t a joke once you’ve experienced it.

No amount of planning ahead can foresee every hiccup in getting a kiddo out the door...

I'm not saying you need to foresee every hiccup. I am saying you need to allow yourself enough time getting ready to deal with them when they occur.

Indeed. That is true for people with or without kids. If you are consistently late, you are doing something wrong. Might be not enough time, could be an unrealistic start time, who knows. But if you are always late... as they say, brother that is on you.

I shudder at the thought of my chronically late friends having kids and exacerbating their already borderline intolerable chronic lateness.

It can act as a cure. I have some in-laws who are better than ever since they've been forced to adhere to some strict timings around school and childcare.

I used to think I knew a lot about what parents ought to do.

Then I became a father.

I'm preaching what I practice for what it's worth.

It's really disheartening to me to see that, immediately after you make a comment critical of rude behavior common to many parents, all the parents pile on and assume you just absolutely must be a non-parent.

The earlier you get them up in order to get them out the door, the harder it becomes to get them out the door.

You think it's hard to get a kid to get ready in the morning? Try getting a cranky, tired kid ready in the morning.

Please, respond by saying that the solution is to put them to bed earlier. I know you want to.

Ok I'll bite. What's your response to my obvious retort?

I'm going to delegate this one to my man Sam Jackson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udj-o2m39NA

On the contrary, I found that the mornings I had a wide time margin, most things went smoothly and I could enjoy the time with my children. When I was nearly late from the start, things would go bad and soon even worse. I put it down to the difference in my patience and attitude in dealing with the inevitable little hiccups. In other words, I was to blame when we were late.

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