Tardy, Again

It doesn't seem to matter how early I get the kids up they are continually late for school. This morning I woke them up at 7:00. Annie got dressed and went down and had breakfast. Ammon got half dressed and started playing. Aaron was the last one up and when he finally got up he took forever deciding what to wear. He got his shirt on but since his pants were in the laundryroom he went down to get a pair. I was looking for Aaron's sweater so I had told them to pour their cereal and eat. About 10 minutes later when I come downstairs I find Annie and Ammon eating. And Aaron is playing on my piano, still without pants.

They finally finish breakfast and then start playing around. Annie and Ammon were looking at their book orders and Aaron was looking at his. Ammon still didn't have shoes on. Aaron finally brought me the book orders and wanted to get two things that would cost a total of $30.00.

So at 8:15 when they called dad to talk to him about the book orders, Annie was ready, Ammon needed shoes, and Aaron was actually ready. They spent about 5 minutes arguing with dad about the book orders. When I told them to go get in the van they spent forever getting there, Annie couldn't find her coat(come to find out it was in the van, we still haven't found the backpack since Wednesday) and Aaron was so worried about getting the bookorder to his teacher. As I'm finally getting Annie in the van after we found her coat there, she says that she needs her show and tell item, a dog, for today. So we had to go find that, and of course they were late again.

I don't think they have been on time at all during the last four days. Somehow Michael always seems to get them there on time. And when he gets them up the two younger girls don't get woken up, but of course when I'm doing it the older ones always manage to wake up the two little ones.

Why do they always listen to Michael more than they do to me? Am I really not mean enough to them as Michael says or I am just not authoratative enough? How do I get them to respect and listen to what I am telling them? Somedays I do feel like I'm talking to a wall, but I guess every mother goes through that with her children.