Pre-Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance

Dads have lots of interesting sayings that can really grab your attention (why don't Moms have them?). My dad is no different. One of his famous sayings is the "7-P's of success - Pre-Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance." He may have heard that somewhere else, but my guess is, that like all his other sayings, he made it up on his own.

"Pre-Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance." Very catchy, and very true, I think. In fact, this is going to be my motto for 2007 - my New Year's Resolution if you will.

You see, after being an at-home dad for 4 years now, I have finally realized that kids are slow. You would think after watching children run all over a store, escape from their parents and their general high energy level, that kids are fast. BUT YOU WOULD BE WRONG!

It takes us 10 minutes (10 minutes!!!) to get shoes on, coats on, and car seat buckles on. Add on the time to eat breakfast, fix hair, get dressed and a couple of melt-downs and we're lucky to be out of the house by 10am. We're never on time to school at 8:45 or on time to about any other activity. Ah, but NOW it's time for "Pre-Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance."

Why?

If you don't have a plan, you are likely to fail (see above!)

So, we're gonna have a plan in '07. The first step is for me to decide the night before what the plan is for the next day. Then we will decide the clothes we are going to wear the next day before bedtime. I will get up, eat breakfast and read the paper BEFORE the kids are up so I can concentrate on helping them get ready. Finally, I have to remember that everything is going to take A LOT LONGER than I think because somebody might have to go potty for the third time in an hour or somebody's special toy may be missing, etc.

"Pre-Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance." I'm going to see if Dad is right.