Parents, Here’s How One Word Can Change the Meaning of “Hurry Up”

Brace yourselves — it’s an oxymoron

Image by khamkhor from Pixabay

How many times have you heard the words — ‘Hurry up’ — as a child? And how many more times have you spoken the words as a parent?

Personally, I’ve spoken it more times than I’ve heard it. It’s strange because I didn’t grow up hearing it, but I found myself saying it way too often to my children.

In Arianna Huffington’s book Thrive, there is a chapter on “Hurry sickness.” She mentions a blog post in 2013 in The Huffington Post that went viral. It was titled, “The day I stopped saying ‘Hurry up,’ “ written by Rachel Macy Stafford. It’s an article I related to 100%. But there was one puzzling factor. Only after I read the book was I able to recognize my impatience and hunger to hurry those around me.

My tactics were childproof

Saying hurry up to my kids worked most of the time. I’m not sure whether it was my lack of planning or their lack of the sense of time. If it was the latter, it was only my sense of time we had to go on. Honestly, if we went according to their clock, we’d all be exhausted by the end of the day. When ‘hurry up’ didn’t work, I moved on to number two in my arsenal of tactics to get them moving — counting to five. It worked much better but echoed the same urgency as hurry up.

They never reacted badly to me counting because they knew it was my last resort after asking them multiple times. During breakfast, it came to a point where they would ask how much time they had left before having to leave for school then gulping down their food. I must be honest and emphasize that when I count to five, I am not rushing them. I merely count to make them aware of their distractions and that they have 5 seconds to get back on track if time was of the essence.

For example, during breakfast, when they need to finish eating, they always had a fat conversation about nothing in particular — talking more and eating less. My tactics keep working as it gets them from the table to the door. When we need to get out the door, they conveniently forget how to put on their jackets and shoes because the talking has resumed. My tactics continue to be invincible. It’s the end of the day, and we wind…