"That's not fair!"

We have a schedule in this house. Because Alex comes for school every day, we have to have a schedule.

Tony needs to be up by 7:15. He gets dressed, supposedly cleans his room, and comes up for breakfast. We have family prayer before Angelo leaves for work. By 8:00 Tony is supposed to be starting his first class of the day.

Generally I encourage breakfast before starting any activity as it is an important meal. But it is a "get it yourself" meal.

This morning, I could hear Angelo strongly urging Tony out of bed at 7:30. At 8:00 I called Tony up for school. He showed up still pulling his shirt on and saying something about needing to eat breakfast.

Before I could say anything, Angelo told Tony, "You would have had time to eat if you hadn't been reading."

I caught my cue. "It's time for school. Breakfast will have to come at break time."

"THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Tony whined. "Now I won't have enough energy to get through the morning."

Quickly I pointed out that it was perfectly fair. I made him tell me what our schedule was; and even though he tried to claim ignorance, he knew he had to tell. I then had him tell me what he did this morning.

"But I was distracted!" First excuse.

I gave him a look.

"But I'm a kid!" Second excuse.

I crossed my arms in front of me and tapped my foot.

"I was reading," he mumbled. "But....!"

I pointed to his desk and angrily he stomped off and turned on his computer. He's been pretty quiet and working for nearly an hour now. He'll get to eat breakfast at his break time at 10:00.