You’ve seen them, haven’t you? Those TV shows starring the wife and/or mothers who live fabulous lives in various cities? They call it reality TV, but It looks nothing like the reality I know. Some of these ladies are amazing, some are … less-so. But their version of reality in the land of Hermés handbags (which I covet) and multiple nannies is a bit different than one would find around my house, which is more in the neighborhood of Supercenters and the occasional dustbunny.

So here, I offer you my own bit of reality: Monday morning by a real working mom of OKC:

6:00: Try in vain to get a bit more sleep whilst my dear husband “quietly” bangs around and gets ready to head out to work.

6:20: Glare at my alarm clock, which buzzes at the precise moment that I fall back asleep. Stumble out of bed and trip over basket overflowing with laundry from holiday family trip (guess what I get to do today?). Make coffee. Stumble to bathroom to get ready for the day.

7:00: Catch up on email, drink coffee. And then a bit more coffee.

7:30-8:00: Time to wake the minions. My daughter is not a morning person, so I devised a game where I ask her: “Is there is a beautiful little girl in this bed, or did the grumpy troll eat her? She does not like to be a grumpy troll so she has taken to bounding out of bed with a bright and cheery “Good morning, Mama!” in her throaty morning voice instead of “Mama! I’m tired!” Win-win. Celebrate with a cup of coffee.

8:00-8:30: Pack lunches, run around in a general manic state, get dressed, brush teeth, discover list of items that must be brought to school today in the bottom of a backpack, start laundry, run dishwasher, search for little card to verify appointment time for dentist, attempt to calm daughter after son tells her that yes, there will be a shot, realize I forgot to eat breakfast so eat a cheese stick while searching for car keys. Drink coffee.

8:30-8:45: Panic, slightly, while trying to get ready for the million things I’m writing down on the Monday morning To-Do list. Discover my cellphone is dead (again). Get out the door to school with a minute to spare. Forget my travel mug full of coffee on the table as I tear out the door.

8:50: Drop my son at school, but keep my daughter with me, because it’s not only the Monday after a holiday weekend, it’s also the day that my daughter is going to get a cavity filled for the first time. But that’s a whole ‘nother story.

Not really the stuff of reality shows, more likely the stuff of sitcoms, but that’s how we do it here in the OKC. Be sure to tune in next time!