Most weekdays, I'm under pressure to get both my son and daughter into their classrooms by 8 a.m.

It's a much stricter schedule for my son than my daughter, so when he got a 10-day break in between art classes and the first day of school, I figured I could relax my daughter's schedule a little.

The only reason to get her to class by 8 a.m. is so she can eat breakfast at her preschool.

To me, breakfast is just food that you eat in the morning, so I thought it wouldn't make any difference if we slept in a little and grabbed breakfast on the run.

One recent Monday, she was distracted by a trip to the bakery to buy her birthday muffins.

By that Tuesday, I appeased her with manapua.

That Wednesday, she had a complete meltdown when I informed her that she was missing school breakfast for the third day running.

I had no idea breakfast was such a major social event!

She still hadn't forgiven me when I went to pick her up in the afternoon, and didn't buy my excuse that I was tired.

Eventually, though, she bargained and agreed to go to bed early so that I could get more sleep.

She did. I, on the other hand, was still up at 1 a.m., so when my alarm went off five hours later, my first inclination was to turn it off.

However, since she kept her end of the bargain, I had to keep mine and dragged myself out of bed.

Once I was assured we weren't going to run into a traffic jam on the Pali, I told my daughter that she was going to make it in time for breakfast.

She didn't stop thanking me and praising my mothering skills until I deposited her in her classroom.

It was definitely worth waking up for.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.