The story behind SunnyT
Why SunnyT exists
I built it after I left my kid sitting on a curb for the better part of an hour. Here is the whole story, including the part where I don't come out of it looking good.
The afternoon I got it wrong
My son was in grade six, I think. It wasn't winter, I remember that much, so it must have been late in the school year: maybe May or June. I pulled up at the school at 3:30, the normal time, and everything around was quiet. No buses, no other kids walking. He was sitting on the curb by himself, looking sad.
School had let out at 2:30. Early dismissal, and I had no idea it was happening. I don't know exactly how long he sat there, because he is sometimes a little late coming out, so call it 45 or 50 minutes rather than the full hour it felt like.
He was very understanding about it. I don't remember his exact words, only the feeling, which was something like “it's okay, Dad, I understand.” I guess he must realize his parents have a lot going on, and maybe have trouble keeping track of all the things that change. That is the part that stayed with me: being forgiven that easily made me feel worse, not better.
A pickup surprise had caught me before, though not often. Sometimes I work it out just in time and the near miss costs nobody anything, but that day I didn't work it out at all.
I wake up with nothing in my head
I don't know if this is how it works for everyone, but when I wake up in the morning it is a blank slate. What happened yesterday isn't in my head, and what I have to do today isn't in there yet either. Nothing has come before, and there is nothing to do.
So the first thing I do, and I'm sure this is the same for a lot of people, is pick up my phone and look at notifications. That is when reality sets back in: these meetings today, these people asking questions, these notifications from these systems. My phone is how I get back into my own day.
I write software for a living, and this is a familiar shape. If a system only works when a person remembers to go and check it, the system is broken. The fix isn't to remember harder, it is to make the information come to you.
Why mine arrives at 7:40
7:40 isn't a clever number. We usually have to leave at around eight to drop the kids off at school, so 7:40 is leave time minus twenty minutes, which gives me just enough time to make sure the kids are awake, up and dressed.
They're not babies, so they can get up and dress themselves, but they're also not old enough to know to set alarms and take full responsibility for their scholastic life. Twenty minutes is enough for them to get their stuff together before we have to leave. Yours can land at whatever time your house actually needs.
Made by parents in Winnipeg
SunnyT reads the school calendar, the rotating day-cycle, the calendars you already keep and the weather, and sends one text before your morning starts. There is no app to open, because at 7:40 in the morning nobody wants another app to open.
It has been running on my own family every school morning for the past year, so when it gets something wrong I find out the same morning you would.
You won't find my kids' names or faces anywhere on this site. The story is true, they just didn't sign up to be in the marketing.
Craig
Founder, SunnyT
Try it on your own morning.
Put your number in and the first SunnyT lands tomorrow, at the time your house actually needs.
Free for 10 school days, no card. See plans.