Maybe Tomorrow Will Be Better?
If I were to assign trending topics to the things I've seen online today, right at the top of the list would be lots and lots and lots of people saying that Daylight Saving Time sucks big hairy donkey balls.
Y'all who said that are not wrong. There's something completely nonsensical about ripping an hour out of the morning and taping it to the end of the day and calling it "extra sunlight." We moved the sunlight; we didn't save it.
Most of the people who I saw shaking an angry fist at the fake time travel were parents of littles, which makes sense. It is rough when you have to try to convince a toddler that it is bedtime while the sun is up and then have that same toddler in your face at Way Too Early o'Clock.
But, for those of you feeling the pain of a 23-hour day because a little person is thrown all out of whack, I want to assure you of something I wish I had known five or so years ago -- it really does get better. Truly. Really.
Alexis proves it. I mean, she may not be the norm, but I think it's safe to say most kids grow out of the "completely ruined by the time change" thing.
I say that on a day when I had to wake Alexis up.
Wait. I should probably frame that statement. I think I've mentioned it before, but I can't find the post, so . . . I don't wake Alexis up for school. I don't need to. 99.9% of the time, her internal clock goes off at Way Too Early o'Clock. On school days, she uses that to her advantage. If she gets herself dressed, brushes her teeth, combs her hair, makes herself breakfast, and packs her lunch on days she doesn't like what's on the school menu, she gets free reign of the TV until it's bus time.
I do NOTHING. Absolutely, positively nothing. She just does it! By herself! All so she can have the remote! (Don't tell her, but she could talk me into getting her a pony in exchange for being awesomely independent on school days. Or a car. Or an island in the Mediterranean. IT'S THE GREATEST IS WHAT I'M SAYING.)
Today, though, for the first time in months, Alexis didn't wake up all by herself. It was really hard work for me to wander all the way down the hall and turn on her light, but I managed somehow. (And by hard work, I mean it took 0.0000004 seconds and zero effort.) I turned on her light, jumped in the shower, and heard the familiar sound of a bunch of rumbling buffalo crashing through the house a few minutes later.
The familiar sound of a bunch of rumbling buffalo crashing through the house is Alexis and her posse. The dogs AND cats follow her around in the morning. If she runs down the hall, they ALL run down the hall. The buffalo ran into the bathroom, ripped open the door, and yelled through the shower curtain, "MOM! I'M SO LATE!"
"It's OK," I replied. "You've got enough time to get ready."
And she did. She had PLENTY of time to get through the essentials.
She pressed her hyper-drive button, though. Instead of just getting through the essentials, she somehow zoomed through her routine and ended up with enough time to watch an episode of "Good Luck, Charlie."
Highly motivated, that one.
Which is all to say, sure, Daylight Saving Time messed with the 8-year old's head, but she still found way out the door just fine.
If you've got littles and they struggled today? Your future is looking up.
(Daylight Saving Time still blows, though. Ain't no doubt about that.)
Monday, March 10, 2014
Reader Comments (3)
Juliana fell asleep on the couch twice before the bus came this morning. She was so tired.
The twins were up at 4 am. I was up with them until I crashed on the couch after giving in to their kindle demands. I then slept til 11. Stupid flu.
i really don't get dst. at all.