But now I am here to tell you that once you have kids, the gains and losses are not perceived, they are staggeringly real, and mostly losses. Small children cannot tell time, and even if they could, they could not care less what time they are "supposed" to get up. In fact, I think somewhere inside those tiny heads they are deviously plotting ways to rob us of sleep, probably so they can laugh at our drunken attempts to stumble through the day in our sleep-deprived states. Yes, I have a very lofty view of my children's intelligence and propensity for malice and manipulation. Or it's the sleep-deprivation talking. Hard to say.
I have, however, noticed a shift in my perception of the time changes. I have grown to hate "Fall Back" and marginally like "Spring Forward". Just hear me out. The time change does not extend nighttime sleep--it extends the daytime. Because they're still gonna wake up after having slept for ____ hours. Which means that in the fall they will wake up at 5am instead of 6, but you still have to put them to bed at 7:30, which means they've got an extra hour of awake time. Then the sun sets at like 4:30, which means they have to be inside after that, which means three hours indoors in the evening. Then they continue to wake up at 5:00 every morning, and it takes you two months to get them to "sleep in" until 6:00 again. NO THANK YOU. To ALL of it.
On the flip side, in the spring they "sleep in" until 7 instead of 6, and you still get to put them to bed at 7:30, which means one less hour of awake time. (And the next day they "sleep in" again, which means you have extra quiet alone time to drink warm coffee and blog.) Then the sun sets at 7:00, which means after dinner you can go for a bike ride.
Yes please.
1 comment:
When told the reason for Daylight Savings Time the old Indian said, "Only the government would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of the blanket, sew it to the bottom, and have a longer blanket."
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