1m2aSandbox

Seriously? Who invented Daylight Savings Time, anyway?

I remember when we were first confronted with the whole DST “thing”, when our firstborn was a toddler. School wasn’t an issue, no real schedule to have to follow, but I remember that feeling of panic when I thought about Maddie being up one. More. Hour. Every night. Even though the clock said “TEN” her body would still be thinking “NINE”, and do you what that would mean?

She’d be awake. And unhappy. And wanting Mommy.

And Mommy? Would just be wanting that one PRECIOUS hour of non-kid time that had been stolen from her every evening.

So we learned relatively early on to start scooching bedtime earlier or later – because The Child could also rob me of a precious hour of SLEEP every morning, too – for the week or so leading up to the Daylight Savings Time change. This seemed to help make the transition easier for everyone.

But somehow this time change sneaked up on me this year – isn’t it usually in April? – and we got hit hard. I know I wasn’t the only one blindsided by the (lack of morning) light – at church Sunday morning there was distinct lack of, ahem, hineys in seats at the first service. I sang at both, and thus saw many grumpy, rumpled people walking in – to the SECOND service, no less! And when I showed up at 7 a.m. for rehearsal my body said, “Call it what you want, lady, but you’re at church at 6 a.m. For real.”

And one of the dads in the worship band was telling us yesterday morning that he has a four-year-old who has learned he can’t leave his room until the clock says “7:00”. And on Sunday morning he came out, woke his groggy parents and said delightedly, “I can’t believe it’s seven o’clock already! The night just flew by!”

You can say that again, kid.

Come to think of it, this whole Daylight Savings Time doesn’t really affect the kids as much as it does the adults. Maybe we’re the ones who need the week-long intervention and retraining leading up to it.

Who am I kidding? I know that come October, I’m going to squander that extra night, stay up even later, and still be bleary-eyed the next day. It’s just what we do. And the next morning when I’m denied that extra hour of sleep because my kids come bouncing in at the “old” wake-up time, I’ll just have to deal with it and remember –

That’s just what THEY do.