Where’s the Snooze??
“What goes around comes around”… I think that is the saying. Although the term “Its payback time” seems more appropriate. I’m referring to the irony of the fact that while I have been anything but a morning person, my children have turned me into someone who wakes up at 5:50 am, everyday, rain or shine. 5:50am. I can’t imagine.
When I was growing up I had an alarm clock. Ragedy Ann and Andy that said “Andy, Andy please get up, its time to call our friends. Ok Ann, I’m awake let’s shout it once again. We were set to wake you so here we are to say, please get up and brush your teeth and start your happy day”. I remember it vividly as I would let it go off about 10 times each morning before actually getting out of bed. I was always the kid running to the bus stop and the one that would dread having to go back home when I missed the bus to ask my mom to give me a ride. In high school I had accumulated so many tardys once I began driving myself to school that I actually should have been doing detention, but thanks to a slacker teacher who didn’t want to bother with it, I would only get a look of disapproval when rolling into the class late…once again.
My first real job at an insurance company started out ok, with an 8:30am start time, I did ok, for the first 6 months, but then 8:30 became 8:40 or 8:45ish. Consistently, my tardiness was brought up at review time. I was a stellar employee in every other way, but that start time – well did it really matter that much? I have been late for pretty much every other job I have ever had as well, always because I just couldn’t get out of bed on time. I’m not a late night partier or anything, but I do like my sleep. For this, I have been lectured that being late shows a lack of respect, its not fair to my coworkers, etc. etc. Honestly I never really got it. If I was in a position where I had to open the doors and serve customers for example, I would be on time, but when I was working behind the scenes and my “lateness” didn’t affect anyone I couldn’t figure out why that was such a big deal. I got my work done, I was prompt for meetings, I could multitask and plow through work better than most so why was this late thing really an issue?
So the ultimate payback. Fast forward to my mid thirties and here we are. I have been waking up for the last 6 years at 6:00 am or earlier every single day. Even on those one or 2 nights when my children were not present, I still got up early. I am actually unable to sleep longer. They have rewired me to be a morning person. A morning person! My former employers would be so proud.
Not to say I am always enjoying the mornings. I still dread hearing those little feet coming across the carpet in the wee hours of the morning. A mom in Kellie’s dance class actually summed it up perfectly. She said she intentionally gets up a couple of hours before her kids which makes her kids easier to deal with. (Of course her kids get up at 8.) She said she does it because “you always hate your alarm clock” and she didn’t want to be mad at her kids first thing in the morning. I think her observation is brilliant and so true. Many days would have been so much better if only the kids wouldn’t have been so persistent in getting me up at 5:50am.
If only they had a snooze button.
