Not sure if you other parents are still struggling with Daylight Savings Time, but we are. It always sucks. Not really for us grownups, we adjust pretty quickly or at least a little easier, but with the kids it’s always a two-week long suck-a-thon until their bodies readjust to the time change.
While I’m taking advantage of the change to essentially wake up at the “same” non-changed time to get half a workout in, the kids are waking up super early too, usually bright eyed and bushy tailed. That’s all well and good in the morning since it gives us a little extra time to get ready. What’s really rough right now is the evening.
On one hand, we have daughter Birdsnest. By 7:00 p.m. she’s a walking zombie who is acting out like a banshee, hitting her brother, whining, not eating dinner, just having a really rough go of being exhausted and fighting to even make it to her 8 pm bedtime.
On the other hand, we have Loudboy, who is completely manic when exhausted. He behaves like John Belushi at a kegger. I half expect him to try and smash Kumbai-ya guy’s guitar and laugh in his face. Loudboy and dog Dum-Dum carry-on like they’re at a frat house, running and chasing and generally acting like two lunatics. Holly has to give him Liquid Melatonin
to calm him before sleep, and it works like a charm; he’s out cold after just a couple minutes after taking that stuff. So he acts crazy and Birdsnest acts so melodramatic like she’s going to die from exhaustion, moping the last little bit of the day. Makes these evenings pretty challenging as parents to keep your cool, get everyone fed, activities done, homework taken care of and things from spiraling out of control, all because we try and save some daylight for the farmers.
[Did you know: one of the early goals of daylight savings time was to reduce evening usage of lighting which used to be a primary use of electricity. That benefit has since been removed.]
Also, understand we have about a dozen clocks throughout the house and in vehicles, except for a couple they need to be reset by hand. That is annoying as well.
However, it seems much more preferable right now than the “Spring Ahead” clock change. Trying to get two tired kids up and ready for school when they’re bodies are telling them to sleep sucks really bad. I’ve had to resort to wet washcloths on their face to wake them up, or pick them up like a sack of potatoes and move them to the living room to get them to come alive in the spring change.
Daylight savings time can kiss this dad’s ass!
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