One of These Things is not Like the Others

I am not a morning person. This is not a secret around my house, but since most days my three kids need to get to school with food in their bellies and lunches in their lunchboxes, I am up a lot earlier than my mind and body would like. I thought that by the time my kids were old enough to walk down the stairs and turn the TV on, I would get to sleep in on the weekends. Today I got to sleep until 7:15. Any later than that, and someone comes in my room to tell me not to “sleep the day away.” Ugh.

My husband is a morning person. He can barely keep his eyes open at 9:30pm, but bounces out of bed, awake and ready to go usually before 6am. I have tried to explain to him, when he tries to interact with me in the early morning, that waking up is more of a process for me than an event like the flip of a switch. The wake up process is slow and requires quiet and coffee. I usually start to feel really alert and productive right around mid-afternoon, when I have to pick my kids up from school.

Apparently, the morning person gene is the dominant one, as all three of my children get up waaayyyy too early. We have to force two of my kids to stay in their rooms until at least 6:45 on school mornings. On the weekends, they are often up even earlier. I keep waiting for the time when they want to sleep and I will have a weekend morning where I can sleep “late” (8? 8:30?) and come downstairs and have coffee and watch the news without having to break up fights over which episode of Phineas and Ferb they are going to watch. Every day I hear friends complain about how they have to yell and scream and threaten until their bleary children get out of bed. Sounds like a little slice of heaven.