Sunday, March 10, 2013

Saving Daylight

This post appears in the Christian Home Magazine. Check it out!

     I have a love-hate relationship with Daylight Savings. If you hooked me up to a lie detector, however, I'd have to admit that it's mostly hate.

     I used to love gaining a whole extra hour in the fall when Daylight Savings time ends. I basically had an entire hour to spend however I wanted: staying up late watching a movie with hubby, soaking in the tub with a book, or sleeping for a whole extra hour in my cozy bed.

     Then I had kids, and - like everything else in life - that all changed.

     When my baby woke up at 5:00 the Sunday after Daylight Savings ended, I couldn't blame him. I couldn't tell him, "You forgot to reset your clock. Go back to sleep." In his mind, 5:00 am was a perfect time to open his eyes, sit up in his Pack 'N Play, and scream hysterically until Mama picked him up and started off the day right, with a yummy homemade breakfast of breastmilk, literally made from scratch.

     So, in a last desperate attempt to find peace with having an hour of my life legislated away via Congressional mandate, I set my sights towards spring. If my kids wake up too early when Daylight Savings time ends, then they'd obviously sleep in when Daylight Savings time begins.

     I was wrong (something else I've gotten quite used to now that I'm a mom). Because even though my kids usually wake up a little bit later than they normally would if you're going by the clock in the spring, it's no earlier according to my biological metronome.

     C'est la vie, I suppose. But I still wonder at the audacity of a government that literally borrows an hour of my life with a promise to pay it back half a year later.

     As a matter of fact, there's a lot about time that I don't get. For example, while we're enjoying an early-spring blizzard on this Sunday afternoon, a friend in New Zealand is planting tubers in the hot New Zealand sun sometime Monday. And don't even get me started on all the questions I have about God and the great metaphysical wristwatch of the universe. Like, for example, if God exists outside of time, does it help if I pray for people in the past? If God already knows what I'm going to pray even before I pray it, does that mean my prayers might work retroactively? (Let me go on like this for a few more minutes and I'll wind up with a headache and still be no closer to the truth.)

     Anyway, I hope many of you out there are enjoying whatever benefits Daylight Savings brings to those of us commoners in the US. As for me, I'm off for my Sunday nap.

Tweetables:

Daylight Savings: Good for farmers, bad for moms. 

I have a love-hate realtionship with DaylightSavings. Mostly hate.

If you think Daylight Savings is mildly mind-boggling, have you ever thought about time travel? Stay tuned for information about "What, No Sushi," my soon-to-be-released kids chapter book about three boys who go back to relive some family history!

1 comment:

  1. Ah my first cameo... how very exciting! The other problem with the start of daylight savings is trying to get the little darlings into bed when it's very light. I can vaguely remember the days when we could sleep in too.

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