Time Is Not Money

Has everyone survived the great and wonderful mess with Nature that we all refer to as Daylight Savings Time? As parents this is a problem at both ends of the spectrum. When we fall back we can't just reset the kids internal clocks, so they're getting up quite early. Which, of course, means that we as parents are. And because they're up early they'll want to go to bed early. Which, in turn, means they'll get up early the next day... Do you see how a pattern is forming here? By the time we have them sufficiently conditioned to go with the flow it'll be time to Spring Ahead.

Springing Ahead has it's own set of problems. We are now forced to wake children who are sleeping. The adage about letting sleeping dogs lie is nothing compared to what happens when you wake sleeping children. A dog may bite you, and then curl up and go back to sleep. Your kid? Will make your entire day a miserable mess from the time you wake them until the time you try to send them to bed early to make up for the lack of sleep in the morning.

Leave it to the government to step in and mess with Nature Herself. And toddlers. Of the two, the toddlers would be the ones I'd fear the most.

Our family has a tradition that on Time Change Sunday we go out for breakfast. I mean, the kids are up and at 'em anyway so really what else are we going to do? Let them eat Halloween candy? That would be crazy. What would they eat for lunch if you allowed them to eat candy for breakfast?

Last year was an epic fail on the breakfast front. We decided to go to the local donut place. It was a Dunkin, but they were bought out by a local who named it something that I can't remember. And at 8:30 in the AM their donuts were stale. I'm pretty sure they would have broken a toe if you dropped them. Okay, maybe not. But they would have at least chipped your nail polish right off your big toe. How can one mess up donuts? We haven't been back to the Donut Place since. We're not stupid.

This year we went to Sheetz. For those who do not have the pleasure of having a Sheetz in your neck of the woods, it's a convenience store. (They still call gas stations with snack shops that, right?) Sheetz is the place to go for order-it-from-a-touch-screen convenience. And in their defense they have some really good sandwiches there. But since they've redone their food selections recently they are now charging as much for their lattes as Starbucks does. And they are not Starbucks. So we fed the kids from Sheetz, and headed to SB for my peppermint mocha.

I got the boys chocolate milk, but Micah cannot drink from the bottle in a moving vehicle without a very large and chocolaty mess being made. I grabbed one of their cups with a lid and a straw and poured his milk into it. I'm genius that way. Micah put it in his cup holder and off we went to get mama's coffee.

Only we didn't figure on daddy's driving. Daddy is practicing for the races any time he is behind the wheel, and generally sends everything on the dash flying by simply taking a turn. Every. Single. Time. This time, however, he also managed to tip Micah's chocolate milk right out of it's holder and onto his lap. Despite a lid, there's only so much holding back it can do what with the hole in the middle for the straw. Micah was not happy to be wearing wet and cold. His sensory issues had a lot to say about that. We went to Wal-Mart and got him new pants before church.

Obviously time saved is not money saved.

17 comments:

mommaof4wife2r said...

i for one was thrilled when the kids were and ready for church on time!!! woot woot! no huge battles this morn. i feel for micah with the milk bath...i would have hated it too!

Unknown said...

I just tell my kids that if they wake up mommy on sunday morning they will DIE!! it seems to work :)

Hee hee about your hubbies driving!! Why do men insist on racing?

Pam said...

I hate the time change.....my body says it is time for me to crawl into bed but the darn clock says the kids just went to bed (so I have to stay awake until they fall asleep because I am silly like that). Oh, and I actually really like to eat at Sheetz- I'm a bit redneck like that I guess :)

Karen said...

Not a fan of the time change either. Arizona was great that way. They don't observe daylight savings time. (I'm told neither does Hawaii.)

Tell Micah I know how he feels. When I was first dating the Rocket Scientist he poured a large cup (bucket) of some kind of tropical juice. Of course there is no lid for this cup and it certainly won't fit in any cup holder. I get stuck holding this full cup. Yep, I ended up with most of it in my lap. Now, I don't have sensory issues, but we were going to meet some of his friends I had never met before, looking like I couldn't control my bladder. Sorry, Micah, I know that it sucks to be wearing something cold and sticky.

Michelle said...

Oh sure you were up early and went to breakfast. We were late for Sunday School somehow!

Wineplz said...

I'm married to an Indiana boy who moans and complains about Daylight Savings each time it happens. He never had to change his clocks until we moved to VA...so for 8 friggin' years the crabbing about the clock. Heh heh.
And I think Someone was smiling down on me because while I woke up when Justin left at the buttcrack of dawn for his trip, both my boys slept-in. Sorry to hear your day wasn't quite as chipper.

Suburban Correspondent said...

If there were a political party for moms, one of the platform planks would be "No More Time Changes"!

Karen Deborah said...

my vote is to stay on daylight savings time all year and forget about the fall back. I hate the time change.

Caution/Lisa said...

My husband is constantly trying to outdo his last driving time. He appears to be trying to save his brakes from use as well. And here I thought watching a NASCAR race would be good for him.

Karen said...

I am cursing DST as we were up at 4:30 this morning....and whoever said "one more hour of sleep" never had a 2 year old!!!

caramama said...

Sorry about the bad donuts last year and chocolate milk in the lap this year.

But the idea of going out for breakfast for the time change is a great idea!

Andrea said...

We were on time for church for the first time in almost a year!! Hooray!! LOL!
I am with you on it screwing everything up!! LOL!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for putting the button up, love. And, as we were up at 5:22, it was amazing how LONG the day seemed.

Flea said...

Ugh.

Dana said...

I am new to your blog but I love it....Just wanted to say hello!!!

I don't mind the time change that much cause I gained an extra hour of sleep - but I was certainly tired when 9 o'clock rolled aorund!! :-)

Momisodes said...

I don't hate many things, but I HATE DST. Seriously. It's just so wrong for it to be dark so early in the day. Plus, my toddler gets so confused.

Unknown said...

I live in Arizona...the problem is I work for a company located in Ohio....so when everyone else is not on daylight savings time, our Ohio corporate office likes to call me at 6am.... So I finally had to shut my work phone off every night (my office is in my bedroom) Now I have to remember that my co-worker in California is an hour behind me...so no calling him at 8am anymore...