Hi! I’m still on vacation with big plans like sleeping through the night and reading a whole book in one day. I dream big.
Thankfully, I have another awesome set of guest posters today. Ginger and N.C. write and illustrate NoodleKnobs, a webcomic about the joys (ha!) of parenting. They are both completely spot on and hilarious about the things you never expect to encounter in parenthood (like the wonders of a BOY choosing a pink balloon over a blue one!).
I think the root of the problem is that our kid is a morning person.
I mean, there’s nothing WRONG with morning people. There’s even supposed to be benefits to being a morning person—something about being more successful or something. I dunno, I was probably still drowsy the morning I read about it.
But in our house, being a morning person…well, it kind of puts the kid at odds with every other living thing in the house. The cat? Total night owl. The dog? Content to sleep all morning. The Momma and the Daddy? Well, neither of us have met a 6am we liked…or a 12am we didn’t like.
So you can see how we’d have some conflicts, when the Noodle is *literally* bouncing around his room at 6:45 or screaming into the monitor “Momma WAKE UP!” Or the Daddy’s favorite…pounding on the door with a toy for 15 minutes straight?
Once you get past the wakeup, you have the rest of the morning. It takes the Daddy and I some time to get going. If I had my way, no one would talk to me for at least 30 minutes, but more likely an hour after I wake up, other than to ask “do you want your Diet Coke?” The Daddy would rather lay about on the couch until his eyes and brain are fully functioning, at which point making coffee is the next preferable action.
Of course, the Noodle is having NONE of that. NONE. The Noodle wants to be UP! And JUMPING! And RUNNING! And SCREAMING! There is no time to waste, no daylight to squander when you’re two and have the world as your oyster. Or, you know, you have drowsy parents who won’t say no to watching Cars for the millionth time while they drift off in the background.
All I can say is I can’t WAIT until he’s old enough to go watch cartoons and pour cereal all by himself. Because then maybe the Daddy and I can sleep in again.
Shalini, I’m glad you’re on vacation and getting to take some time off!
Been there. Well..almost. I have no kids (I’m…seventeen), but the Kid at home, my brother, is ten and he still is a morning person, jumping around, making noise enough to wake up the dead just to get a cereal bowl. I dream of the day he will find out about sleeping in.
That is the worst – I don’t like 6am either! I “solved” this problem in my house by putting the kids to bed late!
I’m still wondering why our kids are spaced 6 1/2 years apart. Just as we got through the helpless years with one, another helpless one comes along. Huh. I do love the screaming into the monitor, though…
Well, here’s the thing. Not long after they can pour cereal and watch cartoons by themselves, they turn into teenagers. And teenagers flip things around a bit by staying up late at night and making a whole lot of noise OR by borrowing the car, leaving you staring in bed at the ceiling until you finally hear it pull into the garage at midnight. In other words, you STILL don’t get enough sleep.
Great post! I don’t miss those days. I love my lazy morning time way too much!
Hats off to you guys who can deal with being woken up and NOT be grumpy at the baby!