Dreading Daylight Savings

When we bought our house almost three years ago, the old owners did not leave us the instruction booklets for the security system. I tried to locate some but then got distracted and, to this day, we have never had them. Because of this, for part of the year the clock on our alarm display is wrong.

This type of thing normally bothers me. I tend to struggle with things being out of place like that. It actually gives me some comfort, though, when I get up in the middle of the night to feed the baby and come back in our bedroom to see the time glowing and realizing it is an hour ahead. Obviously the time doesn't actually change when I see it, but in that tired moment it makes me feel better about my exhaustion.

Unfortunately, someone recently pointed out that we will soon have a time change due to daylight savings time. As a human, I hate daylight savings time but as a mother, I am not sure I will survive it. I understand the idea behind daylight savings time, but I still despise it. It seems like such a great thing in the fall when we "fall back" but in the spring that "springing ahead" is torture.

As a human, I hate daylight savings time. As a mother, I am not sure I will survive it.

My 4-year-old already acts like a teenager when it comes to sleep. He does not want to go to bed at night but he is too exhausted to get up in the morning. Now I will have to try to get him to do both an hour earlier. I do not see either going well.

The other part I find terribly unsettling is that we actually lose an hour. I, like most people, do not feel like I have an hour to lose. I already feel like there are not enough hours in the day and now I am losing one. The rational side of me knows that it is one hour of one day and we will eventually get it back when the time changes again in the fall, but the tired mother of an infant side of me knows that hour will come from my precious time for sleep, which is already pretty limited. That part of me wants to scream.

I know I will spend the first two weeks after the time change thinking things like, "My alarm is saying it is 6:00 am but I know it is actually 5:00 am" because that is what I always do. As if it isn't bad enough that the time changed, I have to rub it in... to myself. I am already exhausted just thinking about it. I would much rather they eliminate the occasional Monday if they must play with time. Okay, I know that does not make any sense but wouldn't it be nice?

As with all uncomfortable things, I know we will survive. But for now, I am going to wallow in my exhaustion.

I should have said...

I had a really difficult time with child care for our infant. The issues I had are resolved now, but the situation had caused me a great deal of stress for awhile.

Recently, a colleague asked how things were going with child care. I briefly shared my frustrations and she said to me, "Well, you know how I feel about babies being away from their parents." I was shocked. Part of this person's job is to help families find child care. I did not expect her to have such strong feelings against it. I'm not usually at a loss for words but at that moment I could not think of anything to say. She had caught me off guard and I blanked.

I have thought about that conversation many times since then. I do not judge parents for leaving their careers and staying home with their children, why is it okay for others to judge me for working? The person who said that does not even have children. How can she have such a strong opinion when she has never been in this position?

I decided I would never get caught off guard like that again. I thought for awhile to come up with a witty statement in case I ever had a similar conversation in the future. 

After thinking about it for a bit decided that I did not need to offer anyone an explanation or any information about why we choose to send our children to child care. 

My kids are happy, smart and well-adjusted and my husband and I are doing what we feel is best for our children and our family as a whole. I do not need to defend our decision to anyone. Maybe that is what I'll say next time.