Mr. Boss, Can I Come In Late Tomorrow?
Posted by Laurie
“No, you cannot come in late,” is what my one year old “boss” would say if he understood the question.
“But please son, it’s the weekend. I’m not asking for much, just an extra half hour. 6:30 wake up instead of 6am. Can you do that for me?”
“No, I will not. And I might even wake up at 5:30am if I feel like it. This is the job you signed up for. Now deal with it.”
And so I do. And so does my husband. There are so many amazing things about having a child. We love it, don’t get me wrong. But sleeping past 6? I miss it. Only about 10% of kids are early birds and we have one of them.
So what does my situation have to do with the 90% of you who do not or will not suffer from early bird mornings? No matter the time your child or baby-to-be wakes up (once the middle of the night feedings end), it’s going to seem early. Even if you’re like a friend of mine whose daughter wakes at 7 or 7:30am, you’ll find yourself rushing to brush your teeth, dress, drink coffee, etc. all before you get to the crying kid in the crib. And with the full intention of going to bed at a responsible hour, you’ll find yourself staying up later than you should to catch up on work or simply to have another hour together as a couple.
Having a child is wearing. No doubt. Linda at babybunching.com writes about how early waking has affected her family here.
So, why am I whining about this? Because I want to get it off my chest and move on. I must accept the situation and not let it affect my attitude, my work ethic, my parenting or my relationship with my husband.
As good parents (I aim to be one of them), we have the responsibility to call up every ounce of reserve energy within us to care for our child. And we need to be happy about it, happy about the gift of being a parent, happy about the family we are blessed to have. So yes, I’m tired, but I won’t ever let it stop me from putting a smile on my face when I greet my son in his crib or say “good morning” to my husband each day.
Having young children is hard, but it doesn’t last forever. My wish is to relish the good and play down the bad.
How do you handle early mornings as a parent? Does tiredness get you down? How do you keep the smile on your face even when you’re exhausted? If you’re expecting, have you talked to your partner about how to divide the early morning schedule?
This entry was posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 10:49 am and is filed under Emotional Support, Health & Wellness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.
My 22 month old wakes up anywhere from 4 am to 5 am every day. 5 am feels like sleeping in compared with a 4 am wakeup call. We’ve tried literally everything there is to try to encourage sleeping later (putting him to bed earlier, putting him to bed later, feeding him/changing diaper and putting back, ignoring all together) and I’ve just grown to accept it. I now go to sleep at 8:30 and this seems to be the only solution to me getting more rest. I just keep it in perspective-he’s healthy, happy, smart, eating well. If this is the biggest problem I have as a parent, then I’m pretty lucky!
wow! I glad to see I’m not alone.
I thought about taking my daughter to work with me to see how she likes being in my shoes. lol then I thought of course she would love to come destroy my office she 20months old and waking me up in the wee hours of the day is her game!