Forward, not backward

My kid doesn’t get Daylight Saving Time. You’d think that if you were to set the clocks forward on a kid who doesn’t know how time works, she’d sleep an hour later and be none the wiser. Hell, you might even look forward to the extra hour of peace before she sets your day in motion.

Which is why it’s so perplexing that she’s been waking up an hour earlier since we set the clocks forward. Instead of sleeping until 8:00 AM, she’s been waking up around 6:00 AM.

From what I hear, we’re not alone. “DST is a curse on parents of young children,” according to my friend Bianca. “It never works the way you think it should.” Of course, that’s true of most aspects of parenting, as any new parent will tell you.

My friend Beltzner, on the other hand, has had a lot of luck with his two kids. If my own kid’s experience is a reminder that children never quite conform to the patterns and expectations laid out in all the books, then these stories of my friends are a reminder that no two children are alike.

If there’s a lighthearted lesson on parenting that we can take away from all this, I guess it’s “All of your efforts and expectations are nothing but vain hopes hurled against the empty chaos of life in a vast, godless universe.”

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