Yup, we're all mixed up, time-wise. In case you were wondering. And I had the pleasant experience of being woken up by Anna yelling at Rachel to "Get out! Just get out!" because Rachel was trying to get dressed at the early hour of 8 (well, 7, but I'll stick to Daylight Savings Time for this little anecdote, since Anna went to bed in DST, and really, 10 hours should be enough not to get too annoyed).
I don't remember when I agreed to relive high school. I had to spend an hour and a half in the car with 3 14-year-old girls this afternoon and I hated every minute of it. Funny, but until today, I had assumed that parents tell their kids that screaming and yelling in the car (at least over the age of 2) is out of bounds. And, while they're at it, that listening to an IPod when no one else in the car has one is sort of rude and immature. Maybe they could even find time to tell their darling little IPod-wearer that her hearing could be damaged when that thing is playing loudly enough to make the driver think that the car radio is on.
Okay, I'm jealous. I don't have one. Yet.
Do you remember in high school, hating being near the obnoxiously popular kids and praying they would not notice you and make you feel even nerdier and less cool than you already felt? Now, imagine that you feel like that at home, all the time. I'm living a nightmare and I can't wake up. And Anna thinks that the time until she can go away to college is passing too slowly? I am so ready to send her.
Tell me, is there anything - anything at all - about raising teenagers that is rewarding? I mean, babies and little kids are lots of work, but then there are those moments when they laugh and smile and say, "I love you" that make it all worth it. And when they are learning to walk and to run and to ride a bicycle, it is all so exciting and I feel so proud of them. I just don't get those same warm fuzzies when I'm teaching Theo to drive, or when Anna is getting visibly annoyed by my mere presence. Where's the fun part?
I got started on my next pair of socks while waiting for the girls to finish flute choir rehearsal. I'm very proud of myself for learning how to knit socks this year, and I've showed them off to lots of people; but I must admit that no one is exactly begging me to gift them with some handknitted socks for Christmas. I haven't quite learned the technique whereby the socks actually look attractive. They each have a heel, and an interesting-looking toe, and they sort of fit; but they lack a certain je ne sais quoi. But no matter - I start each new pair with hope springing afresh that these will be the ones that make people ooh and aah in admiration (right now my friends just sort of stare at my finished product in a puzzled fashion and then exclaim, "Oh! It's a sock!"). You know, Edison tried a hundred different materials for the innards of his incandescent light bulb before he hit on tungsten; and I'm only on my 5th sock.
That wasn't a great analogy, but it was the best I could do. I'm tired, because although the clock says 9, it is really 10. And I wish someone would just abolish this clock-switching routine, it gets on my nerves. As if life weren't complicated enough....
I too am undone by the time change. I explained to Military Man today that they shouldn't mess with the time change because my body is such a finely tuned machine I wake up at the same time every morning regardless of what the clock is saying. He had the audacity to laugh at me and murmur something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like anal retentive...but I can't be sure.
ReplyDeleteThe teen thing...I wonder about that myself. I hear good reports from others about my children though, so we must have done something right and they must be exhibiting civility outside our home, so there’s something to hang on to!
I too hate the whole time change thing. With kids, it makes life THAT much harder. And so today, I got to deal with kids getting up extra early (according to my clock anyway) functioning on little to no sleep, post partum hormones which = crying at every little thing, 6 children who are adjusting to a new baby in the house, 2 older children who can't even get along for 5 seconds - they can't even walk by eachother without a problem - the whole feeling of being stabbed with a knife because my milk has come in (yeah I know TMI, LOL) then bedtime being later than normal due to what the clocks say. Although poor Lana, she was acting up so bad, at 5:45PM she was put to bed, LOL.
ReplyDelete*sigh* this week had better become easier with each passing day!
~Jennifer
A miracle happened at the age of 16 1/2. My son remembered that sometimes I am not the enemy. Now we have the occasional late night talk, we have inside jokes that annoy my husband and the other night we spoke in British accents for three hours then dissolved into giggles when we tried to switch to Australian.
ReplyDeleteI think even Benjamin Franklin would agree that the time for DST has passed. For the few years that I had to deal with it, the worst part was trying to convince my young children that they did want to go to bed even though it wasn't quite dark out. Then there was the constant fear of getting it wrong and showing up to work at the wrong time!
My kids were up by 5:30 for the second day in a row. Hello? Whose idea is this, and can HE come take care of the kids until it's a fricking decent hour??
ReplyDeleteI have no experience raising teenagers, and honestly, you're not making me feel better about what lies ahead. Stop it.
With my oldest son about to turn 13 I have been getting glimpses into those teenage years. Sheesh! The future doesn't look very promising. On a further note, I totally agree with you that listening to an ipod when no one else has one is just plain rude! Is there a patron saint for mothers of teens?
ReplyDeleteI just love the time change. Sorry, my little ones sleep in so the time change lets me get some sleep. We were actually on time for church too!! Oh, don't tell me that teens are hard. I haven't even made it to seven yet, and I think it's hard. Man oh man!!
ReplyDeleteBia, if you find that patron saint, let me know. I'll set up a shrine in my house. Something's gotta work.
ReplyDeleteAmy, I can't stop myself. You'll have to take me off your reader.
Mrs. Smith, I've 2 more years until this girl turns 16. Can't you give me some shorter-term hope?
Um, may I say that there IS NO reward, not even a tiny little glimmer of a reward when trying (because it's all you can do) to raise a teen.
ReplyDeleteSixteen is going to be lucky to see Sixteen + 1 month. He only has to survive 11 more days, but I doubt he's gonna make it at this point.
If 16 1/2 is the magic dividing line, I'm screwed.
The time change is definitely a pain for me. I like at least some sunlight after work but now it's dark by 5 PM and that 20 minutes of AM light is worthless.
ReplyDeleteMy 13 year old ALMOST had a slip of the tongue the other day. She starte to say that I was a cool mom but she caught herself and quickly started backpeddling.
ReplyDeleteThe only one I ever came up with was St. Jude - Patron Saint of hopeless cases!! And I'm sorry to say that Precious Oldest didn't start reining it in until she was seventeen and a half; but my hand to God it did get better. With Precious Youngest there's less lip, but the passive-aggressive shit? Serenity NOW!
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why we can't just split the difference at half an hour and leave it alone. I have this theory that no one will take the credit/blame for DST, so no one will move to rescind it. Didn't DST originate under Nixon? The next time someone other than a Republican is in office, maybe the Democrats should move to abolish DST as a matter of policy--you know, abolishing everything the other party did?
ReplyDeleteI don't know, I can't sleep right now anyway. Maybe that's obvious.
I have no experience raising teenagers....yet. So, I will be of no help at all with this post. If you like, you can knit me some barely recognizable socks for Christmas though. :)
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain, sister. I feel like the band geek over at my house and my oldest hasn't even hit thirteen yet (six more lovely months to go). College! They will move out someday and go to college!
ReplyDeleteI'm on sock #5 right now, and I had to rip out the heel this afternoon. I blame bad instructions, not knitter error.
ReplyDeletehokgardner - but, of course.
ReplyDeleteWell, at least she lets you knit, right? 'Cuz mine thinks it's embarassing...
ReplyDeleteThis is probably evil but I have absolutely no feelings of guilt whatsoever: I hadn't gotten around to changing our clocks back yet by Monday evening (we were gone from Sunday morning until Monday afternoon, had no school Monday). Monday night came and I suddenly had this genius moment. I left my clocks ahead, pushed my kids to bed at the old time, and felt so superior!!! My husband is out of town and they have been fully taking advantage of the fact that I am on postpartum brain and pushing their bedtime to about 2 hours later than they should so this was my payback! It worked so well that I turned my clocks ahead near bedtime again tonight (there are only 2 clocks in the house they look at) and they thought they were getting off with late bedtime again. They were but not as late as they thought they were! I have one daughter that cherishes her bedtime so much that she is in on this little secret and she and I just giggle about it when no one else is in earshot!!!
ReplyDelete