Night owls unite!

I am so NOT a morning person.

People who are larks (morning people) probably think I'm just lazy. No, not lazy, sleep deprived. And I'm tired (no pun intended) of being discriminated against. In every other area of life and society we work very hard to stamp out discrimination wherever it rears its ugly head. So why is it that morning people got to decide how society should be run? Obviously before the discovery of electricity and the invention of the light bulb, there was a practical reason for it. And in an agrarian society getting up early serves a useful purpose. Of course, they went to bed shortly after supper. I could get up early too if I was allowed to do that.

If I had my druthers, I would go to bed at 1am and get up at 9am. Meetings would not be scheduled before noon. The workday would be 11am to 7pm. (I worked exactly that schedule one winter in a department store and it was great except I couldn't get my errands done because all the other businesses worked an 8-5 day.)

My normal weekday starts at 7am. It really should start at 6am so I don't have to rush around, but 7 is the best I can do. This gives me an hour and 15 minutes to get myself showered and dressed, 2 children dressed and fed, 1 child dressed/bundled up w/ breakfast snack in hand, 2 lunches made, 2 backpacks packed, and all of us out to the bus stop in time. Oh, and did I mention that the KIDS are not morning people either? It's genetic, it seems.

It seems not to matter when they, or I get to bed - the season, the weather, daylight savings time or not. We are not larks, we are night owls. Incidentally, their grandparents are night owls too. It's quite normal when we are visiting that we will stay up and talk till midnight or later, and then everyone gets up at a nice reasonable 8:30 or 9am the next day.

When I was in college this was a very useful thing. I got to socialize with my friends, and did my work after they were asleep (and it was quiet, no distractions). An afternoon nap between my last class and dinner and I was raring to go again.

But schools run on a lark's schedule. Brian is a teacher, and 2 of the kids are in school. By Friday morning, we all feel like we could sleep for 12 hours straight.

I think us night owls need to stage a revolt. For one week ( a month even better) let's run everything on OUR body clock's schedule for a change. See how all you larks do staying up till midnight, and how many cups of coffee it takes to keep you functioning. Hmmm? Bet you'll be singing us owls a different tune then...