My Life With Kids

I decided a hundred years ago to become a college professor, which meant I went to school for 25 straight years and got my PhD when I was 30. This meant, or so I thought, that I could sleep in a good third of my life - all summer, all Christmas breaks. This is a good trade - I won't make much money and I'll be grading and thinking about classes and writing papers and answering questions about politics and having to sound smart when I do it for the rest of my life in any of my spare time (so I end up "working" all the time) - but I can sleep in for a full third of my life, and if I'm smart, I can schedule my life so that I get to sleep in all the time.

GREAT!

Then I met my children, who don't really care that's Christmas break and they are up ready to go at 545am. I say, please, I love you, please sleep a little longer. They say, of course Momma, we love you too, we'll give you until 630am, but during that time you need to get up and showered and ready for the day because if you don't it will be 8pm again before you have a breath to yourself. I am convincing myself this is a good trade too - wonderful children who love life and who are healthy and who are so freaking cute for not being able to sleep in. I figure at some point they will want to sleep in too...then we'll all sleep until 2pm all summer long.