No Jet Lag Here

Yesterday, the kids woke us up at 3 or 4:30 am, depending on how you look at it: Charles went to sleep at 4 pm and patently refused to wake up for dinner, so he slept through until 3 am, when he woke up famished.  He was placated for about an hour by peanut butter, but then had to go potty and needed help, and then Jamie woke up.  Last night, both kids were asleep by 7 pm and were up this morning at 5:30, so I think that’s progress. 

 

The thing about jet-lag is that it applies to people who have a sleep schedule or who are not chronically sleep-deprived.  In other words, not us.  Jamie had the hardest time adjusting to a nine-hour time difference and was, for each of the eight days we spent in France, up from about midnight to 3 am.  The anti-nap, we called it.  Charles was up and down all night, mostly going to bed super late and waking super late.  But Tony and I, as the long-suffering parents in this familial equation, pretty much behaved as usual.  We went to bed when the kids went to bed, we got up when they got up.  Exactly like at home.  We’re always tired and always facing a lack of sleep from the thousand nights of interrupted sleep before, so this was really no different.  I always take naps when I can.  I’m always up six times every night.  I always have bags under my eyes.

 

I think it also helped that we had a real “screw it” attitude about the whole thing.  I know lots of parents who are more uptight than we are – in fact, I would say we are some of the more laid-back parents around (except when it comes to television and junk food) – who would have worked like fiends to get their children to switch schedules around to accommodate the time difference, and then switch back, but not us.  We just went with it.  Hell, we kept them up at a wedding until 1 am.  At home, we eat dinner at 6 pm.  In France, usually closer to 7:30 pm.  Sleeping in until 9 or 10 am every day?  Why the hell not?

 

In fact, I think the only bit of schedule changing this whole trip has inspired is the one that is happening now: we’ve been planning and saving and waiting so long for our big trip to France that we sort of put off thinking about the summer.  Now, I’m feeling energized to make summer plans, to dream of what we’ll barbeque on our new grill, to imagine pitchers of mixed drinks now that I can buy liquor at the grocery store.  I promise I’ll post some retrospectives about our trip, but I’m excited to be looking forward to a whole summer of (hopefully) carefree living.