Oof. What a week! Monday was so painful that I needed a “double tea day” at Starbucks (tea plus a free refill.) Yes, we started school! Obviously we live in an “early” part of the country, and school started August 12.
Growing up in Illinois, we always went back to school after Labor Day. My parents were both teachers, and there was kind of a collective family scream of “NOOOOOOO!” as Labor Day drew near.
Now, my husband is a teacher, so the start of school affects him as well as my daughter, which means there’s a big shift for the whole family. My daughter was the only one excited to go back- my husband and I had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, back to the school year.
At least that’s what it felt like when I set my alarm for 5:30 am on Sunday night. On the last day of school in May, I vowed that NO wakeups would start with a “5” for the entire summer, and I kept that vow. As the summer went on, I got up later and later, until by the end I was luxuriously sleeping until 7 or 7:30.
This was only possible because, thanks to my calf, I wasn’t doing much running (sigh.) If you want to run in South Florida in the summer, you HAVE to get out early. But since I was either running very short distances, or not running at all, it didn’t really matter. I even went through a couple weeks where I saved my workout for after work. That was fine, because we didn’t have to worry about eating dinner at any special time.
I realized that going to bed at midnight and getting up at 7:30 works much better for my body than going to bed at 10 and getting up at 5:30. Same hours of sleep, theoretically, but going to bed later and knowing I could get up later is more relaxing for me, and I slept much better. I love the IDEA of getting up super early, but the reality of it doesn’t work well for me.
But, here we are. High school starts at 7:30, in spite of NUMEROUS studies showing that getting up that early is not good for teenager’s brains. A law has been passed in our area that high school has to start later, but it won’t go into effect until my daughter’s senior year (eye roll. Or, I guess better late than never?)
The high school is only three miles away, but traffic is so horrendous the first couple weeks that we have to leave the house at 6:40. That gets her there pretty early, but if we leave ten minutes later we’ll sit in a gigantic car line for 20 minutes. Plus, after I drop her off, my daughter has to get in a long line to go through the metal detector. She gets VERY stressed out at the thought of being late, so 6:40 is our leave time.
There is someone happy about the early mornings though:
TGIF!!!
What would you tell me over coffee? If you have kids, did they go back to school yet?
30 Responses
Setting the alarm for 5:30 a.m. does not sound like fun! 7:30 a.m. is a very early start. Most schools here start between 8:15 and 9 a.m. and finish around 3:30 p.m. 7:30 a.m. is definitely too early for teenagers to start school. Once my kids were in high school, their school start didn’t impact me, though, because the girls walked, and my son took the train. The thought of kids having to go through a metal detector to enter school is so sad; it’s very unfortunate that it is needed. Most schools here have multiple entrances around the school and very little security (except for the Jewish schools). We are in the middle of our third term and although I don’t have kids at school my church ministries follow school terms.
Melissa, that is a MUCH more sane start time! And, my daughter technically could take the bus to school, but she has big instruments (on some days) that aren’t allowed on the bus, and also, she would have to be at the bus stop INSANELY early, and it’s still dark, and I just don’t like it. I know- life would be easier if she could just take the bus.
12-7:30 is also my body’s happy sleep time. I honestly can’t fall asleep reliably at 10pm without sleep aids. At least not during DST, which is most of the year. I hate waking up at 5:45. I so feel you.
I also feel your traffic scenario. Our school is across the street from a high school and we have three schools on our campus, with just one access point going in and out. It’s an absolute shit show if you hit it at the wrong times. A five minute drive can become 20 minutes so easily. It’s awful.
I hope the first week was bearable for everyone and that it only gets better moving forward. Good luck!
Thank you Noemi! Your school traffic situation sounds horrible. Right towards the end of my daughter’s elementary school years, they built a charter school right next door to her school, so traffic became INSANE (why? why?) Luckily we don’t have to go there anymore!
Yes, girls went back to school 10 days ago and things are setting for early morning departure too. next week, some after school activity will start and Sofia won’t get home after 6pm and she leaves home 6:40am. Kids will be busy and I’m the back office trying to fit all things into schedule and make sure they get good nutrition and rest.
due to school change for Sofia, I now need to take care of lizzy meaning I need to start running earlier than before to finish before 7am. Fortunately I am happy to go to bed by 8pm. 🙂
Yes, you are truly an early bird! I wish I could get on that schedule! The early morning hours can be so productive. I’m going to try hard to get myself to bed earlier this year- since I can’t control my wakeup time. Getting 7 hours of sleep at night (at least) would be nice.
Ug. No kids here but I used to live right next to a school and if I went home from lunch too late it must have been Pre-K pickup time, and I would have to wait in a line to get to my house! I think my HS started at 8:07, but it’s been a while since then so I am not sure. However, we lived 40 miles away and I think our bus picked us up at 6:30 or 6:45. Are there no busses for you guys? And/or can you drop her at a corner and she could walk the rest of the way? The long car line sounds horrible.
If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I have a cold that I can’t shake and it’s driving me crazy! I just want to feel better. It’s not horrible, but it’s niggling and it’s bloody annoying.
Oh that sucks- colds can be horrible. And- your high school was 40 miles away??? That’s far! You must have lived in a rural area. When my mom was in high school she had to ride the bus for a long time- she said she used it to do her homework.
There’s an elementary school down the street, and if I leave the house at the wrong time I have a hard time getting out of my neighborhood because of the traffic. Luckily that doesn’t interfere with the high school driving (elementary school starts later) or that would be the last straw.
Occasionally when we’re running late I’ll drop my daughter in front of the school instead of driving in, and other parents do that as well.
I hope you feel better soon!
Every single detail about this made me a little heartbroken. High school starting at 7:30, first of all, that is absolutely insane. Insane! The second thing, the fact that the kids have to go through a metal detector. What a sad state of affairs. Also, holy crap, going back to school in August, let alone so early in August! Like you, we were always back around Labour Day.
Well, I’m glad your daughter is excited to be going back to school, at any rate!
I know, it’s kind of funny- I really made it sound horrible, but then my daughter was happy to go back! It’s funny how kids just accept these things. Over the summer she was on a much later sleep schedule and she said she felt much more rested, but then she didn’t complain at all about getting up early again.
School started here two weeks ago, which feels soooooo early, and some districts even started back up in July! I’m not sure why they start so early here because a lot of the schools are having issues with their A/Cs so kids are dealing with hot classrooms which isn’t ideal.
The only way I’m able to get up in the 5 o’ clock hour is by going to bed by 8:30. Yes, it’s a grandma bedtime but I’ve gotten used to it. On weekends I usually stay up until around 10 and wake up at 7. I need at least 8 hours of sleep though, hence the extra time. I know a lot of runners here start their runs by 5 am but I’d have to go to bed at like 7 pm to make that happen and that is just not something I’m going to do!
Okay wait. WHAT. Schools starting in JULY? AC not working??? I guess I shouldn’t complain about the situation here. At least our schools are nice and cool!
Ideally, I should get in bed at 8:30 to read, and then turn off my light at 9:30, but it’s just not happening.
When I was in Texas, the temps in the early morning weren’t too bad. Low 80s, but there wasn’t much humidity so it felt okay. I’m thinking your wather is similar? Starting a run at 6 am would be early enough for me!
This will be us next week… Isn’t it so strange how a small change in departure time (say five mins) can cause huge delays on the other end? I can’t say I ever figured that one out!
Like your husband, I’m a teacher, so much as I love teaching, going back after vacation makes me blue. But I’m looking forward to going to Utah over break, so onward!
Oh you’re going to Utah!!!!!!!!! That’s actually my dream vacation spot right now. Yes, if I had a trip like that coming up it would give me motivation to forge ahead.
Boo to 5:30 alarms! The college kid starts next week and the high schooler is the week after that.
What I would tell you over the coffee that I’m drinking right now is that my mornings just got a whole lot better. My old job (finally!!!) ended last week so now I don’t have to go to work until 9. It’s not unreasonable to start work at 8, especially when I didn’t have a commute, but it made the mornings so rushed. I had to work out, take the puppy out, yada, yada, yada, and I didn’t have any downtime before work started.
Right now I’m still waking up a bit before 6 because that’s when it starts getting light out, but I know my internal alarm will shift to match the sun so I’ll end up getting more sleep overall. Hooray! I’ve been relaxing/decompressing but I’ll get back to blogging soon.
Yay! It makes a HUGE difference to have some downtime before starting work. As much as I complain about the 5:30 wakeup, it does give me some downtime- most days- before I go to work.
Now that I’m getting up early I’m realizing how late it actually gets light here nowadays. It’s almost 6:30 when the sun comes up, sigh.
Oof. That is an early start. I went to a rural k-12 school so we all started at 8:35. Our school schedule was 8:35 to 3:25. Kind of funny that I can still remember that 20+ years after graduating! I took a college calc class senior year that was at 7:30 and wow that was hard to get up for. So I sympathize with you and your daughter. And I was able to drive myself to school and it was about a mile away with NO traffic since it’s a town of 500 people… It’s much more complicated when you have to consider traffic and drop off lines and such!
We are firmly in summer mode which I am happy about. The weather doesn’t get reliably nice here until mid-June so I’d rather have Paul in school during the iffy days of summer so we can really enjoy peak weather season. As you know, we leave for our summer vacation on Monday! And then the boys stay with my parents for another week so we’ll be kid-free for the last week of the month which I am very excited about! Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids, but I’m looking forward to a quiet week at home and having a chance to reconnect with Phil without dealing with toddler shenanigans!
It’s interesting how we all kind of have an internal clock. For me, I think 6-6:30 is my optimal wake time. That’s when I wake up on vacation. But I love when I can gently start the day which I cannot do most days because week days are intense since we leave the house at 7 and on weekends, my alarm is usually a child yelling for me or coming into my room.
Ha ha, have you read Shu’s post today where she links to the comic “I love my kids, BUT…” You just reminded me of it. Yes, you will enjoy a child-free week, and be ready to have them back when the week is done.
i’m really not sure of the reasoning behind starting school so early here. Doesn’t seem like it could be the weather. But for where you live, a Labor Day start seems much better.
Kids are grown. And they took the bus.
And I was not a runner then.
Good luck.
Thank you Darlene! Once we get a little further into the year I’ll get more comfortable with the schedule.
Yes! We call that “leave 5 min later, spend 20 more min in car” the multiplier period. I think it’s a term from my husband’s family! Very descriptive.
We have to leave 7:30 but thankfully start times are 8ish. But if I don’t leave 7:30 chance of me making it to work on time are zero, so that is what we are doing!
7:30 isn’t too bad- but you have three kids who have to be ready and have the added stress of getting to work on time. I hope it all goes smoothly!
The school drop off math is SO HARD. I hate it so very much. We have some late start days this year, too, so I feel like that will throw our schedule out of whack.
I hope it all goes smoothly and becomes routine soon, Jenny! Those first few days of re-entry are rough.
Thank you Suzanne! I’m relieved we’re through the first week. We used to have late start days in our district but everyone hated them SO MUCH, they got rid of them.
MIDWEST REPRESENT!! Students don’t come back until after Labor Day and that’s still WEEKS away. Woot woot! Look, I’ll be grumpy that we don’t get a Fall Break and we go right up until Christmas, but RIGHT NOW I AM SMUG. I just looked and our local public school doesn’t go back until after Labor Day, either. August is still a summer month!
Meanwhile, I can’t sleep in past 6 anymore. What happened to me?!
Readjusting to school wake up times must be tough. I don’t know why but I also feel that every hour we sleep AFTER midnight is almost more restful than before midnight. Alas, I also have to get up at 6 every day. My preferred wake up time would be closer to 7:30. I know my schedule might shift a little bit when it stays dark longer.
All I know these days is I have to leave my house before the school bus comes through (rather than right after) and will have to start paying attention to those 15 mph school zones again!
I’m more a morning person I think, I’m best in bed by 9:15 or so, asleep by 10, up at around 5:30 on weekdays. Weekends I usually sleep until 6 or 6:30, today I slept until almost 8! AMAZING! My daughter’s high school started at 8. It was SO GREAT when she started driving and we didn’t have to worry about that anymore. We only had two cars, though, so that meant I didn’t have a car all day. I rode a bike to the grocery store. Nice to work from home if you can. Good luck, hang in there!
My nephews went back to school last week, too, and they are STRUGGLING. My younger nephew was staying up late and sleeping in all summer long, so the fun is over!
We started early in high school, too – I think our start time was even around 7:05 or something like that! My mom made us take the bus, though. She was not about to wake up early to drive us to school – HA.
Hi Jenny,
I am so behind on commenting after the trip but it was nice to read an update from you. I am a HS teacher so I agree what later start times would be beneficial for all students. We start at 7:50AM.
My kids and I are on two different school calendars… My first day back is August 28th, and my kids’ – September 5th. I wish American schools did more of a year around schooling similar to some European countries. Two and a half months off is a VERY. LONG. time. I’d say, one week in the fall, two weeks for Christmas break, one week in February, two weeks spring break, and shorter summer break. But that’s just me.
You kitty is adorable and I wanna hug her <3