It's almost 7 in the evening (7:40 at the actual time of posting) and I'm nursing a particularly bad case of sleep deprivation -- made worse by the fact that this is the period of the day I'm most alert, which is going to keep me from sleeping for several more hours, despite the sleep debt. Why? I stayed up 'til 7 AM last night, with the expectation that both of my parents would be going to work, and I would be able to sleep in until at least noon today. Well, my mother came down with a stomach bug, and decided to get my butt out of bed at 10 in the morning -- knowing full well that I had been up all night, since she caught me getting a snack at 6:50.
Now, I know what you're thinking -- I'm just some snotty teen complaining about his bed time. The problem is, I'm not; I'm a 21 year old college student home for Summer break, a college student, I might add, who is paying his own way through school, between scholarships, grants, and student loans -- heck, even my entertainment and non-dining hall food budget came from about $2000 I saved up from my last job, which I had to leave when I got my AA and moved on to university -- and my mother still gets me up every morning that we're both home. Now I'm a night owl and I always have been, and college finally gave my circadian rhythms a chance to normalize into what my body needed them to be -- this being a sleep schedule in which I go to bed between 2 and 4 AM, and wake up around noon.
Coming home though, my mother (my father isn't the one pushing this, although he does back her up if I stay in bed and ignore the calls to get up) immediately tried to get me on what she calls a "normal" schedule. I actually came home for the Summer late on a Saturday evening, and was set to unloading my stuff before 10 the next morning, even though my parents knew I had been up packing literally all night Friday, and the rental fee on the moving truck was such that we were going to pay for another full day regardless of when we finished unpacking it and got it back to the depot.
The sad thing is, this is how its been for as long as I can remember. While all my friends showed up with awesome stories about sleeping in 'til noon on weekends and during the Summer, my mother would wake me up at 10 if I was lucky, 9 if I was unlucky, and 8 if God just wanted someone to laugh at that morning. Her reasoning has always been that whatever hour she chose that day was a reasonable hour, and counted as sleeping in for anyone on a normal schedule -- and indeed, in high school, even 8 was more sleep than I got on a weekday, since I had to get up no later than 6 to catch the bus. But the thing is, more isn't always enough, especially for a teenager or early 20 something; we're just wired to be nocturnal.
Now, I know a lot of you are thinking "their house, their rules, get a job and move out if you don't like it," but I don't even have that option, because at 21 years of age, I still don't have a car or a driver's license. Oh, I have a permit, but my parents have been very, very slow to actually take me driving and get me ready to take the test. This is really bad when you consider we live in a state with no public transportation to speak of, and an area of the state which has even less than the rest of the state. The nearest bus stop is 2 miles from my house, and the buses only run once an hour -- assuming they run anywhere near on time, which is not a given -- so getting a job is almost completely out of the question. This is even scarier when you consider that I'm supposed to complete my final internship in the Spring, which is going to involve me being at a middle or high school completely not of my choosing every morning at either 7:00 or 8:00 AM -- necessitating transportation separate from my parents, who also have places to be around that time. (I'm okay with having to be up early for the internship because it's for school and, ultimately, work -- the problem is not being allowed to sleep in when there's no good reason for me to get up, not getting up period.) Because I couldn't secure a job for the Summer, I'm expected to do chores around the house, but because my sleep keeps getting interrupted, I don't do a very good job, and wind up taking crap for that, too.
The funny thing is, for the first full week that I was home, my mother was finishing up her second term at law school, and wasn't home until around 8 or 9 every night -- which is also roughly the time my dad got home from his job. This gave me an opportunity to clean the house at the period when I am most alert -- from about 7 PM to around midnight or 1 AM -- without disturbing anyone. As a result, the house was cleaner in that one week than it had been in the entire 9 months I had been off at college. However, it was not to last. Once mom finished school and started on her Summer internship, I was expected to have all chores done by the time she got home, which is usually around 5 in the afternoon. Rather than understanding that I work better in the evening, she expects me to get up in the morning and clean the house, which is the absolute worst time I could be doing anything.
I'm sorry about the rant, but I was just needed to vent, and Facebook was out since my Mom and sister are both on my friends list -- useful during the school year, not so great when you're home, separated from your friends (due to people living in various places when not on campus), and needing to vent about the people you're living with.
Now that I have the rant off my chest, I have to ask: do (or did, assuming you have moved out) your parents get you up early, even on weekends and during the Summer? Or did they let you sleep in like civilized beings? It's always seemed weird to me that my mother insists on getting me up early, despite the mountains of evidence that letting me sleep in and allowing me to do the work when I'm good and ready is the better option, for everyone involved.
Also, feel free to rant about anything you might be going through; if you managed to get through my wall of text, you deserve a chance to vent.
Now, I know what you're thinking -- I'm just some snotty teen complaining about his bed time. The problem is, I'm not; I'm a 21 year old college student home for Summer break, a college student, I might add, who is paying his own way through school, between scholarships, grants, and student loans -- heck, even my entertainment and non-dining hall food budget came from about $2000 I saved up from my last job, which I had to leave when I got my AA and moved on to university -- and my mother still gets me up every morning that we're both home. Now I'm a night owl and I always have been, and college finally gave my circadian rhythms a chance to normalize into what my body needed them to be -- this being a sleep schedule in which I go to bed between 2 and 4 AM, and wake up around noon.
Coming home though, my mother (my father isn't the one pushing this, although he does back her up if I stay in bed and ignore the calls to get up) immediately tried to get me on what she calls a "normal" schedule. I actually came home for the Summer late on a Saturday evening, and was set to unloading my stuff before 10 the next morning, even though my parents knew I had been up packing literally all night Friday, and the rental fee on the moving truck was such that we were going to pay for another full day regardless of when we finished unpacking it and got it back to the depot.
The sad thing is, this is how its been for as long as I can remember. While all my friends showed up with awesome stories about sleeping in 'til noon on weekends and during the Summer, my mother would wake me up at 10 if I was lucky, 9 if I was unlucky, and 8 if God just wanted someone to laugh at that morning. Her reasoning has always been that whatever hour she chose that day was a reasonable hour, and counted as sleeping in for anyone on a normal schedule -- and indeed, in high school, even 8 was more sleep than I got on a weekday, since I had to get up no later than 6 to catch the bus. But the thing is, more isn't always enough, especially for a teenager or early 20 something; we're just wired to be nocturnal.
Now, I know a lot of you are thinking "their house, their rules, get a job and move out if you don't like it," but I don't even have that option, because at 21 years of age, I still don't have a car or a driver's license. Oh, I have a permit, but my parents have been very, very slow to actually take me driving and get me ready to take the test. This is really bad when you consider we live in a state with no public transportation to speak of, and an area of the state which has even less than the rest of the state. The nearest bus stop is 2 miles from my house, and the buses only run once an hour -- assuming they run anywhere near on time, which is not a given -- so getting a job is almost completely out of the question. This is even scarier when you consider that I'm supposed to complete my final internship in the Spring, which is going to involve me being at a middle or high school completely not of my choosing every morning at either 7:00 or 8:00 AM -- necessitating transportation separate from my parents, who also have places to be around that time. (I'm okay with having to be up early for the internship because it's for school and, ultimately, work -- the problem is not being allowed to sleep in when there's no good reason for me to get up, not getting up period.) Because I couldn't secure a job for the Summer, I'm expected to do chores around the house, but because my sleep keeps getting interrupted, I don't do a very good job, and wind up taking crap for that, too.
The funny thing is, for the first full week that I was home, my mother was finishing up her second term at law school, and wasn't home until around 8 or 9 every night -- which is also roughly the time my dad got home from his job. This gave me an opportunity to clean the house at the period when I am most alert -- from about 7 PM to around midnight or 1 AM -- without disturbing anyone. As a result, the house was cleaner in that one week than it had been in the entire 9 months I had been off at college. However, it was not to last. Once mom finished school and started on her Summer internship, I was expected to have all chores done by the time she got home, which is usually around 5 in the afternoon. Rather than understanding that I work better in the evening, she expects me to get up in the morning and clean the house, which is the absolute worst time I could be doing anything.
I'm sorry about the rant, but I was just needed to vent, and Facebook was out since my Mom and sister are both on my friends list -- useful during the school year, not so great when you're home, separated from your friends (due to people living in various places when not on campus), and needing to vent about the people you're living with.
Now that I have the rant off my chest, I have to ask: do (or did, assuming you have moved out) your parents get you up early, even on weekends and during the Summer? Or did they let you sleep in like civilized beings? It's always seemed weird to me that my mother insists on getting me up early, despite the mountains of evidence that letting me sleep in and allowing me to do the work when I'm good and ready is the better option, for everyone involved.
Also, feel free to rant about anything you might be going through; if you managed to get through my wall of text, you deserve a chance to vent.
