Thursday, March 13, 2008

Still looking for those daylight savings

Springing forward this week has been a spring towards exhaustion. Sayer has not adjusted to the new time and has been going to bed later than usual but, alas, getting up at the same early hour.

Sayer measures the passing of time by when the street lights around our house go on and off. This is one of his obsessions that we have been waiting over a year for him to get over. Sayer insists on not getting into his pajamas or having a shower until "it's all dark outside." Getting ready for bed once it got dark worked great in the winter, since he would be ready for bed at approximately the same time as he ran out of energy. By 7:30 or 8:00 Sayer would be tucked in and listening to a CD with the lights out.

But thanks to daylight "savings" time, this week Sayer won't settle down until it is dark. He is running closer and closer to empty and we are seeing some of those "behaviors" that have been hibernating this winter.

Curious to know more about the link between daylight savings time and kids with autism I did a google search and found a great post from a blog called Autism is a journey. The mom who writes this blog has a great list - The Top Ten Reasons Daylight Savings Time is a farse. I encourage you to check it out. And try and get enough rest!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

similar problems at our house, though it is harder and harder to get him up on time in the morning! Who made this decision anyway? Did they ask any MOTHERS wbout it first is what I want to know? Seems clear.....NOT!

Anonymous said...

Hello friends, my husband and I were just discussing that this past week has felt like an episode of "Survivor". Thanks for the reminder of the daylight savings time which affects us all; it is good to know it is not just us.A frustration we have, too, is that our in-laws who live a mile away frequently ask our daughter (typical teen) to go out to various activities (mall, ball games, etc), but never our son. So here we are, the tired, the unpopular, and yes........I read the previous blog, the definitely unfashionable. I truly thank God for other parents with children with disabilites, not beacause we are "special" which makes me cringe, but beacuse we are the only ones who truly understand how hard the day to day life can be.

Pam, age 49, mother of Geoffrey age 20 and Linda age 16, and human mom to spoiled cat, Sweetie age 7, and wife to great husband, Ed

Carol said...

Yes, the whole "we are special parents" thing makes me cringe, too, Pam. And it is too bad your in-laws can't give you a break with your son. Have you tried letting them know a choice or two that would be relatively "easy"?

For Sayer, taking him for a drive or to McDonald's is something lots of people could do but to OMSI or the swimming pool, those are probably outings best reserved for his "special" parental units.

Carol