Merry Sunshine

On my mother's side of the family I am a victim of a genetic abnormality known as Morning Personism.  It isn't an easy burden to carry.

Good Morning!!

As a child when I would visit my grandparent's home in Arizona I would inevitably be woken in one of two ways.  (1) Grandma bursting into my room singing the Cream of Wheat song (yes, there is a jingle about Cream of Wheat) or (2) my uncle coming in to give me a "Blood Circulator".  This involves rubbing arms and legs so vigorously that the person ends up exfoliated while also somehow making the victim's body bounce up and down on the mattress.  It takes serious skill to accomplish this task without breaking a limb or causing a seizure.

For the most part I handled these two awakenings in good humor, knowing that there was a possibility that Grandma had whipped up a chocolate cake for breakfast, but baked it in muffin tins in order to pass them off as "bran muffins".  (Word to the wise, NEVER say no to one of my grandmother's "muffins"!!)

On the home front my mother's tactic of choice was to flip on the light in your bedroom and sing an operatic version of "Good morning Merry Sunshine, what makes you rise so soon?  You woke up all the little birds and scared away the moon!"  {shudder}.  It still makes me feel ooky to this day.  Even typing those words made me want to crawl under the covers and go to a dark quiet place.

The one or two times in my 13 year public schooling experience that my mother consented to drive me to school (yes, barb intended) it involved her chatting happily with me and the sibs or friends.  She was met with silence, which she seemed to find hilarious and encouraging.  It was like Snow White was caught in the driver's seat babbling away in a foreign language while we all stared in horror. 

I could see the sympathy written on my friend's faces.  Most likely I was the only teenager our there dealing with this!

Now that I'm a mother I've realized I have the power to stop this cycle.  It does not need to be passed down to the next generation.  What a relief!

I never flip the light on in my kids rooms.  I gently scratch their back for a moment and then leave, letting them get up and dressed without the perky "natural high" morning moments I was forced to endure as a child.

And yet, thanks to this {bleepity bleep} time change, my kids have suddenly found their inner morning person.  GULP!  For the past three days they've gotten up cheerfully and chatted my ear off while getting dressed, making beds, doing hair, eating breakfast and even while brushing teeth.  They even broke into dancing and singing while putting on their backpacks and coats to head out to school this morning.

When they left I stood in shocked silence wondering how to handle this latest threat to our family.  The genes are attempting to rise and I am going to have to help my children learn that we are not victims of our heredity.  We have the ability to overcome!

We have the ability to slunk around in silence.  We can do it....we can!!!!