I Am SO Not A Morning Person....

I am so not a morning person. One of the things I hated most about working was the necessity for me to wake up at the crack of dawn and be on the road by 6:15am. Apparently I never grew out of that teenage need for sleep.

This morning, I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth after my alarm woke me up - because I never wake up voluntarily on school days (wow, I really do sound like a teenager, don't I?). As I stared sightlessly ahead, the rhythmic brushing tempting me to close my eyes and go back to sleep standing there, I heard the middle school bus drive past my house, as it always does at 7:06am.

For the first time, it dawned on me that the middle school bus picks kids up - and it doesn't stop to wait for stragglers - at 7:06am. And I know from experience that the high school bus comes by at 6:12am. Considering we wake up almost an hour before we need to be out the door, I started calculating what time the wee ones would need to wake up in middle and high school to be on time, recognizing that they will likely require more time for showers in the morning and makeup and other tasks.

I'm pretty sure I groaned audibly.

As a mom, I think it's my responsibility to ensure that I'm up when the wee ones are. And that they get to school safely, with backpacks and lunches. Yikes. I have a feeling I'm going to start looking forward to the college years once we hit middle school, and that's just wrong. If only I were a mom who knew how to nap, as I don't function well on less than nine hours of sleep. I don't see an 8pm or earlier bedtime as happening for me.

So parents who do have children who wake up at these ungodly hours already (maybe if I'm lucky by then the schools will have switched the high school and elementary start times?), how do you do it? Do you wake up with your kids or do you let them get up and moving before you? Do you take a nap after everyone is off to school?

Because... you know I needed something to to start thinking about this morning, four years in advance.