Good morning! Why, yes, it is a GREAT morning. Why? Because I’m a morning mom. Hold your groans, my friends. Let me break this down for you.
You might be someone who can get things done after your spawn hit the sack. That’s awesome, and sometimes, I really, really envy you.
Being able to get a couple hours of work done at night after having to leave the office at a reasonable hour for whatever is going on at home is awesome. And I wish I could do it. But my brain literally shuts down at some point between story time and song time and any email I attempt to fire out will be far from coherent and likely more damaging than productive. I’ve learned this from experience.
Same thing for working out at night. Working out is my favorite thing to do. It’s my hobby and passion (so is eating baked goods and ice cream and drinking craft beer and boxed wine, but I digress), but there’s a time for that, too. And that time is first thing in the morning. I know people who are in great shape who save their workout for after the kids are in bed. I think they are crazy – just as they think I’m crazy when I’m able to sneak out of the house at 4:30 a.m. for a 5 a.m. workout class and still have a fully functional day at the office.
I’ve never been a night owl, and especially after having a child, I don’t see that changing anytime soon. For me, mornings are prime time. I am fresh from a deep slumber (yes, I’m a deep sleeper, which might help my position on this topic) and my brain and body are at their peak. I’m no stranger to sending off-hours emails before 6 a.m. and getting some entertaining responses for it, but how much different are my 6 a.m. emails than your 10 or 11 p.m. emails? We’re all putting in the hours on one side of the day (whether we should or shouldn’t be is a topic for another blog post!) I’m also a habitual weekend 6 a.m. runner with toddler strapped into the stroller. If my legs need a rest from the miles, you’ll still see me strolling around the neighborhood and getting to the park with my toddler by 7 a.m. I couldn’t imagine starting the day any other way.
Everyone in my inner circle (like 4 people, probably) know that when the sun goes down, your expectations of me need to go down, too. After the kid goes down, I’m pouring a nice glass of boxed red and parking it on the couch for an hour before I retreat to my awkwardly early bedtime so I can get ready for the next morning.
What I’ve come to accept and acknowledge is that we have to know our bodies and when our energy levels are at their peak. For me, that’s in the morning. For others, that’s after the kids go down. For some, they hit their stride mid-day. There’s no right or wrong peak time – everyone is different. Becoming a mom has taught me, more than ever, to take advantage of when my energy is at it’s peak and to probably remember that my other mom friends aren’t up at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning to respond to my texts just yet.
