There are two times of year that I absolutely detest. I used to not care as a child, but as a parent, Daylight Savings has become the dreaded behavioral shift in my household. Maybe if I didn’t have twins, it wouldn’t be such a big deal, but getting the girls asleep at the same time has always felt like an accomplishment. Now with three, sometimes it feels like a miracle. Daylight Savings makes this even more difficult and wrecks us every year. But as I mentioned in my last DST post, California is actually considering repealing the Act that got us into this debacle in the first place.
For my family, this can’t come soon enough!
It’s only Friday, and I am already anticipating the worst, which means that if it wasn’t going to go badly by itself, I’m probably on my way to fulfilling my own prophecy. These situations often make me wonder: how can I plan for various outcomes without becoming a hot mess? Sometimes when we try to prepare for the worst possible outcome, just to be ready, it can actually make things much worse. Anxiety, worry, fear can creep in and make a difficult situation unbearable.
I try to relinquish my anticipatory anxiety, which is usually far more creative and gruesome than the actual experience, and then I just prepare to be flexible. I have a few different back up plans, but I try not to categorize them within the context of easy, medium, and hards cases. I just think of them as A, B, & C. This way I’m ready to roll with the day without worry.
Hopefully, I’m actually able to implement these tools, while we adjust to the time change. So far, I’m not doing a great job 😂, but I have faith that I’ll come around.
Jacqueline Pinchuk 