There are typically two types of people in this world: one is the night owl and the other is the morning person. It is also typical that these two types of people are fated to be around each other. That being said, the old saying goes that you need to surround yourself with people who challenge you. The majority of my friends are morning people, so I can say from experience that it is certainly a challenge to love them at 8am as much as I do at 8pm.* So, this article is for morning people to help night owls love them at any time of day (or night).
1. Do not say, "Oh look, you're alive!" when we roll out of bed at 1pm. We all saw you go to bed at 9:30pm Karen, obviously you’re going to wake up earlier.
"There's a nice way to say that, Karen..."
2. There's nothing wrong with waking up late. Some people just need more sleep than others. Or maybe they don't care how pretty the sunrise was.3. Nothing good happens before 10am. I don't feel like I need to expand on this one.
4. Some people get more done at night. Waking up at 6am to study for a test just does not sound appealing.
5. Just because someone sleeps until noon does not mean they were partying until dawn. Different people do different things until 2am. Sometimes, cat videos are more distracting than they appear...
6. For the love of all that is good in this world, DO NOT WAKE US UP. Unless there is an emergency, we've slept past our alarm, or we've asked for it specifically, let us sleep! We will give you all the love and attention you deserve as soon as we've rested to our desire.
7. We. Will. Hit. I'm not proud of it, but get in my face first thing in the morning (or afternoon...) and my reflexes will take over.**
8. Allow approximately 20 minutes for us to fully wake up. Please do not talk about everything that is holy and important right when I walk downstairs. I will not remember it, I promise you.
9. Just because their alarm has gone off three times, does not mean they are late. I have planned a very delicate schedule where I set my alarm 20 minutes earlier than I really need to wake up so that I can snooze it, but remind my body that it needs to prepare itself to wake up relatively soon.***
10. We will respect you if you respect us. Some people just don’t pop out of bed singing “Good Morning” from Singing in the Rain**** and that’s okay. Similarly, some people don’t stay up singing “I Could Have Danced All Night” from My Fair Lady***** and that’s okay too. No two people are the same so obviously we are going to have our differences. If you don’t come in our room belting at the top of your lungs at 7am, we will turn down our music at 1am.
*Once my friend walked into my room playing "AH ZABENYA" from The Lion King.
I laugh about it now, but we were not happy campers that morning.** My apologies to my friend that I hit when I was sleeping on the bus coming home from one of our children’s tour performances. You just can’t belt “ONE DAY MORE” into someone’s face and not expect to get attacked.
*** I'm realizing I sound totally insane.
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