My mother would wake me up by singing "Ohhhhhhh what a beautiful MORNin'! Oh, what a beautiful daaaaaaaaay! I've got a beautiful FEELing! Ev'rything's goin' my way!" Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
Oh.
Oh no.
I don't do cheery or sudden, loud wakeups.
When my mother was stuck in her Great Depression of My Entire Adolescence, she'd wake me up by banging open my door and snapping, "You planning on sleeping the entire day away?"
At 6AM.
Since she had depression-related insomnia she deeply resented anyone who could actually, you know, sleep.
Speaking of insomnia, sorry about the bad night, Erin. That rots.
This is so interesting.
I can't remember one single morning of my childhood. Not one.
I'm wracking my brain. Seriously. It's like I've suddenly gone amnesiac. I remember the bus stop and getting there. But nothing before that. Huh. This question has never been asked before.
Oh, uh. Move along. Nothing to see here...
bizarre
My dad would snap on the lights and bark "Get up!" in his master sergeant's voice. It was a horribly unpleasant way to get woken up. From deep sleep to sitting upright, adrenaline coursing in my veins with no transition.
Contrastingly, my college girlfriend, Suz, would come down to my dorm room and gently waggle my foot back and forth so we could go to our Shakespeare class. Most pleasant.
Insomnia! That's it!!
I don't remember mornings because there weren't many. Just extensions of the night.
I didn't learn how to sleep until my late 30s. No lie. I'd go for 3 weeks at a time getting 2 hours of sleep a night.
But once I learned? Oh baby. Ima sleepin' demon. I occassionally still have a sleepless night and I do have the odd anxiety waking, but in general, I'm well slept.
Funny how it is difficult to remember what that was like. Thank you GOD. It's hard to remember what that was like.
I loathe it when someone tells me to smile. You can only imagine how much I love being told to wake up.
I've always been gentle waking up the boys because I hate to be awakened. Singing is a last resort after previous attempts. Threatening being tossed in the pool comes next, but they are bigger than me now and don't take me seriously.
This is why I have three big dogs.
I let them do the dirty work if the gentle wake up isn't working.
My dad would always wake us up by fairly gently saying our names (both my names in my case..see Natter) and it still bugged me! He wakes my mom up to this day by bringing her a cup of coffee in bed. That is, I think, the secret to their 40+ year marriage.
This is why I have three big dogs.
I let them do the dirty work if the gentle wake up isn't working.
BABIES! Babies are fun for that. Over Christmas, when we'd want the youngest adult to get up, we'd just send Cooper in there, and he'd crawl all over him. And Jon couldn't be mad at Cooper, so it was perfect!
He wakes my mom up to this day by bringing her a cup of coffee in bed.
If I could find a man who would do that, I just might marry him.
