The curse of September jet lag

School starts for my kiddos in a little over one week and I am already well into my subtle [ok, not always so subtle] efforts to prevent September jet-lag. You know what I mean.... the condition marked by intense irritability, alternating whines and yawns, combined with an almost constant need for coercion. A typical day you say? Well, if so , it may only get worse if your summertime adolescents milk summer of its last drop before the first day of school. Do you remember how badly the single hour change into and out of Daylight Savings Time through off everyone's schedule AND mood? Imagine for a moment that Daylight Savings Time was a shift of three hours rather than one. Chaos would ensue. It is like suddenly waking up in a time zone that is three hours earlier than your body's accustomed schedule!

For most children of school age summertime includes extra playtime, extra time in the outdoors [weather permitting], less or no homework, and.... the absence of the dreaded morning deadline. For some the deadline is in the form of a large yellow bus pulling up that you know will wait only fractionally before closing its doors and going to the next stop. For others it is knowing that everyone must be in the car by x:xx or the parent who is doing the drop off will be late for work. For some it means that they must be on their way by x:xx if they are going to be able to walk to school and get to class before the late bell. [Or that they don't leave before x:xx they will be late even if they run the whole way!]

Even under the best of circumstances a morning deadline tempts disasters of all sizes [and often tantrums of equal proportions]. But imagine the child who during the summer regularly sleeps at least an hour or two later than during the school year. [Make that 3-4 hours later if you have a teen, especially one without a summer job!] Suddenly, the first day of school arrives and they are up [or dragged out of bed], get going with a burst of adrenelin, make it through the school day and comes home ..... to crash. September jet lag strikes again!

I am already inching forward our television off time, shower times, and head-to-your-rooms times. Likewise I am creeping earlier the time I wake them up and need them to help times. There is always back to school shopping to be done this time of year, whether supplies or clothes or both. When all else fails to rouse them I simply explain [the night before and again in the morning] that the shopping run will be the next day at x:xx a.m. Sometimes one of the older ones will pass on the shopping to sleep. Once they see the goodies the others picked up, the sleeper rarely skips the next day's run. Yes, it is annoying to do repeated smaller trips of school shopping. But it is worth it if it gets them up more willingly and inches them closer to school rising times. Little by little they get closer to the routine they will need when school starts. My emergency measure is a standing offer for the last few days before school. If they all get up, dressed, beds made etc. two mornings in a row on the school schedule I will take them out to breakfast.... [but my car will only go at the time that is the school deadline of course!]

So, that's my strategy. It doesn't always work, but it usually does. Even when it doesn't completely work, the impact of September jet lag is lessened. Anything that makes the transition into the school year easier is worth it to me. How about you? Any ideas you want to share???