Early Bird Marries Night Owl (A Love Story Gone “Afowl”
Once upon a time, an early bird and a night owl fell in love and married. The early bird loved his early morning time watching the sun arrive over the horizon and getting started with his daily task list, and the night owl enjoyed the late evenings after the sun went down, sipping her hot chocolate and catching up on all the little things she couldn’t get to throughout the day. After settling in to their cozy nest, the love birds longed to retire together at night. The early bird was tired and wanted to retire earlier than the night owl. The night owl accomplished much in the evenings and wanted to retire late. The night owl ended up bravely trying to stay awake late into the evening in order to spend more time with night owl. And night owl tried to drag herself out of bed earlier to enjoy mornings with early bird. This sacrifice for the other went OK for a while.
Then, in time, little birds began to hatch and they slowly found themselves with a nest full squawking younglings. Life was no longer their own and it was no longer cheep (pun intended). The night owl was so busy caring for the peeps, that her night time was spent getting critical things done that were not getting done through the day (like cleaning, ironing, bills, going to the bathroom, etc.). All the while, the early bird was out earning a living and bringing home the worms along with having to spend “quality time’ with the chicks when he got home. This caused the early bird to have to stay up late also to help the night owl get critical things done in order to keep their nest aloft. They also had to use the evenings just to get time to themselves. They found that they didn’t always have time for each other which also created some fowl moods and fowl interactions.
The night owl, further developed a distaste for the early morning times due to lack of sleep and due to dealing with peeps with morning pep. The early bird also found his love for early mornings slipping away, due to the late night catch-up sessions and little peeps needing attention (and glasses of water) at night. Not to mention the all-night-throwing-up marathons that cropped up now and then. This created quite the change for both of them and some difficulties at time when they had early morning appointments or early work duty. Eventually, the early bird and the night owl together discovered the early morning wonder drug that made the beginning of the day seem less daunting – coffee. Unfortunately for the night owl, she started enjoying it at night time too.
This all could have been a recipe for disaster, if it wasn’t for the ability of the night owl and early bird to communicate and come up with solutions to better navigate their daily struggle to connect even with personal differences on their morning/nighttime preferences. Some are as follows:
- Peeps all have chores, and a lot of them. It lightens their parent’s load and is helpful to their future well being. The chores are non-negotiable and whether or not the peeps like the chores, is inconsequential.
- Peeps are only allowed to be in one extra-curricular activity at a time. Especially before they have their flyer’s license.
- Sundays are a day of rest and family time. This is where the early bird can go to sleep early or nap so that he can handle a late night, and the night owl can sleep in, in the morning.
- No waking night owl on Sunday mornings without written permission or threat of natural disaster – punishable by having your feathers plucked!
- After 9pm, kids are to disappear so that the love birds can have their time together, and their time alone. This maximizes their evening time, and lets the ringing in their ears die down as their attention for each other flares up. They also work together to complete tasks; things get done and they spend time together.
Moral of the story: Little sleep is for the birds. Compromise your time or life will turn fowl.
Or: When your chores are in heaps, peeps are cheap.
Or: A bird in hand, sometimes leaves you pooped!
Written by: Greg Schutte