This morning, my daughter did NOT want to get up. It was our second day in a row of early wakeups (she has to be out of bed at 6:15 a.m. to get to school on time) following Daylight Savings Time, and that time change is brutal for a 10-year-old.
(Let's be honest - that time change is brutal for a 40-year-old, too.)
But as she sat bleary-eyed at the kitchen counter, chewing her blueberry pancakes and grumbling, I got to use my favorite line on her. "Baby girl," I said, in my mom-est tone, "the only way out is through."
Sure, she tried to vaporize me with her eyes, but it's true. The only way to get through most discomfort is to get through it. Hard workouts, stretching, difficult periods at work, jet lag or time changes, puberty - you aren't getting out without going through. And the sooner she learns that, the better. There's no magic bullet. Just time, effort and consistency, even when we're talking about adjusting to some archaic, stupid, failed energy-saving experiment from the Seventies.
Tomorrow, we'll get up and it'll be a little easier (pray to God.) And the next day, easier than that. And so on. The only way it stops improving is if we give up. Or, you know, in the fall when we have to do it all over again.