Sunday
Well, daylight savings time hit last night, and things are NOT going smoothly around here. Mom has been talking about it for a week like it's some big event, like we're moving to a different time zone or something. She made a point to remind us a million times to set our clocks back an hour. No one was happy about it, but we all agreed because, well, what else can you do?
But there was one person who wasn't on board: Manny.
You'd think the kid would love getting an extra hour of sleep, right? Nope. Apparently, Manny's been doing some deep thinking, and he decided that daylight savings time is "stupid" and "for babies." So, in typical Manny fashion, he went on a rampage. Last night, while the rest of us were asleep, Manny took matters into his own hands. He went around the house and reset EVERY. SINGLE. CLOCK. back to the original time. He even managed to change the ones on Mom's phone, Dad's alarm clock, and the microwave!
I woke up this morning thinking I had a good amount of time before school, but when I got downstairs, Mom was freaking out.
"GREG! Why aren't you ready? You're going to be late for the bus!" she yelled, practically throwing me my backpack.
I had no idea what was going on until I noticed the clock on the stove. Somehow, it was showing an hour later than my alarm. And then it hit me.
Manny.
Sure enough, Mom figured it out pretty quick when she found Manny sitting in the living room, casually flipping through one of his picture books.
"Manny, did you touch the clocks?" Mom asked.
Manny just looked up and said, "I don't believe in daylight savings."
Monday
This whole "protest" of Manny's didn't stop with just resetting the clocks. Oh no, that would be too simple. Now Manny's decided he's going to live on his own time. We were all sitting at dinner when he suddenly declared, "It's my bedtime now," and just got up from the table. The thing is, it was only 6:30, but according to Manny Time, it was already 7:30, which is apparently his bedtime.
Mom tried to explain to him that he has to follow the same time as the rest of us, but Manny wasn't having it.
"I'm not tired yet," he said. "Daylight savings is wrong."
Dad started getting involved at that point, trying to explain how time works, but trust me, there's no reasoning with Manny when he gets like this. So, of course, Manny got sent to his room, but honestly? I don't think that's much of a punishment for him. He's probably in there adjusting his toy clocks to Manny Standard Time.
Tuesday
Okay, so this is where things started getting out of hand. This morning, Dad's alarm didn't go off because Manny unplugged it. When Dad asked him why, Manny said, "It's broken. Your clock doesn't know the real time."
Dad wasn't exactly thrilled with Manny's little rebellion, but the final straw came when he was late to a big meeting at work. Dad's boss apparently didn't care that his five-year-old sabotaged the clocks. So when Dad got home, he was NOT happy.
He took Manny aside for a "serious talk." I'm pretty sure that didn't work, because tonight when I went to brush my teeth, I found out that Manny had messed with my alarm clock too. It was set two hours ahead of time, which means if I hadn't noticed, I would've gotten up at 4:30 in the morning.
Honestly, this whole daylight savings thing is a mess. I bet back in the day, when they came up with this idea, they didn't have to deal with little brothers like Manny.
Wednesday
This morning, Mom and Dad tried a new strategy: they gave Manny his own clock and told him he could keep whatever time he wanted in his room, but the rest of the house would stay on normal time. I thought this would finally end the madness.
Guess what? It didn't. Manny's "protest" clock is the one he's using to decide everything now. He goes to bed when he thinks it's time. He eats lunch whenever he feels like it. And this afternoon, he even told Dad that he couldn't do his chores because, according to his clock, "it was nighttime already."
So now, the whole family is living in constant chaos. We never know what time it is, and I'm starting to think I'm gonna be late for school every day until this daylight savings thing ends next year.
Thursday
Dad tried one last attempt to end the madness. He sat Manny down and told him, "There's only one clock that matters, and it's the one on the wall." Manny didn't even look up from his drawing and said, "Nope. Not for me."
Dad was ready to explode, but then Mom came in with a different plan. She told Manny that if he agreed to follow the "real" time for one week, they'd let him skip an hour of bedtime next weekend. Manny thought about it for a second, then nodded like he was making some kind of royal decree.
So, I guess the protest is over... for now. But something tells me Manny's not done messing with the clocks. And I wouldn't be surprised if he's got bigger plans for when daylight savings hits again next year.
At least then, I'll know to hide my alarm clock first.
