Football Season, Time Zones and Bedtime

So as I was watching the Auburn game tonight without Robert, I started thinking about the time zones and start times and how it all works. In the last five (including this year) seasons, we have lived in all four CONUS time zones. Really, we have. So here's the deal:

In Eastern Time, you can manage to eat and almost get the kids to bed before a 745 ESPN kick-off. But you have to stay up till after 1100 to see how it all comes out, making you very sleepy for church the next morning (especially when you go to church at 845).

In Central Time, you can manage to eat before the game but you're working on bedtime in the second quarter. If you wait till half-time, it's a little late but before the game is too early. It's still after 1000 when the game is over, which is closer to bedtime but still can keep you up later than you mean to be when you have little ones.

In Mountain Time, you can have your supper cooked by the time the game starts, but you're usually eating during the first quarter. Thankfully in our house in Montana, we could see the TV from our dining area. A big help during football season! Bedtime comes at halftime and if you plan right, you can have the second half kid-free. The game is over at a reasonable hour and you might actually get to see a little of SportsCenter afterward.

In Pacific Time, unless you are good at crock-pot meals, you can't really cook before the game starts. So you're cooking and eating during the first half of the game. Halftime is too early for bedtime, which will now happen smack in the middle of the fourth quarter. Not the best time to leave a game. By the time the kids are in bed, you might be left with 2 minutes left in the game. If they go easy. It's only 830 when the game is over and you're left with one more west coast game that you could care less about now that the kids are in bed. So you'd better find a movie to watch.

So for future settle-down planning, I'm picking Mountain Time as the best time zone for football. At least with little kids. Just in case you were wondering.

BTW-In Germany, we had to get up in the middle of the night to watch the night games. Then it finished up about an hour before Robert had to leave for PT, which made it hard to decide whether to go back to bed or not. Well, not for me, but for him. In Iraq it's even further over in the morning, which means there is no time to go back to sleep. In the case of the rain delayed game, he was actually already at work on Sunday morning before the game was over.