To have just realised something really obvious

[MaggieMagpie1]

My alarm went off at 6 00 this morning for my first day commuting into the office since before Christmas. I wfh 3 days and in office 2 days.
I was about to go about my usual morning routine and creep around in the dark so I don't disturb DH who has a later start than me.

I think my system was in a bit of shock from the early start, but I suddenly thought 'don't make things harder than they have to be for yourself, switch on the light' so I did.

I know it's such an obvious thing but what a difference it made to the start of my day. Left feeling much happier. DH has never asked me to keep the light off btw.

I know there are a few things I do that no one else asks me to that make my life a bit more difficult. Am on the lookout for more now.

Anyone any experience of this or ideas on how to stop doing it?

Did your DH wake up?

i just make sure I’m completely ready the night before and then I just have to shower, get dressed into the clothes I put out the night before, grab my bag and go.

Not sure about this..I hope it was a lamp at least. DH gets up 2 or more hours before I have to, I'd be pretty pissed off if he turned the big light on and clattered around the place getting ready, and I wouldn't do it to him either.

Oh I wouldn’t have put the light on and woken my DH in those circumstances even if it made my life easier.

That’s what phone torches and swear words exist for!

I would be fuming if someone switched the lights on while I was sleeping.

have you tried an alarm that wakes you up with the sunrise so the lighting is less harsh?

Which light did you switch on? The bedroom light whilst your dh was sleeping??

I take my stuff into the spare room night before and use the main bathroom and not the ensuite so then I just creep out of our room and lights are not an issue

Meh. We just use sleep masks. I hate faffing about in the dark like a criminal in my own home.

If you sorted out your things the night before, you don’t have to creep around in the dark. Put your clothes & make-up in a safe spot in the bathroom, and you are good to go

My DH is often up before me, he never turns the light on, I would find that really inconsiderate!

He just leaves his clothes in the spare room and gets dressed there so as not to disturb me. I do the same on the rare occasions I'm up and out before him, I don't find it tobe any great inconvenience.

If I have a very early start I put everything i need in the spare room the night before and get ready there so noone is disturbed

We’ve never asked each other not to put the light on if we’re up before the other, it’s just something neither of us would do.

I get up two hours before my DH; I wouldn’t dream of turning on the big light because he’d wake instantly and be grumpy all day

Exactly, it goes without saying.

OP appears to have decided to make her life easier and nicer at the expense of someone else. Not really the positive vibe she's trying to claim....

Reminds me of a friend who always crept around in the dark till one night husband was away - she put the light on to go for a wee and the room was full of bedbugs! Brought in apparently on a new bed being in a van with contaminated beds - yikes!

My husband does the sneaking thing. He hunts around with his phone torch and every time I tell him to turn the bloody light on and not mind me… but he says he hates disturbing me. Lovely man, but I’m quite alright with waking up at the same time considering I don’t work 😂 Silly sausage.

He wakes at 7 though. When I was up at 6 for work and he wasn’t working I snuck around too 😂

I’d be fuming if my DH pit the big light on if I was asleep! When we used to work shifts we’d put our kit in the spare room and get ready in there. How inconsiderate.

Gawd I think it's unacceptable to put the bedroom light on if one of you is still asleep.

Just leave the room using phone light and put other lights on, surely?

OK thanks. 🙂 It was a lamp btw.

I’d be so cross if DP did this to me, and I never do it to him! How mean.

I think DH has never asked you not to turn the light on, because it's a given that you don't disturb the person who gets up later. (It would be the other way round, that the later getter up would say "don't worry about disturbing me").

I agree with others that you should just get everything out the night before so you can grab it (or have it all out not in the bedroom) easily.

I don't know what other things you are thinking about, but if you do something that makes your life harder and you don't know if others care, the obvious thing to do is ask - start with DH "would you mind if I turned the light on in the morning, or would you prefer I got changed in the bathroom?"

Yeah i wouldnt do that, i just get my stuff ready the night before and out it in the spare room

Isn't that what phone torches are for? At least it was a lamp. Still, seems selfish.

I'm curious if your DH has any thoughts on the light!

But to answer your question... times we do something nice that no-one has asked for / actually cares about...

A lot of Christmas gift giving I would say!

People bringing random edibles back from their holiday and into the workplace. Noone wants Turkish Delight with their cup of tea.

Insisting on helping clear up after dinner at someone's house (and actually making it harder work because you don't know where anything goes etc).

I think you’re fine, OP. I used to creep around and then I remembered that DH was able to sleep soundly through all of DCs night wakings for years.

I can turn the light on, watch TV, whatever - nothing stirs him, he just slumbers on.

"I suddenly realised if I inconvenienced others it made my life much easier"