nah .. if i just switch to <code>use Carbon\Carbon as DateTime</code> or something (ie, completely replace date-times, then much of existing code would get screwed up. Only overriding the existing <code>Eloquent::asDateTime</code> method allows Eloquent to work with <code>DateTime</code> and any of its child classes, but accessing a date via Eloquent returns a <code>Carbon\Carbon</code> object