Handling daylight savings time
This weekend brings the dreaded "spring forward" part of Daylight Savings Time. While it's great that spring is almost here, losing an hour is a headache for many parents. The Monday morning after the Sunday when you set the clocks ahead can be downright ugly. The kids are still getting up at 6:30 or 7 for school -- hard enough to begin with -- but now it feels like 5:30 or 6.
What are your strategies for helping kids -- and yourself -- adjust to the new time? By the way, today's Ask The Expert feature in the Sun is about the time change and insomnia. I was amused to note at the end of the piece that the expert said she lost a lot more sleep with young children than she did as an on-call doc.
Comments
The time change doesn't affect my kids as much because I'm at home with them and they are not in school yet. So they sleep when they are tired and get up when they are ready.
I'm actually looking forward to this time change because it means more evening daylight.
Posted by: Kayris | March 6, 2008 12:53 PM
We get our kids to bed 30 minutes earlier than their usual bedtime 3 to 4 days ahead of the time change. Then
Saturday and Sunday night closer to an hour earlier to get them used to the new time.
Posted by: Ronny B | March 7, 2008 8:04 AM
A sort-of related problem: we have had trouble getting our kids to bed in the summer when it is still light outside. The eventual solution was to get opaque vinyl blackout shades to pull down behind the curtains in their rooms at bedtime. Very reasonably priced, and Stebbins-Anderson in Towson will cut them to fit the exact width of your window.
Posted by: CM | March 7, 2008 2:53 PM