The time is quickly approaching for the twice a year ritual of daylight savings time. Before Abbie, I honestly didn’t think much of daylight savings time – it was an hour of gained sleep or lost sleep, and that was that. But once you have kids? Well, your kid doesn’t know you’ve lost or gained an hour.
Their internal clock stays exactly the same… unless you change it in advance. The key? Changing it a little bit at a time. Abbie is 100% a child of routine. She thrives on it and messing it up by an hour would completely mess her up… so instead, I do it in increments.
Since on Sunday we move the clocks an hour forward, I do the same thing with her bedtime during the week this week. Abbie can handle about a 15-20 minute variation per day, so I just move it by that amount each day. For 15 minute increments, I start moving her bedtime on Thursday by 15 minutes – we normally start bedtime at 8, but that night we’ll start at 8:15. Friday will be 8:30, Saturday will be 8:45… and by Sunday night when the time has changed, we’re back to starting everything at 8, since that’s the old 9pm. Make sense?
When Abbie was younger, we did 10-minute increments, but you can do whatever works best for your child. I actually find this time change easier than the fall, since in the fall it’s a rush to move bedtime earlier! We’ve been doing this same method for years, and it hasn’t failed us yet!
Thoughts? How do you prepare for Daylight Savings Time?
4 Responses
Great idea! It’s funny because this year we will be away the week before the time change, in a place where they are an hour ahead. We fly back the Saturday, will be adjusting to that hour time change and then waking up Sunday to another time change. I haven’t quite figured out if we will have evened out or have 2 hours time difference to get used to 😉
Oh gosh. Good luck, but enjoy your vacation!!!
Great tips! I didn’t even realize it was almost time for this until our pastor mentioned it on Sunday!!
Yep, sneaks up on you!