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No matter the reason for Daylight Savings Time, I have grown to hate it. It didn't used to be that way. When I was a kid, Daylight Savings Time was fantastic. There was enough light so I could go outside after dinner to play. It signaled the beginning of spring, the end to the long Minnesota winter, and the promise of summer with no more school. Now, as an adult with children, I dread it.
It doesn't matter if it's spring ahead or fall back, it makes me exhausted. My body can't figure it out, so it decides it wants to go to bed at seven and sleep in until nine. It has the exact opposite effect on my kids. Fall or spring, they fight bedtime more and wake at an ungodly hour in the morning. Then they're crabby all day because they're getting less sleep than normal. I'm crabby because I'm exhausted, getting less sleep than normal, fighting over bed times more, and having to deal with crabby kids all day. It is not a pleasant week or two.
In the past, I have tried a variety of tips to help my kids adjust to the time change with no success. I have tried adjusting their bed and waking times by ten minutes each day for the week prior to the change. I have tried letting sunlight into their room to wake them naturally in the morning. I have tried just sticking to their regular schedule, and not letting them sleep when they aren't supposed to be, even if they're tired. It just doesn't work for my family.
This year, I am taking the tire them out approach and it seems to be working. Just by happenstance, we went for a little mini-vacation to my parent's house last Thursday through Saturday, throwing off the girls' sleeping schedules all together. I drove home with them at bed time on Saturday night, so they fell asleep in the car (and managed to stay asleep once we got home). Since Sunday, I have been doing everything in my power to wear them out. We have gone on multiple, unnecessary errands, in hopes that they will get over-stimulated. We picked out flowers for our yard at the nursery and have been planting all day today. We have done art projects, gone for walks, gone for tricycle rides, all to one end, to make them so exhausted, they have to sleep.
So far, so good. The baby is finally going to sleep at eight o'clock instead of nine o'clock, like I prefer. The two older girls are still fighting bed times, but only for our usual fifteen or twenty minutes, not the hour plus we usually have this time of the year. I'll have to try to remember this next time, and hope my parent's are up for another visit in the fall.
Do you have an tried and true secrets that work for adjusting your children to the time change? Do you hate it as much as I do?
Jessica
You can find me lurking about at Adventures With Three Girls
