As a mother of small children, the time change in the United States to "save daylight" concerns me more than ever before in my life...it concerns me in the sense that I give more than two thoughts to it, like I used to. But then Tom realized that we're going camping a few days after the time change, which might mean that the kids wake up at 6 a.m. in the old time, which is really 5 a.m. in the new time. NOT a happy thought, especially since we're camping with friends....and I gave about two hundred thoughts to it...especially since Tom kept mentioning it!So we decided to transition our family more than a week early (the time change is this coming Sunday, in case you weren't anticipating it!) Friday, Tom started keeping the kids up 30 minutes later. He was disappointed they didn't sleep in 30 minutes on Saturday morning, but I reminded him that our kids make up for lost sleep the second night, and sure enough, after going to bed 30 minutes late on Saturday night, they slept in 30 minutes on Sunday morning.
It's not just enough to keep them up later at night: we also have to change their meal times to really help them adjust their sleep clocks. So starting today, I'm serving each meal 30 minutes later than normal.
Sleeping in on the weekend is ok, but during the week, it can be a challenge to have kids getting up 30 minutes later and still get out the door by 8 a.m. for therapy Monday and Thursday, and school today. That's why we only transitioned 30 minutes this week. It would be too much of a hardship to have them a full 60 minutes off the real time this week, or to serve meals a full 60 minutes later.
But we're hoping that with a 30-minute change in sleep (and nap!) times and meal times this week, the 30 minutes next week to the new real time will be easier. After all, it's closer to William Willet's original idea with the time change. And we really hope they're not wide awake and singing at 5 a.m. while we're camping.
What are your tricks for transitioning kids during the time change? To see more fun ideas, go to We Are THAT Family.
3 comments:
Hey Cindy - you guys are super-organised...WOW! We don't have time changes here in South Africa but I can tell you that even if Meghan goes to bed two hours late, she's still up at the crack of dawn the next morning...especially over weekends. Good luck though for your camping trip.
Yipes! I would have forgotten completely. Luckily, the kids are off tomorrow and Friday, so I can give the schedule a few yanks w/o cashing in school day attentiveness. I will start tonight - thank you for posting this!
Oh crap, I didn't even think about that. I better figure out what I am going to do.
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