sunlightUgh. It's that time of year again. Sunday marks the beginning of daylight saving time, which is a major buzz kill no matter how you look at it.

Yep, moving our clocks forward is basically the same thing as erasing 60 minutes of our lives completely. We lose an hour of sleep. I repeat, we LOSE an HOUR of sleep. We sacrifice an hour of our weekend. And while daylight savings sucks bad enough for adults (especially parents), it throws our kids all out of whack too.

Heck, even my 7-year-old totally hates daylight saving time, and here's why.

  1. He has to go to bed "early." -- Little dude typically turns in between 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. each night, so with daylight savings, he's actually going to bed between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. even though that's not what the clock says. (And he knows this, and probably thinks we're pulling a fast one on him.) And if it's a school night, he has to go bed when the clock says 8 or 8:30 otherwise he won't be able to get up the next day. But since he's going to bed early, he can't fall asleep, which means he winds up staying up late and stalling, so he goes to bed at the normal time anyway. (My head is spinning.)
  2. He has to get up "early." -- He's an early riser in general, waking somewhere around 6 a.m. every single day. But now, 6 a.m. is really 5 a.m., because the real 6 a.m. is 7 a.m. If he sleeps till 7 a.m., our morning routine gets all thrown off, because he has little to no downtime before school, which he hates. So he has to get up at what used to be 6 a.m. But if he gets up when the clock says 6 a.m., that's way too damn early, and then he's a cranky mess. (It's a total lose-lose.)
  3. There's too much light. -- OMG. The whole thing with it staying light out later into the evening drives him nuts, because he doesn't understand why he has to go to bed when it's still light out. (Can you blame him for being confused?)
  4. It's a huge tease. -- Until school lets out for the summer, it's a major tease for him not to be able to stay outside and run and play until the sun goes down. (Daylight savings is just plain cruel, people.)
  5. I'm unhappy, so he's unhappy. -- The "if Mama ain't happy, nobody's happy" thing also applies to daylight savings time. He hears me bitch and moan about it, which makes him bitch and moan about it too. (Sorry, little man.)

What is the toughest part of daylight saving time for your kids?

 

Image via myguitarzz/Flickr