British Summer Time-The Dreaded time for Parents
As a month heads towards its end, I often find myself looking in my diary at the month ahead. There’s nothing uncommon about that really. It is a sensible thing to do, to see if I have any birthdays or events I need to remember.
As I looked forward to March however, four little words sent a cold chill down my spine.
British Summer Time Begins.
Now I know, for most people, these three words are the words of hope. Hope for longer days, warmer days. Even hot days.
As a parent though, I found myself sighing with the realisation-not that we will be up even earlier but that we begin the battle of getting the children to bed in daylight and keeping them there.
I am resigned to not sleep past 6am (probably earlier) for the next six months.
It seems to me, it takes the six months since the clocks go back to get young children into any kind of sleeping routine-well, that’s how it seems here.
Most children are under the illusion that if it is light, it is day and therefore time to get up and play. I cannot blame them for that.
There are items on the market which you can buy to alleviate the sun shining in. We have a black-out blind and curtains with a black-out lining but it’s not a totally tight fit so light does stream in through any cracks.
Coupled with that, my two are early risers anyway so I could well be getting up at 4am for a few days.
I have tried to think of different things to do. Last summer I hung a black curtain over the curtain rail and secured it around the edges with hair clips. It looked awful but kept the light out so I didn’t really care.
Last year Baby G was only a couple of months old when the clocks went forward and, let’s face it, it is a while before babies can decipher between night and day so it didn’t really affect him. This year could well be a whole different story.
I am hoping his Glo-Light will mean he is used to a little bit of light coming in. If it does affect him, I will probably try and move his cot out of light-beam reach of the window and have him sleeping away from the light-just as I did with his sister.
If all else fails, I will just have to brick up the windows.
Easy.
I find it’s not too bad at this time of year! I have only just got my two to sleep to about 6 since the clocks last changed though and I’m hoping I might actually get a lie in until 7 once the clocks change!
I am dreading it as my two little terrors are early risers too. Last summer was hell as my son was about 9 month and he woke at 5 every morning. We too have black out blind and curtains and the blooming light still gets in, bricking up the window sounds like a marvellous idea to me xx
I have been thinking about this myself lately as S wakes up quite early sometimes and I know she will be up even earlier 🙁
Ha ha! I love the lighter evenings but the early morning wake ups are a killer! You’ve reminded me to do a post about adjusting bedtime for when the clocks go back, but I’ve no idea how to keep them in bed for the early mornings!
Good luck! I hope like when you’re really putting off a task, it feels worse before it happens than in reality 🙂
I love a nice dark bedroom I do! mine as well as the children’s! We too have blackout blinds and curtains (I am glad it is not just me trying to gain every minute of sleep possible!) and hope that the change will not affect Little 3 too much, he has only started sleeping until gone 7, three weeks ago he was getting up at 5.30. #maternitymondays