When it's time to change the clocks, forward or backward, we're always faced with how we keep the kids on the same bedtime and rising schedule. I don't want them up an hour earlier in the morning or going to bed an hour later at night for weeks to come. When Emily was a baby, I remember the first clock change where it mattered to her schedule. We were lucky enough to have been in Texas when it went down. Texas is an hour behind us anyway so it all worked out even steven. After that, it always seemed to work out for us. Emily almost seemed to know that she needed to catch up to the new time and blessed us with a terrible bedtime or night the night the clocks changed so that she was extra tired the next day and easy to change to the new times.
That hasn't happened this year. We've just rolled with it so far. Tonight, I imagine will be similar, although we decided to keep the kids up an hour later hoping they'll sleep an hour later tomorrow. I know this is unlikely however. Often when they're up later, particularly Emily, they still get up at the same time. Well, at least they'll be easy to put to bed and I get an extra hour of sleep. And that extra hour to me means so much with a 1-year-old who is still getting up multiple times a night.
What about you? What are your strategies for changing your kids' schedules over to agree with the new time?
2 comments:
I kept both girls up about 45 minutes past their bed time. Maya usually goes to bed at 7:30 and Abby at 8 except for Mondays when I let her stay up to watch a little bit of Dancing With the Stars. Typically I just muddle through the time change the best I can, putting up with the disruption for a couple of days until they get used to it. I'm expecting Maya will be up at her regular time. Abby, I'm not sure. She was pretty wiped tonight after spending about 6 hours running around outside with the kid across the street.
I don't typically do anything. My boys are bigger, of course, but I find it is not a big deal. They are tired the first day, but it very quickly works itself out.
I think I am so laissez-faire about it because we've travelled a lot with the boys, and the time difference between Canada and Europe is just a much bigger deal. 6-8 hours here and there can make you lose a lot of sleep. One hour is really insignifcant, in that respect.
My advice would be to just try to stick to the 'regular' schedule, time change-adjusted, right from the get-go. Expect a few extra tears and fatigue, but within a day or so - cross fingers - they'll have it figured out for themselves.
Good luck!
Heidi :)
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