How to Manage Daylight Savings with Kids

Daylight savings (okay, it’s actually “daylight saving time,” but we have morphed it into “daylight savings,” over the years, so I am just going to go with the flow, here)  never used to bother me. It was just a thing that happened twice a year, and I seemed to adjust fine when it happened.

Until I had kids. Suddenly, I was drrrrrrreading daylight savings. Everyone was up before the sun and I just flat out get cranky when I’m up that early.

So, I needed to figure out a way to prevent this awful time of year from starting our mornings off on the wrong foot for about a week, and after some trial and error, have come up with a plan that has worked for us for several years now.

So with this day quickly approaching, I thought I would share so you too can implement the plan if you so choose.

It’s pretty simple: About four days before daylight savings, start adjusting the child’s bedtime by 15 minutes each day, so by go-time, they’re already adjusted or close to it.

For example. our kids normally go to bed at 7:00 and 7:30.

And for this upcoming day, which is “fall back,” this is what our nights will look like:

Thursday- Bedtimes of 7:15 and 7:45.

Friday- Bedtimes of 7:30 and 8:00

Saturday- Bedtimes of 7:45 and 8:15

Sunday- Bedtimes of 8:00 and 8:30.

Sometimes, we will even start this process even earlier in the week than the four days so that we have a little more time to adjust if the upcoming week is a busy one.

So, when fall back finally approaches, the kids will be used to going to bed at “8:00 and 8:30” which is now really 7:00 and 7:30.

Does that make sense?

We have done this since Gwyn was a toddler and it has worked well throughout the years.

And, to help little ones stay in bed in the morning, we use THESE Ok to Wake alarm clocks. They glow when it’s okay to get out of bed and have been SUCH a blessing in our home!

I hope it helps anyone who also dreads this time of year!