Why ‘Summer Time’ is not good for parents

So the clocks have gone forward an hour and it is now officially British Summer Time (BST) - or I suppose that should really be Irish Summer Time from where I’m sitting.

This is good for one reason; we get more time to play outside during chilly, wet summer evenings.

For anyone with children, the concept of messing around with time is generally not a good idea. You see, for most small minds, sleeping and waking are worked out by very simple equations: darkness + moon = bedtime, daylight + sun = morning time. You try convincing a wilful three year old that it really is bedtime even though it isn’t dark outside, and then convince them the following morning that, yes the sun is up, but it is still technically night-time as it is only 5am.

There is actually a poll on the British Summer Time website: ‘Should We Stop Changing the Clocks’. I think I will cast a ‘Yes’ vote on behalf of all parents who suffer additional sleep deprivation at this time of year.

‘Invest in blackout blinds’ the parenting magazines and websites suggest. So I did, last year, and while they’re OK up to a point, I think ‘make the room slightly darker’ blinds would be a more truthful product name. Why can’t someone make a proper blackout blind – surely whatever they used in the Blitz would do the trick?

We will try to keep the small people up a little later tonight in the vague hope of counter-balancing their finely-tuned body clocks. I doubt it will make any difference though and can already hear the inevitable dawn chorus of a very small boy who just wants to get up and get on with a whole new day of playing with his trains.

And on that basis, maybe we shouldn’t stop changing the clocks after all!

Why ‘Summer Time’ is not good for parents