Why Daylight Saving Time is the Worst for Us Parents

On Sunday, November 5, we’ll go go through the motions of winding clocks back an hour, resetting the tiny digital numbers on every appliance, and obsessively clicking our bedside alarm in observance of Daylight Saving Time.

Yes, the scavenger hunt to locate every clock and watch in your home is a tad annoying, but, hey, at least our cell phones are smarter than us and have figured out how to automatically reflect the change. Plus, there’s that blessed extra hour of sleep we’ll gain! Who cares if the days are darker when there’s an additional 60 minutes of head-to-pillow time?

We’ll tell you who cares: parents. Us moms and dads know that as the clocks fall behind, we also fall behind… on our to-do lists, schedules, and the never-ending juggling act known as life with children. Little people don’t get the memo about resetting their internal alarm clocks— naptimes, mealtimes, and bedtimes are all affected.

They’ll begin their day an hour before the clock says it’s time to do so. You’ll try to point out to them that, no, it’s actually 6 a.m., not 7 a.m. They won’t care — either because they are too young to read the little-hand and the big-hand or they just literally don’t care. Either way, their little eyelids are open for business. And, while the rest of the country (aside from Arizona and Hawaii) blissfully soaks in that additional hour of shut-eye, you’re up, making pancakes and copious amounts of coffee to fuel up for the day ahead.

Because when evening falls, despite the yawns and sleepy faces, your kids have magically mastered how to tell time. Their chubby fingers point to the clock while proudly proclaiming, “look, it’s not bedtime yet!”

So, we’ll let them call the shots once again because trying to explain the reasoning behind Daylight Saving Time is a lost cause (mostly because we don’t fully understand it ourselves).

The next day, they’ll wake crankier than usual due to not getting their full amount of sleep. The cycle then continues for what feels like eternity until their internal clocksfinally recalibrate. It’s a brief relief until springtime hits and you have to start the process all over again.

It’s amazing how one hour — onemeasly hour — can throw such a monkey wrench into our lives.

All you non-parents, please savor that sweet, sweet extra sleep. Enjoy that pep in your step that’ll get you through morning meetings and rush-hour traffic. Oh, and Arizona and Hawaii? We think you’re onto something for saying “Daylight Saving Time? Nah, we’re good.”