An Hour Behind

"What time is it again?" These are probably the most uttered words on the day after Daylight Savings Time. This is even more likely to be heard in households with children under 3, as I can personally attest to. When babies and toddlers are on a schedule, that schedule is dictated by what's in their little brains, and not a clock. After DST, when our young'uns bedtimes are at 8 PM, they're extremely grumpy by this time because their internal clocks are telling them it's an hour past bedtime. When they are used to waking up at 6 AM every day, they are now waking up at 5 AM. Which leads to grumpy parents.

To combat this, one week before you switch the clocks back or forwards, start to shift their schedule, in 10-15 minute increments. If bedtime is at 7 PM, make it 7:10 PM, then 7:20 PM, etc. every evening They'll adjust more fluidly come the day the clocks actually shift. Now this makes sense, and sounds easy enough to do on paper. But when you're actually trying to get your toddler to go to bed just at any consistent time at all, after dinner, a bath, playtime, TV time, story time, and a song before bed, it's darn near impossible.

Don't worry though – you'll get used to waking up an hour earlier after a week or so.