Turn Back the Clocks, Turn Up the Chaos

Those couple times a year when we to save ourselves a little more daylight usually sneaks up on me. This year, it fell at a particularly hectic time in our lives.

In the past week alone we have had more going on than we usually do in an entire month. We moved into a new home which is a huge adjustment for anyone, but especially for two kids under the age of four. Throw in a freak , , a , sugar-induced highs from and then mess with the inner workings of a toddler’s time clock–and you have the makings of a very chaotic household.

In all the craziness of the past week, I must confess the one thing I feared the most (moving) was actually the easiest for the kids to adjust to. I thought they might be sad about leaving their old home, but it turns out a bigger house with a playroom trumps any childhood memories they might have been wistful about in the old place.

Jack turned two, the snow came and w in the midst of our unpacking and attempts to get cable and wireless internet running. And before I could make sense of much else, I found myself stuffing the kids into their Halloween costumes so as not to deprive them of the experience of finagling free candy from our new neighbors.

We were still adjusting to the changes and trying to figure out how to get rid of the rest of the Halloween candy when Sunday arrived.

If you are anything like me, you were pretty darned excited for the prospect of one extra hour of sleep on Sunday. But, if you have a baby or young children at home like I do, you probably also came to the disappointing conclusion that “sleeping in” is no longer a part of your vocabulary.

If your kids typically wake up at the unfortunate hour of 5:30 a.m., then you probably got to start your day Sunday at the totally unacceptable time of 4:30 a.m.

I never know if I should try to put them down for bed or naps at what their old bedtime was or just work with the new time on the clock. Either way, seems to produce tired children and grumpy parents.

Some experts tout the gradual time change so that parents can shift scheduled meals and nap times by 10 or 15 minutes a day.  But with the week we had, I was lucky to get them to go to sleep at all.

It would be nice if there were more of a warning ahead of time that DST is approaching perhaps in the form of seasonal décor at retail locations. I know Christmas is right around the corner because the mall is decked out. Why not suspend clocks from the ceilings a month in advance so it won’t come as such a shock when the time rolls around?