Time to “spring forward”? Hard Pass!
As a mom, I hate Daylight Saving Time. It’s right up there with folding laundry, shopping for jeans, and seeing teenagers dressed like Angela from My So-Called Life. 
Apparently DST started as a joke by Benjamin Franklin, morphed into a wartime appeal for more gardening time, and now is seen as a way to save money on electricity and prevent muggings. It was a national law for a while, then eventually left up to the states to decide for themselves. (Although changes don’t always happen even when the people speak.)
None of this means anything to my children, of course, whose primitive little bodies don’t care what the nation’s consensus on time is.
So here’s my idea: I’m not going to do it. I declare my home its own time zone. The clocks will stay as they are. This is how I shall make it work.
- When I want to call someone in Tucson, Knoxville, or London, I use basic math (or Alexa) to figure out their time zone. That’s how this will work, too. Friends want to set up a playdate at 3:30? A simple adjustment and it’s on my calendar for 2:30 my time. Daughter’s ballet is at 11? It’s at 10 now, sweetheart!
- My son has always been an early riser. Spring forward is always the hardest, because he’ll look at the clock and see 6 a.m. and believe it’s time to get up, even though it feels like 5 a.m. Under this new plan, I don’t have to change anything. When he wakes me at 6, I will be exactly as startled and sleep-deprived as normal – no more, no less.
- Last October, I couldn’t figure out how to change the clock in my car, so I’ve been driving around outside of DST for six months anyway. So my car clock will now be correct, and I will have one token timepiece set correctly. See, that problem solved itself!
- If I get tired of putting appointments an hour earlier on my calendar, I’ll just change the time on my phone. A quick Google search tells me that Alaska is an hour behind my local time. So iPhone settings > General > Date & Time > Turn off Set Automatically. Now I can select Anchorage and my phone is my ally.
There you have it. No more ultra-early mornings or it’s-too-light-outside-for-bedtimes. It’s seamless, foolproof, and totally legal.
What coping strategies do you use to get your kids through the time change?
