Springing forward

I remember fondly my days pre-children when the clock sprung forward an hour at the end of March and I never understood how my parents told me that I would have one hour less in bed. I didn't - I just got up one hour later.

Now however I have a different view and firmly believe we should cancel BST and GMT altogether. Why didn't we just move the clocks forward half an hour on Saturday night and then live permanently on this time zone? I can't really see any major change to life and the world, but to all those of us with young children we would reap the benefits.

Each Sunday morning I go for a run at 8.30am so this week I really did understand having one hour less in bed. But I got up and wearily met up with my running mate to go on a rather bracing 5km run. Of course I was up anyway, as Baby A and Baby E unused to telling the time were up on the dot of 8am as that had been 7am the day before. I did leave eldest daughter and boy in the middle fast asleep as I went out but seconds later they were up and demanding dear husband to make them a whole concoction of cereal for breakfast.

It wasn't until bedtime came that I realised the effects of the time change. I was lucky in that we had been out in the afternoon and so Baby A and Baby E has managed to miss their sleep making them so exhausted by 7pm, which of course had been 6pm the day before, they were thankful to get into their cots.

On the other hand we tried to persuade boy in the middle and eldest daughter into bed for 7.30pm and there was no chance that any sleeping was going to happen so early in the day. It resulted in a 9pm bedtime and then we had to drag them both out of bed this morning to get them out of the house.

And so as Spring is now well and truly here we do have lighter mornings and lighter evenings to look forward to but as a Mum of 4 I know that my battles will now begin. Firstly my eldest two kids like to go to bed when it is dark outside. They seem to forget every year that they go to bed in the summer when it's light. Even I sometimes go to sleep at night when it is light. No matter how many blackout blinds I have bought over the years, there is still a tiny chink of light around the edges and children over the age of about 4 can no longer be fooled.

Will my kids be up bright and early at 7am every day for school because it is light outside? Somehow it doesn't seem to work that way. The evenings may be lighter and longer but for the next 6 months my eldest two are going to go to bed later and later I will still have to drag them out of bed in the mornings.

But it's ok because in 6 months time we will move the clocks back to GMT and I will be able to have an extra hour in bed on that Sunday morning . 

Who am I kidding - I will have to be up at 6am instead of 7am.