This year marks the centenary of one of the more quirky dates in our diaries. ‘Daylight saving’ was introduced on our shores back in 1916 following its success in Germany and Hungry as a novel tactic to save money and improve productivity during the war. It’s had a few blips and controversies along the way, but is now a firm part of British culture.
Do you remember when the clocks’ changing was fun? “Oooh – an extra hour in bed tonight!” or “I’m still going to get up at 9am even though it will technically be 10am. Ha ha!”. These are the sort of phrases that make you laugh out loud (or slap them in the face, depending on your mood) once you are blessed with children of your own.
In the autumn, that ‘extra hour’ is more hassle than I could have possibly imagined. For the last couple of years I have sneakily adjusted the clocks upstairs by just half an hour on the first night, then move them back another 30 mins the following night. This is enough to trick my two older kids into staying in bed for the extra 30 mins without getting fidgety.
The move to BST in the spring is even tougher. I mean, suddenly it’s bright daylight at 7pm, so clearly that’s not bedtime now? Yes? Err… well, no. Here black out blinds, doubled with lined curtains, are worth their substantial weight in gold. The staggered time shift method can also be effectively employed.
At just under 2 years old, our youngest doesn’t seem to have grasped the reasons for the change from GMT to BST either. I tried explaining to her the statistical studies regarding road safety issues and benefits for the economy behind having long sunny evenings… but I think I lost her at the Seasonal Affective Disorder part.
Really, what I’m saying is, for millions of us, the clocks change is more about how you can amuse a baby/toddler for an extra hour at silly o’clock, or how you persuade your kids to go to sleep when the sun is still shining. Actually gaining or losing an hours sleep yourself has absolutely nothing to do with it. After all, when you are awake 4 or 5 times a night, every night, dealing with young kids, then frankly an hour either way doesn’t even register on the scale.
However, having said all that, those long sunny evenings cannot come soon enough for me. It opens up a whole new window in terms of timescales for getting those outdoor jobs done. Oh, and of course for socialising merrily in beer gardens and all those sort of things I am lead to believe young people still do.
