Every year, on the second Sunday in March, mom of two Jennifer Sanger is jolted awake by her bright-eyed and bushy-tailed 4-year-old son yelling, “The sun is up and the moon is down. Wake up, Mommy.” The time is an inhumane 6:30 a.m.
As she reluctantly rolls out of bed, already fearing having to awaken her groggy 6-year-old, Bexley, for school the next day, she thinks to herself: “There’s not enough bourbon in the world to get me through this daylight saving hell,” she told The Post.
Sanger, a 35-year-old children’s clothing designer from Columbus, Ohio, is just one of the many parents groaning about the time change. The clocks are set to spring forward this Sunday at 2 a.m., and parents have been dreading it — and the havoc it will wreak on kids’ bedtimes, wake-ups and tantrum-filled attempts to make it to school on time.
“This Sunday, please remember the victims of daylight savings time — parents who have to try to get their kids down at the right bedtime even though the f–king sun is still up,” one frustrated father lamented on Twitter.
Others are questioning why we even have daylight saving time. “Please stop this nonsense,” begged an equally exasperated mother in a tweet. “As soon as my kids settle into their bedtime routine, daylight savings starts again and messes everything up.”
Many are turning to social media not just to complain but also for tips and tricks to help little ones acclimate. The popular parenting experts @biglittlefeelings posted an Instagram story earlier this week with some helpful guidance.
“It’s heeeeere,” the story declared before offering up suggestions, including a popular strategy in which parents gradually shift kids schedules up in 15-minute increments to prepare for the big shift.
But Upper West Side clinical social worker Kelly Nadel said moms and dads shouldn’t try too hard to implement such coping mechanisms.
“Parents don’t necessarily need to stress themselves out trying to get their kids to bed 15 minutes earlier or not allowing screen-time [on TVs, tablets or phone] an hour before their new bedtime,” Nadel, 40, told The Post.
Instead, just go with it, take some deep breaths and remember that this, too, shall pass.
“[It’s] not forever,” she said. “The adjustment period is only about two or three weeks every year when your kids are little. Then, around the ages of 4 to 6, they’ll gradually become less affected.”
Shana Bull, 40, lamented that the 15-minute bedtime trick didn’t work on her 6-year-old son, Ryeson, or the family pet, a 20-year-old Yorkie named Macy, who also struggles with the clocks changing.
“Macy gets mad when her walks, dinner or sleep aren’t on schedule,” said Bull. “With dogs it seems their internal clock runs a little faster, so she feels like she’s losing two hours while we’re only losing one. Either way, my whole house is chaos.”
Meanwhile, Ryeson, who has cystic fibrosis and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is likely to wake at 4 a.m.
“He doesn’t want his tablet, he wants me or my husband, Jeff, to engage with him,” said Bull, a children’s book author who is based in California. “So one night I’ll get up and be with him, and Jeff will take over the next night.”
It’s so bad, she’s considering making a run for it.
“[We] actually went on a honeymoon to Mexico during daylight saving,” she said. “So we sometimes joke about dropping the kid off at grandma’s and running away to Mexico around this time of year.”