To ask if we can stop dicking about with the clocks?

[ThirdElephant]

Just that, really. I'm up at 4:30 for the second day in a row because of this clock nonsense. Changing bedtime is not adjusting wake-up time, just resulting in a tired infant. Can we all just leave the clocks where they are from now on?

It's madness and i keep hearing they are abolishing it and yet here we are!

Scotland here. The clocks changed, and it's still dark in the mornings so..

Will I change the clock on my wall or just wait six months....

It’s the summer change they should get rid of... and just keep it as it is now.

YABU DS16 has SLD and no concept of time.

Getting dark an hour earlier gives me an extra hour of respite in the evening as he only understand light and dark.

Summer nights are hell here.

@ColinTheKoala

A large number have already parented their own children through that stage. They can see past it

What a smug remark.

I think you mean their children are already past that stage, so they don't care.

No, I didn't mean that at all and it wasn't smug in the slightest. It's a simple fact. Hindsight is a marvellous thing.

The amount of time that a child's sleep is affected by the clock change is very limited (and I've been through it three times so I've been there plenty!)

@tabulahrasa

It’s the summer change they should get rid of... and just keep it as it is now.

No. The thing is, most of us don't live our lives symmetrically around midday. At the equinox, how many people would really prefer it being light at 6am and dark again by 6pm , versus 7am and 7pm? At midsummer, do you really want the bloody dawn chorus and dawn an hour earlier, and lose a lovely hour in the evening?

I hate the clocks going back. I'd happily leave it on summer time all year long.

If the clocks didn't go back it would start getting dark at 4.30 and be dark at 5 rather than start getting dark at 3.30 and dark at 4 which is how it ends up in December. Theres no logical reason for messing with the times as the number of daylight hours remains the same. It's simply the powers that be letting us know who rules the roost.

YABU

I I've the dark evenings and mornings. I sleep a lot better.
Rather than in Summer when the clocks go forward and it's light till 12pm and the birds start tweeting at bloody 4am because the sun is coming up again.
I spend most of Summer knackered

@NigellaSeedofChucky

Scotland here. The clocks changed, and it's still dark in the mornings so..

Will I change the clock on my wall or just wait six months....

It's only 5 months to wait for it to be right again I wouldn't bother changing it 😛

I've -love
12pm - 11pm

Stupid phone

f we didn't change the clocks, the options would be:

a) stay on GMT all year round: in summer, in southern England, it would start getting light at 3am instead of 4am in June, and then dark at 9pm instead of 10pm. I don't see how that would improve our lives. Being woken up by birds in the middle of the night and then having those lovely summer evenings spent outside eating and drinking cut short? No thanks.

b) Stay on BST all year round: in December, in southern England, it wouldn't be properly light until 9:15am instead of 8:15am. In Scotland it would be even worse - still dark at 10am in some places! I personally would find that horrific. The hardest part of winter for me mentally are the dark mornings, so making them dark for longer would not be worth it IMO. The pay-off would be it getting dark at 5pm instead of 4pm (southern England again), but is that really going to make that much of a difference to our lives? If it gets dark at 4pm, most primary school children will be home by time it gets dark anyway, and most office workers will be leaving the office in the dark either way, whether it gets dark at 4pm or 5pm. And in December all you want to do is get home asap anyway.

I wonder if we even need to be on the same hours anymore. With cloud based working and email etc you could just get up and work when you wanted. Service industry could just be on a 'when it's light we might be open' basis. Everyone could just do what they wanted

In Scotland it would be even worse - still dark at 10am in some places! I personally would find that horrific

I suppose it depends on what work you do, but I don't understand why that's any more horrific than having it dark at 4 pm. Whatever you do, you are not going to extend the hours of daylight.

@DietrichandDiMaggio

Surely if your child is awake at 4.30 that means they were getting up at 5.30 before, if so why weren't you working on adjusting their sleeping hours already, so that they were waking at a more acceptable time? Waking up at 6 am when your child normally wakes at 7 is far more bearable.

I get up at 5:30 for work and am out of the house before 7.

@Platax

In Scotland it would be even worse - still dark at 10am in some places! I personally would find that horrific

I suppose it depends on what work you do, but I don't understand why that's any more horrific than having it dark at 4 pm. Whatever you do, you are not going to extend the hours of daylight.

On winter evenings, roads and pavements have thawed out through the day and don’t freeze up again until after schools and standard office hour commuters are home.

But in the morning, they’re still frozen and everyone then has to walk an drive in the dark in icy conditions.

That’s why it’s better to have daylight earlier, if everyone is out and about while it’s still dark it’s more dangerous.

@OverTheRubicon

We're a nation with an obesity problem, a lack of exercise problem, and a female safety problem. All of these would be better addressed by lighter afternoons and evenings.

Going to school or work in the dark is not great but is a safer time of day and will be largely on lit roads. Playing or socialising simply isn't possible in dark parks and playgrounds, and walking home at 5pm in the dark is less safe than walking to work or school at 8.30am in the same darkness.

Do you have any idea how cold, icy dark and dangerous roads and pavements would be not just in Scotland but N. England would be too if we didn't change our clocks in winter . But folks in the south want to play Tennis , Golf and play on the swings ,Jesus .

On winter evenings, roads and pavements have thawed out through the day and don’t freeze up again until after schools and standard office hour commuters are home.

But in the morning, they’re still frozen and everyone then has to walk an drive in the dark in icy conditions.

That’s why it’s better to have daylight earlier, if everyone is out and about while it’s still dark it’s more dangerous.

This!!!

And if we didn't change them forwards again in summer, the birds would be waking us up at 3am.

"On winter evenings, roads and pavements have thawed out through the day and don’t freeze up again until after schools and standard office hour commuters are home.

But in the morning, they’re still frozen and everyone then has to walk an drive in the dark in icy conditions.

That’s why it’s better to have daylight earlier, if everyone is out and about while it’s still dark it’s more dangerous."

100% agree!

Do you have any idea how cold, icy dark and dangerous roads and pavements would be not just in Scotland but N. England would be too if we didn't change our clocks in winter . But folks in the south want to play Tennis , Golf and play on the swings ,Jesus

That gets me too the reasons mainly for not changing is the inconvenience of changing clock (many work by magic these days) and wanting to enjoy the evenings no real consideration about the pitch black mornings and the safety risk of them.

But by mid winter many of us go to work and come home in the dark, but at least our children get to come home while it's still light.
Not much we can do about little daylight but at least make the hours we do get alight with school hours.

I was reading that ireland did nott put clocks back 1969-1971 but they went back to the usual way partly because the weather not the light was worse in the mornings than in the evenings.

Same. Kids had a zoom lesson today with a tutor in another country (language lessons) I forgot the time changed here but not in said country. My phone changes automatically so hardly have to think about it! We where an hour kate for the lesson wandering where the teacher was. Whereas an hour before the teacher was doing the same thing

At the risk of sounding like a smug twat, we just ignore it. The children go to bed at the time on the clock when they would normally go to bed and we carry on the next day in line with the time on the clock. We've done it since they were tiny. It's possible that we have splendid children (of course...don't we all?!) but it's only an hour.
I hope that for those working night shifts you don't get docked for clocks forward...

@Chuzzle

At the risk of sounding like a smug twat, we just ignore it. The children go to bed at the time on the clock when they would normally go to bed and we carry on the next day in line with the time on the clock. We've done it since they were tiny. It's possible that we have splendid children (of course...don't we all?!) but it's only an hour. I hope that for those working night shifts you don't get docked for clocks forward...

Not smug, but definitely lucky or at least unusual in your circumstances.

We did pretty much this when mine were little (well, 2 of 3, one always rose early and we couldn't face 5am turning to 4am), but much harder once you need to have them at nursery or school, and much harder again once they can read the time. For lots of people, DCs getting up much after 7 would make for a tricky rush in the mornings, but at the same time 6am is early and/or would make bed time the night before too early to work around either clubs or seeing parents before bed. Once they tell the time, most children are sticklers for routine, and not that impressed to hear that dinner is now at 7pm not 6pm (and 5pm instead of 6pm could leave them still at after school club).