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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

385 replies

ThirdElephant · 01/11/2021 04:48

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?

OP posts:
tigger1001 · 01/11/2021 07:52

@gannett

Stick with BST I say.

I'd much rather have daylight at 4.30pm than 6.45am.

The sun setting mid-afternoon is just depressing and constricts what you can do in the day. No outdoor activities when it's not even the evening yet is ridiculous.

No one needs it to be light before 7am. Winter mornings are cold and miserable anyway, they may as well be dark too.

It's nice for it to be daylight before 10am though.
Intercity225 · 01/11/2021 07:52

I’m sure they had a trial where they didn’t change them one year.

Yes, I remember it was when we were at secondary school. It was horrible going to school in the dark.

HighlandCowbag · 01/11/2021 07:53

I love the clock change, have ponies I need to turn out before uni etc. If the clocks didn't change I'd be paddling around in the dark.

They will currently be fuming tho, I'm usually there by 8am, and in their head it's already 9am and I'm late. The groom has given hay but they will be waiting for turn out now.

RobinPenguins · 01/11/2021 07:53

@LoislovesStewie

BTW I notice that no-one in the far north of the country ever complains when the sun sets really late! The point is that you can't have it all; if you live where the nights are very short in high summer then the winter nights will be correspondingly long.
No I don’t complain about a lighter evening but I don’t prefer that to a lighter morning. I’d gladly stay on this time all year round and not bother putting them forward in spring.

I’m not in Scotland either, but there’s a great deal of variation just within England.

squishee · 01/11/2021 07:54

The EU said everyone should stop though so there are some murmurings about next year being the last time and then us staying on British Summer Time

I'm pretty sure something happened recently between the UK and EU that might go against this... Can't quite remember what...

DietrichandDiMaggio · 01/11/2021 07:57

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.

LakieLady · 01/11/2021 07:58

@Showmethefood

Totally agree. I was on a 12 hr shift last night, which turned into 13 hours. I’m shattered.
It had never occurred to me that this happened to people working nights. Blush

Do you get an hour's extra pay? You damn well should!

MrsBungle · 01/11/2021 07:58

I much prefer it being lighter for my 12yo dd to go to school. She leaves by 7:30am. It would be pitch black if the clocks didn’t change.

prh47bridge · 01/11/2021 07:58

In 1968, the government of the day started a 3-year trial of British Standard Time, which meant we stayed on British Summer Time all year. Many people worried about children dying on the roads due to the darker mornings and there was a booming trade in reflective clothing for children.

Overall, deaths and serious injuries on the roads went down, with an increase in casualties in the morning being more than balanced by a reduction in casualties later in the day. When the time came for parliament to decide whether to make the experiment permanent, those opposing the move ran a campaign highlighting every child death in the morning and blaming it on British Standard Time. As a result, MPs overwhelmingly voted to scrap the experiment.

lollipoprainbow · 01/11/2021 07:58

We have this discussion every year yawn !!

iglpgl · 01/11/2021 07:59

I wouldn't mind sticking with GMT. We don't really need it to be light until past 11pm in the summer, and I'd prefer to lose an hour of daylight then than have even darker mornings in the winter (I'm in Scotland). It's difficult to get to sleep when it's still light outside!

Moving to BST full-time would make no sense to me; as another poster has already said, GMT is the "real" time and BST is the adjustment.

GoingForAWalk · 01/11/2021 07:59

I love it when the clocks change at this time of year as it resets my body clock in a positive way. They said DC aren't toddlers anymore but teens so it resets all of us

Darbs76 · 01/11/2021 08:01

We change them as it would be too dark in the mornings in many parts of the U.K. if we didn’t, so more accidents with kids going to school.

gannett · 01/11/2021 08:01

It's nice for it to be daylight before 10am though.

I would still rather it be dark at 9am than 4pm.

4pm is a time when you want to do nice things in the daylight. Sports and socialising and such.

9am is either just a commute that's miserable anyway, or if you don't have a commute then you're not leaving the house.

tigger1001 · 01/11/2021 08:05

@gannett

It's nice for it to be daylight before 10am though.

I would still rather it be dark at 9am than 4pm.

4pm is a time when you want to do nice things in the daylight. Sports and socialising and such.

9am is either just a commute that's miserable anyway, or if you don't have a commute then you're not leaving the house.

It's far safer to have at least one commute in daylight hours though and far safer for kids to get to and from school in the daylight if possible.

It's already made a huge difference to me having an hour extra daylight in the morning.

Would far rather have light mornings.

gannett · 01/11/2021 08:06

Fears about kids and car accidents are surely placing too much emphasis on BST. Surely a better answer would be to campaign for stricter rules for motorists - lower speed limits around schools or even more pedestrianised areas? A less car-centric society would be better all round, and in the meantime I'm all for anything that limits car drivers from acting like they're entitled to all public space.

lollipoprainbow · 01/11/2021 08:06

I personally love the darker evenings.

LoislovesStewie · 01/11/2021 08:06

@LakieLady, I used to work shifts (in the emergency services). Every year I worked nights when the clocks went back and earlies when the clocks went forward. So I worked an extra hour on nights, no extra pay and lost an hour of sleeping so that on earlies I was actually getting up what was really 4 a.m (earlies started at 5.45 a.m).

ColinTheKoala · 01/11/2021 08:08

@Itsnotgreatlike

I take your point, but there's nowhere near as much traffic on the roads at 4pm as at 8am, so on balance it seems safer.
Where I live there is loads of traffic on the roads at 4pm. Seems to the be the tail end of the school run and beginning of rush hour.

I think if we didn't put the clocks back at all we'd find December and January impossible with getting up and going to school/work in the dark.

BUT why do we have to wait until the end of March to put the clocks forward again. Lets do it at the end of February so we can maximise evening daylight.

I don't understand people who want to stay on GMT all year round though - it would be light at 3am but still dark by 9pm in the height of summer. What a waste.

ThinWomansBrain · 01/11/2021 08:08

No!
So much more energised by waking up at about 7am and it being light outside.

LakieLady · 01/11/2021 08:08

@risefromyourgrave

I’m sure they had a trial where they didn’t change them one year. My mum has said about it, she said it was horrible.
I was at secondary school then.

It was horrible, by December it was still dark when I had to set off for school, and my school didn't start until 8.50. It made it so hard to get up in the mornings, and I'm one of nature's larks, I always wake early.

My DF hated it too, he had to leave for work soon after 7, and would barely be properly light by the time he got to work. He said it felt like the middle of the night.

Willyoujustbequiet · 01/11/2021 08:09

Yabu. It's not just Scotland and it's not just farmers. It would be dark here until not far off 10am if we didn't change.

They tried it 1968 - 71 and people didnt like it.They gave it a go and there were more accidents in the morning. The argument being that people are still half asleep and not as alert. So they scrapped it.

Noducksgiven · 01/11/2021 08:09

I don't understand why we still change them?? (happy to be educated - I know the history of why, but why do we still do it?)

So that children in Northern parts of the UK don't have to walk to school in the dark.

AutumnAlmanack · 01/11/2021 08:10

I was around for the experiment in the late 60s. Believe me, it was miserable! My mother used to take me to school for 8.30 and the first lesson was always conducted in the dark! (By the way, this is the South Coast.) I never felt I had woken up properly and as school didn't finish until 4.20, it was dark by the time I got home anyway!

I really cannot believe that many people 'socialise' between 4 and 5 pm - so to keep BST would hardly give any advantages at all. Let's just keep it the way it is - I love the light morning and evenings in spring/summer but just about manage to survive these awful times in autumn and winter. Still, only 7 weeks until the Shortest Day!

ColinTheKoala · 01/11/2021 08:10

@squishee

The EU said everyone should stop though so there are some murmurings about next year being the last time and then us staying on British Summer Time

I'm pretty sure something happened recently between the UK and EU that might go against this... Can't quite remember what...

The point is that the EU was talking about it, and the UK probably wouldn't want a different time zone to Ireland for half the year.