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AIBU?

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Original poster

Who actually benefits from changing the clocks?

593 replies

shockwaze · 31/10/2023 06:13

Kids up at 5:30. Pretty sure that the same thing has happened in many, many houses this morning.

It's just an hour, but so disruptive to children.

Who benefits? Winds me up every year.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
9
Simonjt · 31/10/2023 07:55

We started changing bedtime and morning get up about two weeks before by 10ish minutes a day, it stops any sleep disruptive and isn’t a pain to do.

gotomomo · 31/10/2023 07:55

Me, means I'm not getting up in the dark.

When my kids were at school it meant the didn't have to leave for school in the dark except the last week before Christmas.

The further north you live the bigger the benefit

Original poster
shockwaze · 31/10/2023 07:56

Oh @saffy2

Hardly nonsensical, I'm yet to be convinced it helps anyone. No one here has the answer.

I'm posting between bathing my two cherubs as well. I do apologise.

OP posts:
Zanatdy · 31/10/2023 07:56

Farmers and school kids, if you didn’t return the clocks to GMT then kids in Scotland would be walking to school in the pitch black. I think it’s better to put them back and deal with the early dark evenings than kids going to school in the dark

GRex · 31/10/2023 07:56

allsfairin · 31/10/2023 07:27

Farmers happen to be crucial to us staying alive - no one cares if you do or don't ring Australia, ring them, or email instead, or get another job. - neither of these options are available to farmers.

And it is designed to make the best use of our daylight hours, however short they are ( 6 hours in December, not 8, when we have 8, no children are not finishing school in the dark)

Show quote history

Please explain what exactly you think prevents a farmer from getting up at 5.30 in summer and 6.30 in winter, if they feel those are the best working hours for their farm.

Xol · 31/10/2023 07:57

I'm ancient enough to remember the BST full time experiment, I thought it was great.

Cheesecakefiend · 31/10/2023 07:57

Love the lighter mornings, never seems to be many dog walkers out that early so it benefits me hugely being able to walk in peace with my dog before work.

saffy2 · 31/10/2023 07:58

shockwaze · 31/10/2023 07:56

Oh @saffy2

Hardly nonsensical, I'm yet to be convinced it helps anyone. No one here has the answer.

I'm posting between bathing my two cherubs as well. I do apologise.

But you’ve also said they slept somewhere out of the ordinary and have a cold, so you’re still to convince me that any of their morning wake ups is anything to do with the clock change. So yeah it does sound pretty nonsensical. Plus a lot of your posts make not very much sense at all to me.

Pooooochi · 31/10/2023 07:58

I think statistically on a population basis the clock change is supposed to mean we use less energy, too. Ie this timing matches better with our useage for lighting and heat, and aligns better so that the period of light falls to the part of the day where most of us need light the most.

IcedPurple · 31/10/2023 07:58

Spain is quite weird at this time of year. They stick to European Central Time even though it's clearly unsuitable for them given how westerly Spain is. In winter, it's dark until well after 8 in the morning. Portugal is in our time zone and it's much better. Story is that Franco insisted on it because he wanted to be in the same time zone as Germany but that might be a myth.

grottyb · 31/10/2023 07:59

The majority of the country is disadvantaged for a tiny minority of the population.

And yet lots of non farmers on this thread have said it benefits them. Besides the farmers seem to be a red herring & it’s more to do with school kids.

BCCoach · 31/10/2023 07:59

BitofaStramash · 31/10/2023 06:34

Scotland benefits

Without it it would be dark until mid morning

This isn’t an argument for daylight saving at all. Daylight saving happens in summer not winter.

gotomomo · 31/10/2023 07:59

I actually wish it stayed gmt year round! Last week it was getting light so late (sw)

BarbaraofSeville · 31/10/2023 07:59

Zanatdy · 31/10/2023 07:56

Farmers and school kids, if you didn’t return the clocks to GMT then kids in Scotland would be walking to school in the pitch black. I think it’s better to put them back and deal with the early dark evenings than kids going to school in the dark

But they must be walking home in the dark, seeing as it's dark by 4 pm in Leeds, so will be dark earlier in Inverness, for example.

I was in Spain a couple of weeks ago, which is geographically in the wrong time zone. It should be on the same as the UK, Portugal and Ireland but aligns with France and Germany etc. It was a bit weird that it was still dark while 8.30 am, but the big advantage was that it was light in the evening until about 8 pm, so much better for being out and about then, when more people have time to do so.

BaronessEllarawrosaurus · 31/10/2023 07:59

My dd benefits, she left in the daylight for school and has another 3 weeks of that, evening wise apart from approx 1 week in December she will get home in the daylight.

Leaving on GMT all year would mean in August it would be sunset at 7.30pm. The country does need to change the clocks, we really would notice it if we didn't

Original poster
shockwaze · 31/10/2023 08:00

But you’ve also said they slept somewhere out of the ordinary and have a cold, so you’re still to convince me that any of their morning wake ups is anything to do with the clock change. So yeah it does sound pretty nonsensical. Plus a lot of your posts make not very much sense at all to me.

Sleeping at granny's has never bothered them before. Anyway, the clocks changing is just adding insult to injury isn't it

OP posts:
Tiredmum100 · 31/10/2023 08:00

Luckyduc · 31/10/2023 06:43

It's never had any effect on my child any years and he's now 8. Yiu adjust the bed time hour.
I see all these parents moan that their kid gets up at 6am....now 5am but why put them to bed so early? They need 12 hours sleep or if 8 years old between 10 and 12 hours so time their bedtime for when you want them to get up. If you want your kid to get up at 7am but them to bed 7pm. My kid always went to bed at 8pm and got up 8am. Never in my life did they get up early.

Not every child sleeps like that, though. Mine went to bed at their usual bedtime, following the new time of the clocks changing. They have still woken early the last 3 days, as have I. I'm not too bothered. They're old enough to get themselves up and entertained. However, I can appreciate its disruption for a lot of people with young dc.

Pooooochi · 31/10/2023 08:01

Please explain what exactly you think prevents a farmer from getting up at 5.30 in summer and 6.30 in winter, if they feel those are the best working hours for their farm.

Farm land tends to be in rural locations where there is next to no lighting whatsoever. No street lighting and no access to mains electricity to run any.

Imagine trying to check your crop for a deadly fungus in pitch black, or repair fences.

The point is to align the timing of the (limited) hours of light we have in mid winter, with the working day

gotomomo · 31/10/2023 08:01

Mine too @Luckyduc I don't get it, plus I'm sure many of the moaners go abroad.

My dc travelled long haul (work, it's complicated) and had to adjust to -8hrs 2-3 times a year which they managed, 1 hour is nothing

Whoknows101 · 31/10/2023 08:02

It's funny seeing some "super mums" dishing out parenting advice on these sort of threads. Just goes to show some people have absolutely no idea how easy their children are in some respects compared to others and show no insight into the fact that's often down to luck rather than judgment.

If we put out nr 4 y/o daughter to bed an hour "late" she'll wake up at the exact same time as normal, but be an over-tired mess by the evening. If we try the same again that night, she won't sleep properly because she's gone absolutely beserk with tiredness, and wake up even earlier than normal, not later!

It takes her about 2 weeks to adjust to each clock change in terms of being an over tired mess, and about 1-2 months to start waking up at the previous "normal time." And that's with using a sleep clock etc, incrementally later bedtimes etc and every other trick we can think of to get her to wake up a bit later. So it's 5:30 for us for the foreseeable future, 6am in a few weeks then finally (hopefully!) back to 6:30 in a month or so. Worse things have happened but it feels totally uncessary to be doing this every year.

I used to love these extra hours in bed pre children, but with young kids they are an absolutely enormous PITA!

BCCoach · 31/10/2023 08:02

Zanatdy · 31/10/2023 07:56

Farmers and school kids, if you didn’t return the clocks to GMT then kids in Scotland would be walking to school in the pitch black. I think it’s better to put them back and deal with the early dark evenings than kids going to school in the dark

So why put them forward in summer in the first place?

Maxus · 31/10/2023 08:04

shockwaze · 31/10/2023 07:56

Oh @saffy2

Hardly nonsensical, I'm yet to be convinced it helps anyone. No one here has the answer.

I'm posting between bathing my two cherubs as well. I do apologise.

In parts of the country it stops kids going to school in the dark, esp secondary kids who often get buses at 7.30 am. There, thats your answer right there .

Pooooochi · 31/10/2023 08:04

I see all these parents moan that their kid gets up at 6am....now 5am but why put them to bed so early? They need 12 hours sleep or if 8 years old between 10 and 12 hours so time their bedtime for when you want them to get up. If you want your kid to get up at 7am but them to bed 7pm. My kid always went to bed at 8pm and got up 8am. Never in my life did they get up early.

Many children (and adults) have stronger body clocks/circadian rhythms. I kept my DS up 2 hours late on clock change night, he still woke up at exactly the same (old) time that he always does. I did too.

I can go to bed very very late and still wake without an alarm at 6.30am. I did a couple of weeks ago - i only got in at 3, and woke with no alarm etc at 6.30am. Normally I'd go to bed at 10.30/11!

ShatteredPeace · 31/10/2023 08:04

It's not to benefit school children or farmers or anyone else. It's now back on GMT. It's just the time. BST was brought in to allow people and extra hour of sunlight in the evening as the government of 1916 felt it would reduce the demand for coal.

Yes, the lack of daylight feels tough but the long light days we get in the north are the other side of the coin. And what a beautiful morning it is today.

grottyb · 31/10/2023 08:05

I was in Spain a couple of weeks ago, which is geographically in the wrong time zone. It should be on the same as the UK, Portugal and Ireland but aligns with France and Germany etc. It was a bit weird that it was still dark while 8.30 am, but the big advantage was that it was light in the evening until about 8 pm, so much better for being out and about then, when more people have time to do so.

I think the Spanish school day ends much later & school bus services are more of a thing then here.