According to Wikipedia, Daylight Saving Time was first proposed by a guy in New Zealand who wanted more daylight hours to collect bugs, and was popularized by governments hoping to cut down on coal and oil use. That’s the official line, anyway. My theory is that it’s all part of a vast conspiracy by sinister secret societies who want to keep the citizenry oppressed so that they can carry out their nefarious plans. After all, a people cannot revolt if they’re using all their mental energy to try to figure out what time it is.
With four kids under the age of seven, I am particularly impacted by this scourge. I live and die by our daily schedule, and being sleep deprived is my default state. Which is why in my house I refer to Daylight Saving Time—which throws my schedule into chaos and costs me sleep—as Daylight Insanity Time. In fact, each year I go through five distinct psychological states, ranging from anger to confusion, before I can finally come to terms with what happens to us the second Sunday of every March. As an aid to others who twitch every time they hear a chirpy reminder that “it’s time to spring forward!”, I present to you the Five Stages of Daylight Saving Time:
1. Anger
It’s best if I don’t leave the house for the few days leading up to the beginning of Daylight Saving Time. This weekend I was at the grocery store and the cheerful checkout lady announced in a sing-songy voice, “Don’t forget that we lose an hour of sleep this weekend!” When I found myself resisting the urge to jump across the conveyor belt, grab the nice lady by the collar, put my bloodshot eyeballs right up against hers and hiss in my best villain voice, “I DON’T HAVE THAT HOUR TO LOSE, WOMAN,” I knew that the first stage of my reaction to Daylight Saving Time had begun.
This is also when my conspiracy theories grow more elaborate, and I make the other mommies at playdates uncomfortable as I interrupt tea and cookie time to manically list out the details of my plans for a citizen’s revolt against the time change.
2. Denial
Every year I try to find a loophole that would prevent me from observing the time change. I’ve tried to have my home declared part of Arizona, but the powers that be in the City of Austin seem to be part of the Daylight Saving Time conspiracy. And no matter how many connections I draw between the Catechism’s statements on avoiding near occasions of sin and the impact resetting the clocks has on my life, there is, as it turns out, no procedure for opting out of Daylight Saving Time due to religious objection.
I have considered standing strong and refusing to change my clocks as a bold statement. I imagine myself sending emails to friends that pointedly state: “See you at 6:00 on Friday! (I guess that would be 7:00 your time, since you’re one of the DST people.)” Usually this is where my husband gently indicates that that might not be the best thing for my relationship with my friends, and nudges me on to the next stage, which is ...
3. Confusion
In the days before and after Daylight Saving Time, my husband and I have a lot of conversations that go something like this:
HIM: What time did we decide to make the kids’ bedtime now that we changed the clocks?
ME: Nine.
HIM: Nine o’clock old time or new time?
ME: Umm…
HIM: I think we should make it nine o’clock new time.
ME: Okay. Then that means that they’re going to bed later or earlier than they used to?
HIM: Let’s see, they used to go to bed at eight-thirty …
ME: Eight-thirty on old time or new time?
HIM: Old time.
ME: Oh, right. So … if they’re going to bed at nine o’clock new time, then, by old time they’ll be going to bed at ten.
HIM: No, that’s wrong, they’d be going to bed at eight on old time.
ME: [My head explodes, abruptly ending conversation.]
I got good grades in college. I don’t typically think of myself as being a mental vegetable. But I cannot wrap my mind around Daylight Saving Time. I am like a monkey with a Rubik’s Cube as I sit down to try to figure out how to adjust the kids’ schedules the first night after we’ve changed the clocks. This phase lasts a couple of weeks, until I move into…
4. Accusation
This is similar to the anger stage, only by now I have very reluctantly gone ahead and changed my clocks, and have temporarily abandoned my plans for civil unrest. But Daylight Saving Time is now my excuse for everything that goes wrong in my life. Ten minutes late to a doctor’s appointment? Daylight Saving Time. Missed a deadline (by, oh, three days)? Daylight Saving Time. A mysterious rash on my hand? Obviously caused by Daylight Saving Time.
I have now come to a certain peace that at least I have identified the source of all the woes in my life.
5. Acceptance
Alas, I finally come to terms with the new time. I’ve stopped loudly lamenting the fact that my children won’t go to bed before 9:00 because the sun is still out, and I can answer the simple question of “What time is it?” without launching into a manifesto. It usually takes me about 34 weeks to get to this place.
And then it’s time to change the clocks again.
Comments
Post a Comment
Well I don’t mind changing the clocks, and I’ll tell you why: I have no connection to the outside world.
As a SAHM with a toddler and absolutely no social commitments, I can just sleep until my daughter wakes up (and she doesn’t know the clocks have changed, so she obviously sleeps the same amount as usual).
May I suggest completely withdrawing from the outside world?
Except, um, well, we completely missed church on Sunday by accident :(
Otherwise a great plan!
I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala in the early part of last decade. When I went back to visit in 2006, they had begun using DST. Many people resisted, calling the non-DST time “God’s Time.” My landlords’ church (Evangelical Protestant) even announced that they would have services on Sunday at 10:00 God’s Time, not the devil’s time. There was mass confusion. I thought it was pretty strange that they even tried it there, because the length of daylight varies very little through the year (about 11 hours 15 minutes on the shortest day and 13 hours on the longest day). In 2008, citing safety concerns, the president of Guatemala cancelled Daylight Saving Time in his country. I guess we can thank God that most places in the US don’t have that kind of concern with DST, but I wish that we could cancel it, too.
Move to Saskatchewan, we don’t change time :)
I’m with you, Jen. I HATE DST. First of all, I prefer my sunlight in the morning, and it was pretty irritating waking up to the dark again. Second, I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus and will therefore accomplish nothing at work today. But until I read your post, it never occurred to me how difficult it will be to get KIDS adjusted to the change in time! I’m expecting my first next month, and my dislike for DST has just reached a whole new level.
@Jeanne - I love that they called it “God’s Time”. I agree. God’s Creation is a wonderful thing. He created the change in length of days, so why mess with it? :)
I also hate DST, although not quite as viscerally, it just doesn’t make logical sense to cripple your entire population twice a year for half a year. We are naturally programed to wake with the sun, and when there is no sunlight when you wake up your body doesn’t respond as well.
Although, I’d be satisfied to at least not have the shift—so they could do the whole year DST as a “compromise”.
The idea of civil disobedience might have merit…if we can get enough people to join in. Perhaps a facebook page started now…
I hate losing the one hour because, like you, with four children under age 7, I really need to keep the time I have. However, I see one bright side to it. As I work, it means it is light when we get home, so I can send the children outdoors to play while I get dinner ready. For me, that really balances out all the bad.
DST is awful. Plain awful.Simple awful. Arcanely awful. I Know we’re supposed to find the good in all things, but this one leaves me cold - especially since we live in Belgium at the moment, where it’s light outside until 10pm anyway in the summer. With you all the way Simcha.
Um, sorry - with you all the way Jennifer! See, we’re not even on DST yet and the thought of it addles my brain.
I am in DST h#*l right now. I am contemplating a move to Indianapolis. I hear they don’t do Spring Forward and Fall Back. Or, alternatively, I could become Amish. They don’t observe DST either preferring as the Guatemalans to observe “God’s time.”
DST was invented to help farmers who needed more light to continue working. Now that they have motorized tractors and such with lights on them, I think we should get rid of DST! Your writing made me laugh, thanks!
I love DST! Granted, the transition can be a little rocky, but I take it in exchange for Daddy coming home while it’s still light out, dinner outdoors, evening walks, and playing outside after dinner.
I have 4 kids under age 8, and they all slept in this morning because it was so dark out. This would normally be a luxury, but the problem is, it was a school day! They do get messed up for about a week. But I do LOVE getting home from work with a little daylight left to go for a family walk or bike ride :)
I think DST just makes sense. I like that the sunlight is now peeking into my kids bedroom a bit later in the summer. In winter, I don’t want people (kids especially) walking to work and school when it’s dark out. The first few nights are hard on my kids but I think it’s worth it.
Then again, you could live where we do, where there isn’t DST and the sun comes up at 4:00 a.m. in June. Imagine how my toddler and pre-schooler love that one! Not their mommy though.
Apparently Daylight Savings does not even reduce electricity costs. The WSJ has an article about it today (http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/03/14/saving-daylight-wasting-electricity/). I’m with you, this thing throws me off every year. Not a fan.
I also detest Daylight Savings Time! I have been convinced for years it is a plot against parents.
@Anna: It must be different where you live, because here in Ohio when DST starts, The sun doesn’t come up until almost 8am. If people wait until it gets light out to start walking to school or most workplaces, they will be late.
I am SO WITH YOU… ahem, pardon the shouting. Anyway, I couldn’t agree more. If someone ran for office on a platform about ending DST for ever, I would be a groupie for the campaign. Why are they babbling about the economy and tariffs and whatever… blah, blah, blah. They should talk about the real issues - what DST does to us. More people have accidents, heart attacks and just plain die after we change the clocks. Not to mention what it does to the elderly, infirm and young among us!
@Jeanne,
We are west coast. Whidbey Island, WA actually (so west part of the west coast) where the sun rises crazy early in the summer. It was already getting my kids up at 6am so I am grateful for the change to 7. It usually does help quite a bit. It did this morning at least. I realize it’s too early to tell if the later wakeup time will stick, but it has in years past.
We are military so we move around a bunch anyway. I don’t know how I will feel about it when we move back to Michigan, but I recall enjoying the extra hours of daylight in the evening there especially. I know most moms hate it but hey, I don’t. Different experiences I guess.
DST is a crock of you-know. It actually INCREASES electricity use—ref. USA Today article about study: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-08-daylight-saving-time_N.htm . You would think the greenies would be all over this, but ... hear the crickets ...
Yah, I dislike it, too.
I like having a little extra daylight at the end of the day. I work during the daylight hours and appreciate the extra time to do yard work, walk the dog, etc. If I had small children, I might hate it too!
“I’d like to know what the government did with all the daylight we saved LAST year…”
I’m totally not a fan of DST. Seems totally pointless to me. Does anywhere else in the world particpate in this insanity? Given the effects of the “global economy” doesn’t our time change throw off everyone in, say, London who is watching the American markets, etc.? Truly, I don’t see the point. And I’m doubly insulted that they changed WHEN to initiate DST a couple years ago ... used to be 1st or 2nd weekend in April through like the 2nd weekend in October… Shouldn’t the whole world be on the same clock as we’re divided into 24 equal time zones? Not to mention how I CAN’T AFFORD TO LOSE ANOTHER HOUR, EITHER! I don’t care that we “get it back” in the fall… I need that hour NOW! :)
Kimberlie, I live in Indianapolis and we started observing DST a couple of years ago and it is AWFUL. I now have kids who will refuse to go to bed in a month or so because it will still be light outside. In the morning right now, they refuse to get up because it’s still dark outside. I know it’s supposed to help farmers have more daylight hours, but I’m not a farmer so I need that hour back where it’s supposed to be!
You have unintentionally described ‘travelling time’, I mean ‘time travel’. Very clever!
When I become Queen of the Universe, the first thing I will do is outlaw Daylight Savings Time. There will be much rejoicing. For those of you who want an “extra” hour of daylight, just get up an hour earlier. Let the rest of us sleep.
Hate it too. And now it’s earlier than it used to be. It seriously messes up everything for weeks and weeks.
I didn’t know it was DST because all my clocks, my phone, my computer, and even my digital picture frame switched automatically. I just knew something was really wrong: the sun was in the wrong place.
I like the extra sunlight at night, hate waking up in the dark. But, what I REALLY HATE about DST is that it changes on Sunday morning! People go to church on Sunday morning!! How many of you remember the Homily yesterday? Or where late? Or didn’t make it at all?? It’s definitely not the Christians who want this change on Sunday. (And, I call ‘normal’ time ‘God’s Time’, too!!) Why can’t they change it on Saturday morning and at least we have a day to get adjusted and won’t be late, unattentive or miss Mass?
I don’t like it, either. I vote that next fall we “fall back” just half an hour, call it a compromise, and LEAVE THE TIMES THAT WAY forever and ever and ever amen.
It’s easy enough to wail about “spring forward,” but I doubt a single person in this country wants to argue with “fall back.”
My folks said we were on ‘God’s time’ when we put the clocks back in the fall. But then it was only April to October(the first weekend). Now they changed it to the second weekends of March and November and why didn’t we get a chance to vote on this? I am with you find me a candidate that is all about repealing DST and I will vote for him!
There is no electricity saved because you are getting up in the dark to get ready for work or school, the lights go on early while last week I was watching the dawn when my husband went to work a conspiracy and I have no clue what exactly it saves cause my electricity bill wasn’t any lower!
DST is ridiculas and a huge problem. Did you know that there is a dramatic increase in car accidents during the week following the time change both in the fall and in the spring? Also not everyone in the world does the change or at the same time if they do so traveling to other lands or phone calls between countries becomes more adventurous. Sorry for any speling errors here but I’m not good at it to begin with but this lack of sleep makes it worse.
We didn’t change while I was growing up, but like Indianapolis, we now have DST. It’s awful, and with 5 kids 7 and under, I totally relate to this post, I’m in the confusion/accusation stage. :)
Daylight Savings Time rocks. It’s Eastern Standard Time that’s the killer. It stays light outside until a decent hour- no more darkness at 4:30pm like we get here in December. And as for some people missing church because they forgot to set their clocks ahead, hey, that’s the best part! It’s the only way I’ve ever gotten a decent parking space.
LOL LOVED THIS! Dementia also does not do well with time changes. Mom is currently getting her days/nights completely mixed up. She thinks it is morning when she wakes from her nap late afternoon, and when she got up at 4 AM today, she thought it was evening, and was ready for supper at 4:30. Neither of us is getting much sleep (she did not believe me when I suggested she go back to bed… poor Mom.)
I’m all for getting rid of DST. I don’t understand the people who think it was started for farmers.I grew up on a farm and if you wanted to get up an hour earlier to start your work you didn’t need to change the clock. We blamed the city folk who wanted to play golf after work.
I’m a DST-hater, too. Some years I just don’t change my clocks at all—everybody else is doing things an hour earlier, which suits me fine.
I thought I was the weird one! (At least that’s what everyone always told me) People avoid the topic with me because I rant about it so much. I hate it! It makes no sense!
I feel like I’ve found a best friend after reading this article.
Trying living in Indiana—we were so smart for SO LONG. And then we gave in and turned traitor (or just insane). I think I almost cried when they announced Indiana was going to become a lemming and do DST like everyone else. I’m seriously contemplating moving to AZ.
Well I’m going to fly the dst flag! I love it. I love that the children can play outside till o’clock, and that there’s so much more time to play either. In fact, here in australia, we finish daylight savings in 2 weeks. Wanna swap?
Jen,I love your writing because you express my thoughts perfectly! :) We are in total agreement on this topic. It certainly takes its toll on my daughter and me, and I feel like we spend weeks trying to catch up on lost sleep for although we only lose an hour on the clock, our body clocks get so out of whack.
Thanks for a lighthearted (yet oh-so-true) perspective; it made me smile, which I haven’t done much of in my groggy, sleep-deprived state ;).
DST messes me up for a good week, and that’s at every moment; my internal clock is confused. I have a decent internal clock that helps me know when to feed the kids, when to start dinner, even when to go to the bus stop to pick up my son. DST messes it ALL UP. Then it happens again in the fall. Being able to wake up an hour later is nice, but I am falling asleep in the evening when it’s still the kids’ bedtime, not just mine.
Add a sleep disorder to this mix and guess what happens. That’s right: purgatory.
Even with no family to support, it is very hard for this middle aged working woman.
MY problem is that when we change time I never know if it’s spring forward fall back, or fall forward spring back.
Haha! I like the article :) When we are low on sleep the hormones ghrelin and leptin become altered. When these hormones are out of sync we tend to have more food cravings and the “I’m full” signal to the brain is less. Because of this we crave more foods and when we actually eat, it takes more food to make us feel satisfied. When its time to ‘spring forward’ be nice to your body and mind, make time for at least another hour of sleep. http://blog.mydiscoverhealth.com/
i know a family that stays on god’s time they just have one clock near the front door on dst for outside appointments all other clocks/watches stay on normal time they home school so don’t have the rush to school thing happening they’ve been doing this for years and it’s good for the children’s math (if they want to go somewhere (sport/music) they have to work out the time to leave). It also teaches them independence does the government really have a right to change our times (they would say no) but they teach their children to obey the righteous rules.
DST should be canceled!We-human beings are trying again to prove who is in charge of planet Earth and in this way just showing how reckless we are towards our own health,Mother nature and all her laws.DST is unless toy of civilization which is harming us indirectly but precisely.Humans used standard time for thousands of years and now suddenly is not space for common sense.
I was so affected by DST and my own 5 children’s shock at being sent to bed at what seemed an hour early that I am just now reading this. Awesome. Thanks for helping my survive day 4 of the madness.
ERYERZSDGASDDSFGHADS<a >clip in hair extensions</a> SDGSDSDGSADADFHGAD
YUKYZSDGASDSDGASD<a >Chamilia Charms</a> YUKYASDGASDASDFHGAD
ADFHGSDGSADASDFHGAD<a >clip in hair extensions</a> ERYERADFHGDAFXZCBZX
YUYASDGASDADSFHGADFS<a >hair extensions clip in</a>
ERYERSDGSADDFHAD
Post a Comment
By submitting this form, you give The National Catholic Register permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.