OPINION

As a new mom, I officially despise the time change

Please, let this be the last time we change our clocks.

I opened my sleep-encrusted eyes and pawed around for my phone to check the time.

Only 5 a.m.! I can sleep for another hour. Ahhhhh good old "fall back" Daylight Saving time.

Feeling super psyched about how the morning was going so far, I settled in for another stretch of slumber, almost forgetting that I had a baby sleeping in the next room over. Oh, the naivety of a first time mom.

At 5:02 a.m., the sweet, sweet silence was tarnished with a loud “waaaaaaah” ringing out from the baby monitor. I groaned and muttered a feeble “go the eff back to sleep.”

But babies don’t get the time change. To my little guy, it was still 6 a.m., time to get up, eat and play. The more I thought about it, meddling with time didn’t make much sense to me either. I’ve been pretty obsessed with sticking to nap schedules and bedtimes for the past few months, so the whole concept of changing the clock back felt like a bad joke.

I know, I know. It’s only an hour. But you’d be amazed at how one hour can mess with a kid’s whole day. Nap times had to be earlier. Lunchtime (AKA noontime food fight) had to be moved. Bedtime was a mess. The entire rhythm of our day became disjointed. We were all grumpy. Even the cat and dog looked bleary-eyed.

Later that day, on a group text I have with some other moms, I realized I wasn’t alone in my misery.

“Anyone else been up since 5 a.m.?” one mom asked.

“Daylight Savings has been a nightmare,” said another.

“Yep, same here. Remember when we used to love that extra hour?”

Most baby sleep books will tell you that if you want to change the time your child goes to sleep, you should do so incrementally by five to 15 minutes a day. But sure, twice a year let’s go and change their day by an ENTIRE HOUR for no reason at all.

Days after the time change, our household is still not back to normal. Baby still wants to go to sleep early and wake up even earlier. I even considered keeping him on “normal time” but knew I’d never be able to keep track of two time zones under one chaotic roof.

What ever happened to scrapping the time change? Haven’t we been talking about this for years? A quick Google search shows articles from the past couple of years all quoting the B.C. government as saying it hoped this would be the last time we changed our clocks. What gives?

While our province wants to get rid of the seasonal time change, it’s waiting for our time zone neighbours in the U.S. — Washington, California and Oregon — to follow suit so we can all be on the same page. Those states are talking about ditching the time change too, but passing the legislation could take years, if it happens at all.

But B.C. doesn’t have to wait — it already passed legislation to terminate the change back in 2019. It’s not even a controversial move; 93 per cent of people who responded to a government survey said they don’t want to change their clocks anymore.

So come on, let’s make the world a better place for moms everywhere by saying bye-bye to the time change once and for all. If not for us sleep-deprived moms, then let’s do it for the children.

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