We are very lucky at the moment that Erin has quite a good bedtime routine. The time Erin goes to bed changes each day but on days where she isn’t at nursery, we know exactly what order to do things in and we very rarely have any trouble with her going to bed and going to sleep. However, this weekend in the UK the clocks change, going back an hour and this can really mess with a child’s bedtime, routine and sleep pattern.
I don’t actually think we have done anything up until now to prepare Erin for the change. However, she is now more aware of what is going on around her and what we do on a day to day basis so I know that we are going to have to do something this time around to make it a bit easier on all of us.
Here are some tips from myself, as well as other bloggers, on how to prepare yourselves and your children for the clock change:
Altering bed times
If you know your child will have trouble with the shift in time or just will not be able to deal with bedtime being an hour later than normal then why not try gradually altering their bedtime? In the week, or few days on the run up to the clock change you could try changing bedtimes by 10-15 minutes per day to get ready for a later bedtime. Obviously, this only really works if your child
Mighty Mama Bear – Adjusting bed time by 15 minutes each night for 4 nights prior to the change can help.
Stick with a routine
Even if you’re changing the time your child will go to bed, try to make sure that their routine stays the same for everything else. We do bath, Teletubbies, a couple of stories and then bed and Erin knows what comes after each step. Erin knows what to expect after each step of our routine so she knows when it’s time to go to sleep. We luckily don’t have many problems with Erin knowing when it’s time to sleep unless she’s been poorly.
Keep wake up times the same
As the clocks will have changed overnight your children won’t really know any different. If they have a regular sleep pattern they might try to wake up at their ‘normal time’. If you can wake them up when they would have normally woken up then you might be in for an easier bedtime later on.
Lylia Rose – I try to wake them up at normal time so as they are super tired by their normal bed time instead of letting them lay in for an extra hour!
Keep busy
If the change has affected your child/ children from the get go then staying busy during the day is a great way to keep them going. Children might be tempted to have a midday nap where the might not normally and this could therefore, make bedtime trickier and later than normal.
Do nothing
I was actually quite surprised to see that a few blogger did nothing at all and just rolled with it. I guess sometimes it really depends on your child and their age as well.
Tantrums to Smile – Honestly we don’t do anything, you might be surprised at how little it actually effects kids especially with it being darker/lighter. We have never done anything different and on the rare occasion they have got up early by the following night we are back to a normal routine and all is right again.
Passports and Adventures – We don’t make any change to our routine and it’s never effected our son. We put him to bed at the same time as before the change and leave him to it. He never notices.
Are you a family who does something to prepare your toddler for the clocks changing or do you just leave it and hope for the best?
PIN IT FOR LATER
I completely agree that whatever you choose is down to your kids. Some will definitely notice the change while others won’t. It’s better for parents to do what they know will work with their own children. And thanks for adding our comments 🙂