Saturday, March 07, 2009

I'm just not that into you, daylight savings time

I think it's about time we call it quits, daylight savings time. You've been around my whole life, and I've never had much of a problem with you. Sure, I missed that hour in the Spring, but the extra hour I got in the Fall more than made up for it, especially in college, where I filled that hour with, uh, studying. And then there were those random clocks in everyone's house that were always an hour off because no one knew how to change them. People didn't leave their VCR clocks on the blink because they didn't want to learn how to set them, but because they didn't want to relearn how to set them every six months. And don't get me started about traveling through Arizona.But now I have kids, and I can't tell you how frustrating it is to have finally achieved the impossible by training all three girls to sleep in long enough in the morning so that they're not waking up at the crack of dawn or sleeping too long and missing school, only to have to change the clocks every six months and start over (Oops! Thanks to the anonymous commenter who corrected me. Daylight savings lasts 8 months.) In the Fall I've got toddlers waking up before 6am, and in the Spring they're still asleep in the back seat on the way to school. Yes, I know it's no different than flying to a different time zone, but that's a temporary shift that is easy to bounce back from.

I know some parents (she knows who she is) who use the weeks leading up to a time change to gradually change the bedtime so little adjustment is necessary, but I'm thinking it's time to get rid of you altogether. Actually, I don't mind if you stick around permanently. But we don't need you and standard time. I'm fine with having more sunshine later in the evening, so if you win out, great. Can we just pick a way to tell time that works the whole year?

I'm sorry to say it but changing the time every six months is archaic, unnecessary, and annoying. Now, I've got to go break some bad news to the Electoral College.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dude... if you are calling me out on your blog for something I did 4 years ago... you had better head back to California so that I can whap you one!

Anonymous said...

Daylight Savings actually now lasts 8 months long (not 6) per year. DST hasn't been on a 6-month rotation since before 1986, when it was last extended--prior to legislation in 2005 that extended it further.

I disliked DST when it was 6-months long, I disliked it even more when it was 7-months long. But to now have it hanging around for 2/3 of a year compounds the problem to the breaking point.

DST is exceptionally foolish in a world that already is fast paced enough, in which any hour (lopped off under DST) during the day can easily be at a premium. An hour to get ready to go to work, to make appointments or meetings, to take care of chores, or just to go out to dinner (and not have your inner clock saying "it's too early to eat right now!") and return in time to watch a show on TV.

DST adds to the heightened sense (certainly as we grow older) that the days of each year are rushing by faster and faster. That's because the sense of "it's already time to go to work?!!", "it's already noon?!", "it's already 6:00 pm?!," "it's already time to go to sleep?!, or "it's already time to wake up?!" is kicked up several notches under DST, stretched out over 8 months of each year.

Anonymous said...

I agree with getiing rid of daylight savings time. Doesn't everybody know about electricity nowadays? Maybe if your plan doesn't work, then we can all move to Arizona and then we are all happy!

-Alex

Anonymous said...

I like it. It's how I know that winter is over and summer is just around the corner.

Meg