Good Clocks and Bad Clocks

Friends,

Last week I told my just-turned-13-year-old son that the clocks were changing on the upcoming weekend. He looked at me earnestly and asked, "Is it the good or bad clocks?"

After noting how adorable and authentic children are, my immediate thought was, wait, is it the "good clocks" or the "bad clocks?" Like a good mama, trying to both understand his angle and anticipate his needs, I guessed that he was probably asking whether he would get an extra hour of sleep or lose one.

I then said, "Spring Forward, Fall Backwards," This was the verse I learned when I was a child in school. It was how I knew which direction the clocks were going at the appropriate time of year. Remember, this was back when you had to manually adjust all of your timepieces.

I clarified and said, "We gain an extra hour."

He was relieved and moved on to other more pressing issues relevant to his life, like whether the Phillies pitcher was rested enough and when the Eagles were playing again. I, however, kept pondering his adorable dilemma.

I was reminded of Shakespeare's famous quote from Hamlet's speech (Act II Scene II),

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

Bodhi was happy for the "extra hour" of sleep he believed he was getting.

Most other things at the farm run on their own circadian rhythms, and the rooster crows when he does, and dogs need to go out and pee by a specific time, regardless of clocks reading an hour earlier or later.

I empathize with parents of small children who don't understand the concept of suddenly changing the time. And I remember, with great annoyance, having to adjust three little kiddos to this change, moving meal times and bed times forward or backward according to the direction of clocks in 10-minute increments for the better part of a week after the time change. Then having to do it all over again in six months.

If you fall into the group that believes this is the "good clocks" time because the sun rises earlier (according to our phones) and it is much easier to get yourself and your sleep-deprived teens up and off to school, then enjoy this adjustment time.

I love the mornings after we "fall backward," By mid-October every year, I find myself sleeping later and later as the temperature drops lower overnight and the winds pick up in the Northeast.

Today, I woke up at 4AM! Everyone was on time to school this morning, and I even had time to do the barn chores while baking a blueberry clafoutis.

On the other hand, my eldest texted me yesterday at 5:30 and said, "It's so dark out. I hate it."

And so it goes…

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

Whether you feel Daylight Savings is a "good clock" or "bad clock" dichotomy, we can all rejoice in knowing that this is the last time we will have to adjust our clocks, kids, and our dogs. There is no adjusting our rooster.

Be kind to yourself and others this week. It really is a big transition for the body and the brain.

With so much love,

Kari