Julia Proverbs: Clocking on to daylight saving

Ah daylight saving. Time to burn the cobwebs off the barbecue and put some beer on ice in anticipation of those long, balmy summer evenings to come.

But if you have young children expect to be dining in the dark for the first wee while.

That's because, where children are concerned, daylight saving is a double-edged sword.

With a pre-schooler who has literally been waking with the birds, it couldn't come quickly enough in our house.

With the clocks going forward, overnight our 5am starts have shifted to the much more respectable hour of 6am.

Result.

But at the other end of the day our little avian child is a tad confused as to why the sun is shining, the birds are chirping and she is being told to go to bed.

"It's morning time," Miss Three said, as I tucked her in on Sunday night.

"No it's bed time," I instructed her.

"It's nearly summer, so it's going to be light at bedtime now," I said, struggling for an age-appropriate explanation.

"Can I see the summer?" she asked, getting out of bed and pulling back the blind. "I can see the summer. Over there!" she exclaimed, pointing towards the neighbours' drive.

And for the next hour and a half she got in and out of bed and warbled away in her room.

Meanwhile, having also been put to bed, Miss Five came out to kiss the cats goodnight half a dozen times, get a glass of water, read her homework books she had refused to read earlier and to ask for her pocket money.

After eventually knocking over her father's beer, she ran back to her bedroom in fear - and stayed there.

By which time it was 8.30pm and the sun had well and truly set.

Daylight saving. What daylight saving? I'm spent.