Parents. I’m going to need your attention, just for a second. Ignore me if this doesn’t apply to you. But, if this sounds familiar?

Black

Out

SHADES.

Every year, around March-time, we go through this charade with Bean. It’s called, JUST GO TO SLEEP OH MY GOD or its corollary WHY ARE YOU UP SO EARLY GO BACK TO YOUR ROOM IT’S STILL NIGHTTIME YOUR CLOCK IS STILL A MOON GO BACK TO YOUR ROOM NO IT’S ONLY TEN MINUTES LATER IT’S STILL NIGHTTIME GO BACK TO BED.

And then neither of those things happen, because toddlers don’t really care what you say nor how emphatically you say it. And then it’s like little person mayhem because somebody (not naming names) is so freaking overtired that the same somebody is just walking around shrieking because I have no idea, something to do with oatmeal?

And then EVERY YEAR, we watch as sleep time goes from 7:30 to 8, 8:30 to 9. By July, it’s 9:30pm. We naively always wait for July to have our light bulb moment: OHHH, do you think she’s just falling asleep whenever it gets dark outside? It seems to be related, right? Because I swear she only gets quiet once it’s dark outside. Do you think we should get black out shades or something?

Then the essence of everything that is good and joyous returns to our lives.

Thankfully, this year, after 3 years of getting it wrong, we bought black out shades at the first sign of daylight saving-induced insomnia. I only spent a week dealing with overtired. (We moved her room this year, hence why we keep needing to buy new black out options.)

So, other parents out there, if your kid has also suddenly acquired a later bed time since daylight savings, and 1) they are miserable little tired people, 2) you are miserable big tired people and 3) you want your Hulu-streaming, ice-cream-eating evenings back: try some black out shades.

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To achieve black out, we had to get black out roller blinds from Home Depot and Lowe’s. Over them, we use a black out curtain liner with our regular Ikea curtains, using 3M Velcro strips to attach the liner to the wall. The roller shades take care of light leaking through the top and bottom. The curtain liner + 3M strips take care of light leaking in through the sides.