How to Survive British Weather

I managed to escape the heat of Texas by moving across the pond to Scotland…and not just any part of Scotland, but one of the northern-most parts of the coast, which puts us as far north as Moscow.  Wow.  Now, you’re getting it.  Surviving the cold, dark winters is a matter of focusing on summer, just warm enough to shed a coat and tons of daylight.  And, I do mean tons.  By mid-summer, the sun is up at 3 am and doesn’t set until 11pm.  At first, we reveled in this new-found freedom to stay up late and enjoy being outdoors longer.  However, the inevitable came and we also woke up earlier…at about 4am.  There’s something about the sun shining in the window that has been dark for half the year that triggers your body to rise and shine, whether you want to or not.  And, interestingly, your children are not immune to this phenomenon.  In fact, they experience it first, which might be the precursor to the sun waking you up.  It’s only fair, I mean, you’ve been telling your kids all fall, winter, and spring that it’s dark and time for bed.  In your kids’ mind, the opposite must be true: it’s light, therefore it’s time to yell, “I’m awake!”  How do you fight the inevitable?  How do you beat the natural order of things?

Fighting Mother Nature

Unlike most, I am not a respector of “Mother Nature.”  I know that in times past, you just slept more in the winter and less in the summer.  Since I only function on a certain amount of sleep, this just won’t do…not when we have such great technology.  Here are my 2 favorite life-saving and sleep-preserving gadgets:

1. 

   Sound Oasis Travel System

   Black-out Blinds.  We had some in my daughter’s and my son’s rooms from the last people who lived in our flat.  They were ill-fitting and only blocked out part of the sun.  My daughter was not fooled and was up at 6am no matter what, which had the tendency to wake up my son when her light streamed into his loft.  When we got new windows, the old blinds had to go and we bought new ones, including some for our room.  We have never slept better.  Truly, the total darkness beckons me to sleep much faster than a light-infused bedroom.  And for our daughter, we added a tiny nightlight that kept the room mostly dark.  She sleeps well past 7 every morning. *Tip: the key is how you mount them.  You must go past the window itself to ensure black-out.  I also recommend the kind that only requires one side of velcro.  That way you can take the blind off and on very easily without worrying about the adhering piece of velcro ripping off at an unexpected time.

2. White Noise Generators. I love it.  We use 3 white noise generators: one in each bedroom.  I turn the kids’ machines about halfway on so it’s not too loud, but they get good coverage from each other.  I turn ours on pretty low- that way it blocks out the noise of people staying up later since it’s still light out, but we can still hear our kids if they need us.  *Tip: I love nature sounds and portability so we can pack them when we travel and not sacrifice too much space or weight.

Last summer, we just didn’t sleep well and assumed that was just the way it had to be.  This year, we learned how to reclaim our rest: black out blinds and white noise.