CBeebies has extended its popular bedtime hour – rebranding it as ‘CBeebies Bedtime’ – to run from 5.45pm until 7pm, rather than its former 6pm start. But parents aren’t happy about it. 

The BBC kids’ programme has added a new show to the slot ‘Moon & Me’ – a charmingly sleepy programme from the creators of ‘In The Night Garden’, which will kick off at the earlier time of 5.45pm.

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The Bedtime slot involves gentle, slow-paced shows – the idea being that it winds kids down. There’s no action-packed ‘Go Jetters’-style explosions and high-octane adventures, just ever such a lot of pleasantness. 

Routine is important and a lot of households integrate ‘Bedtime Hour’ into their children’s nighttime routine (the clue is in the name really) – so the change has caused some parents to be pretty upset. Livid, in fact. 

Right. 

Parenting is tough, and changes can sometimes feel like challenges, but part of me can’t help but think this is the biggest non-problem ever. It still goes until 7pm. The end of it – the bit where your child goes to sleep – is at the same time as ever it was. The only difference is that ‘Bedtime Hour’– this free thing given to you and your child every day – is 15 minutes longer. That’s all that has changed.

They’re not saying children should be going to bed at 5.45pm – just as when it started at 6pm, they weren’t expecting children to be going to bed at the beginning of the programme.

The most straightforward solution is turning the TV on at 6pm like parents did before and having a completely unchanged experience. Problem solved. You can do the same thing as you did before. 

If CBeebies had reduced it to ‘Bedtime Half-Hour’, I’d understand why parents would get angry. If they cancelled it entirely and ran an ‘Embarrassing Bodies’ compilation then yeah, that would be a case for a strongly-worded letter and a rethink. 

But this, this is nothing, nothing at all.