GUIDE
The grandparents are three hours ahead on the East Coast, and their only free time lands at our toddler's bedtime. What can we change?
By the seenow! teamLast updated:
Stop trying to fit the call into your weekday evening. Move the live call to a weekend morning, when 9 a.m. for you is noon for them, and fill the weekdays with short recorded clips they can watch on their own schedule. Put their city on your phone's world clock so you see their time at a glance.
WHY
Why this happens
A three-hour gap sounds small until you put two daily schedules side by side. Grandparents on the East Coast are often free after dinner, around 7 or 8 p.m. their time. On the West Coast that is 4 or 5 p.m., which is when you are still at work or picking up from daycare. By the time they settle in later in the evening, it is dinner, bath and bed at your house, and a toddler who sees Grandma on a screen at that hour is rarely in the mood to chat.
Calls in that window tend to go one of two ways: the toddler melts down, or the call drags past bedtime and the evening routine falls apart. Neither side is doing anything wrong. The overlap where both households are free and the child is in a good mood is just very thin on weekdays.
| Your time (Pacific) | Their time (Eastern) | What is usually happening |
|---|---|---|
| 7:00 a.m. Saturday | 10:00 a.m. | Toddler up and fed; grandparents well into their day |
| 9:00 a.m. Saturday | 12:00 p.m. | Toddler fresh after breakfast; grandparents before lunch |
| 4:30 p.m. weekday | 7:30 p.m. | You at work or on pickup; grandparents after dinner |
| 6:30 p.m. weekday | 9:30 p.m. | Dinner and bath at your house; grandparents winding down |
Because both the Pacific and Eastern time zones observe daylight saving time, the gap stays three hours all year. That is not true everywhere. NIST lists Hawaii and most of Arizona as not observing daylight saving time, so if one side of your family lives there, the gap changes by an hour when the clocks change.
HOW TO
What you can do starting today
Make the weekend morning the main callNo app needed
Pick one weekend morning slot and keep it every week, for example 9 a.m. your time, noon theirs. A toddler who just ate breakfast is in a far better mood than one who is ten minutes from bed. A standing time also means nobody has to negotiate it each week, and the grandparents can plan their own Saturday around it.
Put their city on your world clockNo app needed
On Android, open the Clock app, tap World Clock, tap Add, and type the grandparents' city. The iPhone Clock app has a World Clock tab as well. Seeing "they are at 8:40 p.m." before you hit call stops a lot of accidental late-night calls, and the grandparents can do the same with your city.
Source: Google Clock Help: Change the time, date and time zone; add clocks for other cities
On weekdays, send clips instead of callingNo app needed
Weekday evenings work better without a live call at all. Record a few seconds of the toddler during the day, like at the park, at breakfast or after daycare, and send it. The grandparents watch it whenever they want, maybe with their morning coffee, which is three hours before you are even up.
Recheck the gap in March and November if Hawaii or Arizona is involvedNo app needed
U.S. daylight saving time begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. The next change is March 14, 2027. If the grandparents live in Arizona or Hawaii, your standing call time moves by an hour for one side on those dates, so confirm it the week before.
Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST): Local Time FAQs
WITH SEENOW!
Doing it with seenow!
seenow! is a family app where everyone takes a short video, about 2 seconds a day, in a private group. It is built for the "send clips instead of calling" part of this page.
- A 2-second clip takes no planning, so you can grab one at breakfast or pickup without a call. The grandparents get a notification and watch it on their own time.
- That day's clips unlock once you post your own, and older days can be watched anytime. When the grandparents post their own morning clip, the toddler gets to see their day too, at any hour.
- At the end of each week, seenow! makes a recap video from the clips automatically, which can be a nice thing to watch together at the start of the weekend call.
What seenow! can’t do
- seenow! does not make live video calls. Keep using a regular call for the weekend conversation.
- It does not show time zones or schedule calls. Use your phone's clock and calendar for that.
Core features are free.
POINT
Things to watch for in this situation
Let the adults absorb the inconvenience
When the schedules clash, it usually works better for the adults to shift, for example the grandparents calling a little earlier on Saturday, than to push a toddler's routine later. Say this kindly; most grandparents would rather adjust than see a tired grandchild.
A missed call is not a missed week
Some Saturdays will fall apart. If you have been sending clips during the week, a skipped call does not leave the grandparents with nothing.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Does the time difference between California and New York change during the year?
No. Both observe daylight saving time, so the gap stays three hours all year. It does change for Hawaii and most of Arizona, which NIST lists as not observing daylight saving time.
What if the grandparents only have weekday evenings free?
Try a short call right after daycare pickup, before the dinner rush, and keep it to a few minutes. Save longer conversations for days when you can call earlier in your day.