diff --git a/src/data/Snippet.js b/src/data/Snippet.js
index 28a6987..5a8982e 100644
--- a/src/data/Snippet.js
+++ b/src/data/Snippet.js
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+const utils = require("../utils");
+
 /**
  * @property {String} trigger
  * @property {String} body
@@ -7,7 +9,7 @@
  */
 class Snippet {
   constructor(props) {
-    Object.assign(this, props);
+    utils.setDataModelProps(this, props);
   }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/data/Thread.js b/src/data/Thread.js
index 490207b..3c13145 100644
--- a/src/data/Thread.js
+++ b/src/data/Thread.js
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ const {THREAD_MESSAGE_TYPE, THREAD_STATUS} = require('./constants');
  */
 class Thread {
   constructor(props) {
-    Object.assign(this, props);
+    utils.setDataModelProps(this, props);
   }
 
   /**
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ class Thread {
     });
 
     // The string type check is due to a knex bug, see https://github.com/tgriesser/knex/issues/1276
-    if (this.scheduled_close_at && typeof this.scheduled_close_at === 'string') {
+    if (this.scheduled_close_at) {
       await this.cancelScheduledClose();
       await this.postSystemMessage(`Cancelling scheduled closing of this thread due to new reply`);
     }
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ class Thread {
     });
 
     // The string type check is due to a knex bug, see https://github.com/tgriesser/knex/issues/1276
-    if (this.scheduled_close_at && typeof this.scheduled_close_at === 'string') {
+    if (this.scheduled_close_at) {
       await this.cancelScheduledClose();
       await this.postSystemMessage({
         content: `<@!${this.scheduled_close_id}> Thread that was scheduled to be closed got a new reply. Cancelling.`,
diff --git a/src/data/ThreadMessage.js b/src/data/ThreadMessage.js
index 06004f4..2704287 100644
--- a/src/data/ThreadMessage.js
+++ b/src/data/ThreadMessage.js
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+const utils = require("../utils");
+
 /**
  * @property {Number} id
  * @property {String} thread_id
@@ -11,7 +13,7 @@
  */
 class ThreadMessage {
   constructor(props) {
-    Object.assign(this, props);
+    utils.setDataModelProps(this, props);
   }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/main.js b/src/main.js
index 099e196..157d09e 100644
--- a/src/main.js
+++ b/src/main.js
@@ -257,7 +257,7 @@ addInboxServerCommand('close', async (msg, args, thread) => {
     if (args[0] === 'cancel') {
       // Cancel timed close
       // The string type check is due to a knex bug, see https://github.com/tgriesser/knex/issues/1276
-      if (thread.scheduled_close_at && typeof thread.scheduled_close_at === 'string') {
+      if (thread.scheduled_close_at) {
         await thread.cancelScheduledClose();
         thread.postSystemMessage(`Cancelled scheduled closing`);
       }
diff --git a/src/utils.js b/src/utils.js
index 6510f49..474247d 100644
--- a/src/utils.js
+++ b/src/utils.js
@@ -231,6 +231,29 @@ function postSystemMessageWithFallback(channel, thread, text) {
   }
 }
 
+/**
+ * A normalized way to set props in data models, fixing some inconsistencies between different DB drivers in knex
+ * @param {Object} target
+ * @param {Object} props
+ */
+function setDataModelProps(target, props) {
+  for (const prop in props) {
+    if (! props.hasOwnProperty(prop)) continue;
+    // DATETIME fields are always returned as Date objects in MySQL/MariaDB
+    if (props[prop] instanceof Date) {
+      // ...even when NULL, in which case the date's set to unix epoch
+      if (props[prop].getUTCFullYear() === 1970) {
+        target[prop] = null;
+      } else {
+        // Set the value as a string in the same format it's returned in SQLite
+        target[prop] = moment.utc(props[prop]).format('YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss');
+      }
+    } else {
+      target[prop] = props[prop];
+    }
+  }
+}
+
 module.exports = {
   BotError,
 
@@ -257,4 +280,6 @@ module.exports = {
 
   chunk,
   trimAll,
+
+  setDataModelProps,
 };