Those of you with early waking children.....

[pipoca]

what do you do when they get up, especially at weekends? DS (3 yrs old) goes thru phases of waking between 6 and half six and I was wondering what you all do once they're up. We have breakfast and watch cbeebies for a bit and then he goes to nursery at 9 on weekdays. At the weekend I get up with him and have breakfast and cbeebies and then DH gets up and takes him to the park or something around 9ish and I go back to bed for an hour (am 37 weeks pg and knackered)
What do the rest of you do, we seem to end up watching a lot of cbeebies. I put him back to bed a few times to try and drag out the time we go downstairs but after he's got out a few times i give up and we go downstairs. He's not great at playing with toys, not really interested and at least he watches cbeebies and chats to me about it, just feel maybe others are doing something else, am I letting him goggle at too much telly?

[foxinsocks]

I am an early riser as is dd. She is now old enough to read books but I realise you are a few years off that .

I can't remember what we did when dd was that age but I'm sure tv played a part. In fact, I think we put a v old portable tv in our bedroom so dd could watch while we tried to doze on.

If it's any consolation, our 2nd child is a massive sleeper and always has lie ins and never wakes up early (like dh!).

[CharlotteBronteSaurus]

i am quite firm about not putting telly on in the morning, and computer time is only allowed after everyone's dressed and had brekkie. IMO making the mornings too exciting could reinforce the early waking and the reluctance to go back to bed.

[LCarbury]

Same as you, also we bathe our early risers in the morning rather than the evening which kills some time.

[MrsBennet]

my DS 6 has always got up early today was 5.30, we tried the TV in our room, but he was getting up even earlier just to watch it. Now he just plays in his room till DD gets up at about 6.15 then we have breakfast and more playing.

[pipoca]

so charlotte, what do you DO when they get up? Read books? Play? Breakfast? How old are the kids? We didn't use to have telly on when he was a toddler but he was content to crawl about and trash the house play with toys then.

[woopsidaisy]

The TV,I'm afraid. But I would have played some easy games too. Card games,like Donkey and snap. The mornings can be loooooonnnnnggggg though.

[CharlotteBronteSaurus]

read, get quiet toys out. it is more effort when you cab least muster it, but i think it has worked to a degree. the 4yo slept in until about 7.15 this am. the 6monther is another story

[Tommy]

if it's any help - it does get easier! My DSs (now 9 7 and 4) have always been early risers but at least now they can go downstairs and play on the Wii or whatever the latest craze is. Whe they were little, we used to take turns at the weekend to get up with them and just potter while they watched tv or played.
It does your head in - you have my sympathies
(Chez Tommy been awake since 5.45am.....)

[tummytickler]

We have an early riser too, and must admit to using CBeebies, but mainly to keep noise down as it is dc4 is the early riser, and don't want him to wake everyone else. In the summer we tend to go in the garden though, with his box of cars and a cup of tea (me, not ds)

[gkys]

we are up at six every morning, we watch the dreeded cbeebies too, but its banned from 9am til fourpm. ds2 has always been an ealy riser,

the summer he was two we were awake at 430 everyday for six weeks, i feel your pain, i refuse to make breakfast before six.

it was very difficult when preg with ds3, was in bed by 9 most nights m but on the up side all three are in bed before 730, so i can't moan too much,

can dh get upat the weekend to give you a break?

[ilovesprouts]

my son woke me at 5am tapping me on the face ,so opend my eyes he was there with a great big grin on his face, he had 2 yogarts and a spoon in his hand [i need more sleep so we got up] maybe he will nod off for a bit

[haudyerwheesht]

Ds is 4 and still gets up at 6. We have breakfast, watch some tv but tbh he plays A LOT. I can't imagine what we would do if he didn't - I also think you need to try and get him playing independently so that you can feed the baby etc. I don't know how to do that though because ds is just playing obsessed!!

We do baths in the morning sometimes too and go to the supermarket at 730 a fair bit if dd is up and ready too.

When ds is 14 and wanting to lie in bed all day I will be there EVERY morning - poking him and annoying him from 6 on the dot :)

[colditz]

I have never served breakfast until quarter to eight. They don't get an earlier breakfast if they get up earlier, or their stomachs come to expect it and it wakes them up. When I put a ban on the early breakfast, ds2 stopped waking at 5 and started eating more dinner at night (which he'd previously been too tired to bother with)

[colditz]

Oh, and I play NOTHING until after breakfast, and I still consider before 6.30 to be night time. So, small child, I will get up and supervise you, and you will come to no harm, but you will be BORED because you will basically be ignored.

Honestly, when I started this Ds2 was 2.5 and within a week he was sleeping until 7 - he used to get up at 5!

[QuickLookBusy]

DD1 was and still is, a very early riser Between the ages of 1 and 3 she woke at about 5.30. Thank god DH is also a very early riser so when I was pregnant with DD2 he always got up with DD1. I remember a lot of postman pat videos being involved.

Before I was pregnant I just used to bring DD1 into bed with me and have a few books and toys there for her to play with. I would try to doze until about 7.30.

[ChinnityRhino]

I'm with colditz

now the little ones are 4and 6 they have a go glow clocky thing

gecko cant have booby till the sun is up and then she can bugger off again till I get up. sun comes up at 645 on school days and 7.45 on other days

breakfast is 7am on school days and 8.30 on all other days

once I am up and we have had breakfast it is chore time, they can help or they can amuse themselves
I do allow the telly after breakfast but they usually amuse themselves

when they were too small to be told to sod off and needed to be looked after then it was telly and ignoring tbh

5 am for 9 months nearly killed me, I am so pleased I'm past that

sorry, good luck

[mumof2beebies]

oh hell no, my boy went through a stage of waking up at six! (when he was 2.8yrs?)
I used to take my quilt down stairs and snooze on the sofa, while he ate breakfast and quietly watched disney films. Not sure that's the way to do it, but it's all I knew to get a bit more rest.
hard times

[pipoca]

If he gets up before 7 I put him back to bed, even if it means I have to do it various times to fill in the time til 7. I refuse to get up and start the day before 7, or to have breakfast before then.
We come downstairs and have breakfast and watch things I've taped off cbeebies like peppa pig or kipper etc. He won't pay attention to books for long, maybe one story, and doesn't really play with toys, he just starts messing about with stuff and making a mess, pulling things out of the cupboards etc.
So we end up watching telly for an hour or so. Then it's usually time to get dressed and more or less start the day, go to nursery etc. Just wondered if everyone else was doing terribly educational things all morning. We live in Spain so nothing is open til 9am at the very earliest so there really is nothing to do in those couple of hours from when he wakes, it's not like we can go shopping or anything as someone said they do.
I have to say he's not always up so early, it goes in phases. At the mo it's 6ish but could change tomorrow and he might sleep til 730 or 8. Just wondered what others did to fill the time. It's alright if I've slept OK but what with being 37 wk pg I'm up weeing half the night and sometimes I actually doze off during each Peppa Pig episode!

[eversoslightlytired]

DS (3.11) has ALWAYS been a early waker (and was for a long time just generally a bad sleeper). We invested in the Glo Clock which at night time shows a moon with stars round it. You set it like a normal alarm and when the time comes it changes from a moon to a sun. He knows that he is then allowed to call us. He is generally awake before that time as we hear him singing and talking but he now knows that we will not come and get him until the sun comes up on the clock. (We also have a stair gate on his door).