To have realised I’ll never have a peaceful morning again …

Mine are 9 and 7 and on a weekend are quite happy to entertain themselves on a morning for a bit. And it’s been this way for a few years now. Probably since the youngest was about 4 or 5. They also rarely wake before 7, quite often closer to 8 now and they can read on a morning. Although they do go to bed later.

Ok they’re not fending for themselves for hours on end, but they’re just fine getting up and watching tv, they help themselves to a cereal bar or a brioche roll and a carton of juice and leave us in blissful peace til 9am sometimes!

It will be less than 15 years. My DS was able to get himself some breakfast and stick the telly on to entertain himself from around 8/9 years old.

You will. It won't take 15 years!

Unless DH works away all weekends you should be getting the odd break. It's harder in December, but on a warm spring day he should wrap them up (even if it's just snowsuit over pjs! Nobody would know) for a long walk and a cafe breakfast. They'd love it and you could stay in bed till 11 and get up in time for have lunch ready for them to to come home to so DH can have his turn to put his feet up.

They'll likely sleep later and be more independent soon enough. My eldest is 8 and she knows to read in bed if she wakes early unless she can hear her brothers are already up (have yet to find any force on this earth that can keep them in their bed beyond 6.20 reliably). When they are all up they often go downstairs together and play nicely while I snooze with the baby and DH supervises half awake on the sofa.

Start plannig for easier weekends in the future. Eldest knows how to use the toaster and can spread butter/chocolate spread and cut into squares. Younger ones can climb in a chair to get plastic cups out (they aren't allowed to help themselves to ceramic) so eldest can pour milk for them. At the moment this is still done with supervision, but give it a year or so and hopefully they'll be able to sort themselves out a bit at weekends.

Get some good earplugs for the morning your DH is on duty.

Give me those early days, rather than trying to wake up pre teenagers/teenagers to get up and go to school. Then you get the late nights, them going out to all hours. We’ve now gone back to beginning by having a dog, who for the last 6 years wakes up at 6am every single morning.

How old are they?

Of course I adore my DC but I so miss those lazy Sunday mornings and leisurely brunches! We will get it back though OP, once they get older, then we’ll appreciate it even more.

I think it's harder with multiple children. I am an only child and I have no memories of my parents waking up early at weekends. I was up and could sort my own breakfast from about the age of 6 and I loved spending a quiet morning with a book before parents emerged from their bedroom around 8am.
My step daughter was sleeping in late from the age of 10. We had to drag her out of bed as the whole house was waiting for her to go out for Sunday breakfast.
If you have more than one, I can see how things can quickly get out of hand with bickering.

@neverever24 i know what you mean. We’ve got a 3.5 year old and a 20 month old and their idea of a lie in is waking up at 6:30 - and that happens once in the blue moon. More often it’s 5:50. They also both wake in the night when poorly (which let’s face it in winter is about 60% of the time)

DP and I look back in awe at just how much time we used to have to do things like get up late, take long showers, have morning sex, eat a whole slice of toast and scrambled eggs without the kids snaffling half of it despite having already eaten their own. Sigh…. they are amazing but I do fantasise about time travelling back to have just one weekend of pre kid life as a breather - I would appreciate it so much more now than I used to

Or out for a maccys breakfast

Wrapped up and out for a walk. Take torches. Kids love it.

Alternatively he needs to engage with them, shut all connecting doors and keep them occupied and quiet.

Let him figure it out. Our local swimming pool opens at 7. I am sure he can figure something out.

Shut the door and get earplugs for the morning he does have them, or ask him to take them out. My DH does weekend mornings and it may be 90% of the reason our marriage is surviving

Helpful.

OP it is relentless when they are small but it gets easier as they grow up, and doesn’t take til they are 15 either. There will come a point they can get themselves up and brekkie on a weekend and won’t scream and make a racket either. In the meantime invest in some earplugs for your lie in

You may find that after years of training you will become unable to sleep in any more! Mine are teens and I get up way before them at the weekend!

Did you not realise this when you first decided to have children?

Well they do come back, and sooner than you think. My early bird started to sleep in pretty much as soon as he started school.

But then, my DH and I always used to take the weekend mornings in turn - why are you not getting a lie in??

That's a DH issue not a kid one, when I was BF DH did the mornings, when we shared the night issues we split the weekend mornings, and we both could manage the children to ensure the other wasn't disturbed, and then the kids got to an age they could wake up independently quietly long before 15 years. I've been sleeping in on weekends still for years (mine are 14 and 11). You need to talk to your DH.

Mine are 8 and get themselves up in the morning, watch TV and make themselves some brekkie. And they can use the nespresso machine so sometimes make me a coffee in bed!

Why aren't you getting lie ins at the weekends when their father is there?

Step back you can't draw from an empty well.

They do return! Mine are 9&11 and they stay in their rooms or head downstairs, entertaining themselves

in often don’t wake up until 9 on the weekends

I remember it's tough but lazy weekend mornings come back sooner than 15 years. By the time yoir youngest is around 8-10 they'll be capable of going downsrairs quietly, getting their own breakfast and switching on CBBC with appropriate bribery in place for what they need to do in order to let mummy have a bit more sleep. Not long after that they get to the point when you are trying to persuade an inert lump under the duvet that 11am really does meam that the day has to start. Time flies.

How old are they?