Xmas day morning - AIBU here?

Hosting is exhausting, DH and I were shattered, even though we had plenty of help from family. I would have been even more shattered if up at 6am, even more so if I was in my 60s.

We were allowed to get up anytime after 6 and check our stockings. Then we waited until Mom and Dad got up an hour or so later. Breakfast amd then presents. I do the same with my kids although I've been known to be up before them some years.
Some people just aren't morning people no matter what.

We've also managed this somehow with ds1 also! Hoping ds2 follows suit when they start to share a room, he's only a baby at the moment.

A friend of mine messaged me on Christmas day to say that he DS had come through at 5.15am but she'd 'managed to get the little fella back to sleep for another hour'. He's 13, almost 14. 😂

Never at 6 am! Ours were always told no way before xxxx - cant remember what that was and I don't know how we managed it when they couldn't tell the time - but we never started stockings until whatever time we felt was OK.

It's 8.30 now they're teens (and we have to wake them up.....😁) but think it was 7.30 or 8 when they were younger.

When I was small I remember we kids all slept on the top floor of a 4 storey house. We woke about 6 and sat on the landing prodding our stockings, but whispering and waiting until we were allowed into our parents room. Think maybe 7 am?

I don't blame your family at all - why would they want their sleep disturbed unnecessarily...???

Tricky one but coming from someone who lives with DM and DP amd 2 DC (3 and 1.5). I would let them sleep a bit or they will be grumpy. Do the stocking and all the 'WOW father christmas has been, Look!' then get her to go and wake them up.
Yesterday my children were up at 7:45 (late night xmas eve) and I still let DM and DP sleep until 9. Then evreyone is happy as its a long day.

Agree, as do 89% of people who voted.
You can't expect others to be as excited as you about being woken up by your child at 6am.

a great achievement! My two are out of the bed and their rooms as soon as they open their eyes 🤦🏻‍♀️ looking for us!

I’d rather do stocking gifts in bed with coffee and children. Not any other family members . They can be there later for opening big presents. I wouldn’t be happy being told when to get up I like my sleep an having 3 young kids I wouldn’t be getting up for anyone else’s! And I would refuse to do my kids stocking till 7am at the earliest.

Love this. Maybe that's also also why my two don't get up. They've never come into our room in the morning- we've always gone to them. I thought it was the gro-clock but maybe they just don't realise they can get up themselves 😅

@TheEveningSun We have someone managed to instil in DS the belief that he can't actually get out of bed by himself and/or he's just so lazy that it's easier for him just to wait for us to come and get him when we see he's awake. It is one of our best parenting achievements even though I have no idea how we managed it.

My children (6 and 4) both stay in bed until 7:30 too, and did so yesterday. They each have a gro-clock and just aren't allowed to get up until it lights up. That's always been a rule. They can sit in bed and look at books if they want until it's time.

Out of interest, how do you do it? My son (also 5) runs to my bedroom at whatever time he wakes up (between 6/7.30) cuddle for 10-15 min and is asking to go downstairs or go back to his room. But he always wants me there because it’s dark 🙄

They didn’t say they minded being woken up. The OPs sister specifically said the child could go into her room and show her, but that she wasn’t getting out of bed for it (at 6am) 🙄

Yes YABU. Parents do the 6am thing. Other relatives get to stay in bed until a more sensible time. Your sister said your daughter could go in a show her what she had got, but she was going to stay in bed. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

As soon as she was old enough to tell time my SD was under strict orders not to wake us up before 8am. She have a couple of little presents and a stocking in her room to open but the rest we had to wait for. The one morning she woke us up at 4am and if it hadn’t been for me checking my watch because it was still dark we would have got up as she’d changed all the clocks (lounge and hallway) to 8am. Needless to say we started taking the batteries out of them on Christmas Eve so she couldn’t do it again

I wouldn't mind as am always up before 6.

My daughter, 21, got up at 1100 because we went to Midnight Mass I was out with the dog before 6 as usual.

We opened gifts at 6pm and had our special lunch at teatime today. It was all fine.

We had our son and granddaughter also 3 yrs old and we were both up when they were, what's the point in sharing you're christmas day if you cant be bothered to get up with them, you're parents and sister are miserable so n so;s

Yes, agree with that, especially in their home.

We never had others here on Xmas morning til this year and last and the kids are now late teens but I no way would I expect family to get up that early. Stockings are for bed and used to keep kids in bed longer, not for waking the family up early to show them the stocking!

Totally unreasonable to expect everyone to be up at 6.00 am surely 8.00 am is early enough, would not appreciate 6.00 am wake up call, if your DC wake you up early it's up to you doesn't mean to wake up GD at that time if they don't want to

I'm a bit late to this but anyone who objects to being awakened by a little kid on Christmas day needs to fuck off, it's the whole point of it

Uhm, your daughter is 3 !!! She will hardly know or care I'd anyone else is there.
To be honest, it all sounds a bit like indulging a child at the expense of everyone else.
If you want everyone to sit bleary eyes watching a tot shred paper, I think you are indulging yourself.
Try distracting her with the stocking contents.
We did not get to open our gifts under the tree until after breakfast, and we all survived without any mental scarring.

I'm one of the "been there, done that" tribe too @ipredictariot5
My GC wait until 9.30 when we and their uncle go round (he's not an early riser!) and then we have breakfast afterwards. There's no way I'd be up at six, when my four DC were little we waited until around 8.00.

My adult children who until v recently had 4 grandparents all had different experiences from each set of grandparents and looking back they value each of them
my ILs lived nearer and never ‘helped’ as such with childcare but were interested and generous. They would be there in a crisis and have a money towards a house deposit/ gave our children some money at university.
They never got up at 6am and I think there is something in the advice they have ‘been there
done that’. they never did overnights or babysit
my parents lived in a different country and would come and babysit and encourage us to go away
for weekends/holidays or keep the younger ones
whilst we took away older ones.
My mum would love the 6ams
it is a long game parenting. Take your parents/ ILs as you find them, they will all have strengths and weaknesses.
we spent most of our xmases at home and visited after Christmas. Less pressure for everyone. It is exhausting staying away with kids. Do what is easiest for you as a family