Really early mornings with young dc, what do you do?

[Darkestseasonofall]

My dc (1 and 4) get up at 5.30 lately. I'm working on pushing it back with later bedtimes etc, but getting nowhere fast.
If you're dc get up equally early what do you do?!
We need to be out of the house by 8.30 and I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that after breakfast and getting dressed there's an awful lot of TV going on and playing on the floor whilst I tidy up / shower etc.
It feels a bit endless, and a ti y bit neglectful to just leave them to their own devices, but I really don't want to get crafting etc when it's still dark.
What do you do about your very early rising young dc?

My youngest got up between 5 and 530am till he was almost 3. It was really hard especially when I was working as well. We did get up and cuddled on the sofa and watched tv till about 630 so I could doze a bit until I felt vaguely human. The good bit is that because of all those early mornings together he still likes to sit with me and cuddle when he comes downstairs in the mornings.

My ds was always up by 5.30. I used to get up with him and play with Lego, read books, watch tv etc or just snuggle on the sofa. Dd wasn’t that early but would be awake by 7 at the latest. Even though I was tired I loved that quiet time with them and it felt starange once they got older and didn’t need either of us to go downstairs with them any more.

At weekends I used to get up with him and then at 8-9am would wake up dh who would take over and I’d go back to bed for an hour or so.

We tried moving bed time back but it made home wake up earlier. My elderly neighbour said that you either had evening together with dh or a lie in but not both!

Your early mornings will make life easy once they start school as you will have time to get everything done in time without rushing around.

Ds is now 17 and still an early riser....

I never got up for the day before 7am. 6.30 at an absolute push if I didn't want them disturbing DH.

They used to come into my bed and cuddle/watch tv very quietly ( so they had to sit still to hear it - any messing or covers moving and then couldn't hear it).

Now they go downstairs on their own and put tv on. They know they're not supposed to go down before 7am but I do sometimes hear them whispering about it about 6.45am
TV goes off at 7.30 on school days for breakfast & getting ready.

I agree that getting them up at 4-5 am perpetuates the cycle and if youre not a morning person yourself then it must be absolute hell. In the baby days if mine woke at that time it would be treated as a night feed - bottle of milk in the dark. They had gro clocks when older. Someone worried about them being cold and wet and thirsty but mine always could come into my bed for a cuddle to get warm and bottles of water in their rooms at night when they were too old for milk. Now they have blankets on the sofa. Toilet trained at 2.5 and moved out of cot so they could use the loo - so never wet after that and when I heard them get up for the 4am wees i would go and help and then we all back to bed. Bladders soon adjust to a full night.

Obviously there were bad days and many nights of broken sleep, but I never considered getting up and going to the park at 7am an option!

Things are a bit better now, but during lockdown when we'd be up for the day around half 5 / 6, life was so bleak. It'd get to 9am and I'd realise that I had 9 hours until my partner would be home and there was nowhere to go. I put The Gruffalo or similar on, convincing myself that because it was an adaptation of a book, it's fine.

Conversely, we found putting ds to bed earlier made him sleep in longer

Sleep induces sleep a lot of the time is why. But it is also normal and expected for very young children to wake very early.

Depends how old but as a toddler - up, TV on, me sit blurry eyed with a cup of tea. From about 3 I have them cuddling with me in bed and listening to an audio book.

We used to take it in turns to get up and then we would lie semi conscious on the sofa with tv on. I clearly remember the horror of the sort of half dead state with one eye/ear on the children and the theme tunes of various favourite children’s shows.
I also used to dish out a rich tea biscuit and drink of milk at one point to get us to a semi sane breakfast time where a more balanced weetabix and fruit would be devoured.
Now 10 and 13 I can confirm no I’ll effects if this fecklessness.

I have one who wakes at 5.15am. Every day. Hell takes over for a couple of weeks when the clock changes until he's back in his routine. He very rarely falls asleep before 11pm, but thankfully loves being in bed listening to music or audio books.

In the end I put a tv/dvd player in his room with a timer plug (no aerial so he could only watch the DVD). the timer plug was set for 5.30am. So he'd wake at 5.15 and then could turn on his DVD at 5.30. He'd watch that and then DH would get up just after 6.

He still wakes at 5.15am now, but he enjoys reading in the morning. Now it's his lamp that's on the timer. He still has to chill in bed until 5.30 and then he can read and listen to music.

When DS is having a pre-7am phase I have a fifty/fifty success rate with cuddles and back down, but otherwise we go down and I put on either CBeebies Wind Down (a godsend) or one of those lovely Japanese craftsmanship channels on YouTube and make a nest on the sofa. A lot of the time he goes back over lying on me and we both snooze til a reasonable breakfast time. Can't let him stay in cot carrying on because he will work himself up to hysterics and also DH does a lot of nights so everyone would be miserable.

This has been working since he was about nine months so keeping going til he's old enough to catch on to the gro clock. Still living off the Saturday his big sister woke up, shoved a yoghurt down him and took him off for a walk at six in the morning!

Back in my days of early rising toddlers and babies I just used to let them watch Peppa or CBeebies until about 6.30 then we ate breakfast. Can't remember what happened after that but it was probably a bit more TV. Don't even worry about it, do whatever they'll soon be old enough to understand that they are not allowed out of their rooms before 6.30 or whatever time you say. I never thought I'd see the day but mine are 5 and 8 now and often sleep to a decent time, but if they don't then they stay in their rooms reading or playing until the clock strikes 6.45.

When mine get up at 430/530, I try to cajole back to bed, sometimes get up with them, but often (mostly!) give them an iPad to go back to bed with. They don't get up that time every day thankfully! If you want to do something, then maybe a bit of yoga on YouTube or something? You can join in or watch from the sofa!