Why do kids wake so bloody early?

[Itsnotmyfaultisit]

Mine were both up before 530 today. That is early admittedly but it’s generally around 6 for one and 7 for the other. Bedtimes make no difference to this. Obvious stuff like blackout curtains and so on tried. Whhhhy?

8 is early to be asleep imo.

Mine all went to bed between 8:30 and 9 when they were small and continued that in the early years of elementary school. They were asleep some time after that. They were awake around 7, after 9-10 hours of sleep, and school started at 8. In summer, they slept in a bit later and also went to bed a bit later.

I never had the experience of children endlessly calling me from their beds or appearing downstairs to 'use the loo' or 'get a drink of water', etc.

We ate dinner around 6:30 / 7ish.

Mine never went to bed until around 9-10
pm as that was their natural body clock. They'd sleep until 8-9 am depending upon whether it was a school day. If I'd put them to bed at 6pm they'd have been chewing through the door to get out.

I’ve never had that either. They go to sleep.

I think 8 o clock - when you’ve been up since 6 - is pretty late for a 3 year old.

Mine are never up before 7am. They've always had fairly late bedtimes, usually 9pm by 3yo, a bit earlier at 8pm when younger. I tend to go to bed late myself (1-2am) so that was my child-free evening.

Mine don't and never have. They always need to be woken if we're going anywhere. They don't go to bed early though. I am not a morning person and couldn't cope with being up at 6 or worse every day so I'm glad.

My son starts school at 8:40....

Yes, 8pm sounds about right for a 6am wake up. But if you push the 8pm bedtime back then eventually the 6am start will shift as well.

My kids have never got up at those times I have to wake mine in the morning for school.

Hah, I often have to wake 4 year old DS up at 7am so we can get ready for school. We do lights out at 8pm.

Babay DD goes to bed about the same time and wakes up about about 6:45, usually because she's hungry or has a full nappy.

DH is a lark who bounces out of bed at 5am to exercise, while the rest of us are a bit usless until 10am.

It honestly doesn’t but I can see no one believes me 🤣

@Kinsters - tell that to my ds. He’s nearly 4 and never had a lie in. He goes to bed between 8.30-9pm, and often not asleep until 9.30pm or later. He wakes by 6am every day!
Even on days like later nights out for dinner or nye with sleep at 10/11/12pm, he wakes by 6am.
We aren’t in uk, he can happily run around all evening in summer outside until 11pm and then be up before dawn.
Even as a tiny baby he’s never slept well tbh. Prob 7-8hrs in 24 is his normal

What happened when the clocks went forward?

No change of any real significance.

It Does make afternoons tricky as it’s hard to go anywhere without danger naps!

Have 'quiet time' in the afternoon, with a substantial snack around 3-3:30pm. Sit on the couch and read or watch children's programmes.

Stay home in the afternoons - don't make plans to go anywhere.

Well, yes, our hands are forced in a way, but it does turn it into a loooong day.

Quiet time is not a concept my eldest has ever got. He’s not massively into TV so that doesn’t work.

Haha I get what you mean, it might not shift when on holiday for a week but it would shift eventually. Think about it, if you moved to New York they would get on that time zone eventually; they wouldn’t stay stuck on UK time forever. In fact mad as it sounds, I do actually really like long haul travel and jet lag for a hard reset on sleep 🤣 Gets them so far out of routine and typical sleep patterns that you can build a new routine from scratch.

I know but what I’ve found is that it makes a tiny difference. So when I trialled a much later bedtime for a few months he woke up later but only by half an hour or so whereas he’d gone to bed 2/3 hours later. I do think some people are just early risers, my dad always was.

What does their day look like?

Mine have always been good sleepers, even as toddlers, but I RAN THEM IN TO THE GROUND. I would literally exhaust them. I'd stay out in the playground till dark, dinner is late (6/6.30pm) so they have full tummies to keep them going through the night etc.

Honestly, my children are out playing or being active for several hours a day if not at school, and they go to bed late (9pm) and rise late, usually around 8.30am.

Bedtime obviously makes a difference. For some reason in the UK people think they need to put babies or young kids to bed at 7, I saw 6pm as a bedtime on another thread! This creates a habit and then parents are tearing their hair out a few years later when their kids won't sleep later than 5.30. DD has never had a bedtime earlier than 7.30, more like 8. She rarely wakes before 7.30 and is 5 now.

Obviously a few nights on holiday won't reset their body clock.

I walked past a man and his kids yesterday and he told them they need to go home because it's bed time, it was 6pm! 🤯

My friend was complaining the other day that her toddler woke at 530am. I asked what time he went to bed…half 6! That’s 11 hours sleep, of course he’s waking!
She says I’m so lucky when mine wake at 730-8am, but then thinks it’s mad when they’re still up at 9pm. But that’s the option - later evenings or early mornings. I prefer having them up later, it’s 730 and we’ve just finished dinner and kids happy running around in the garden 🤷‍♀️

@Orangewine I'm glad it worked for you but for many it's not as black and white as a choice between early mornings/ later evenings. Some kids just wake up early no matter what you do. If I'd have put my ds to bed when he was a toddler at 1am he'd have still pinged up ready to go at 5am. It was just the way he was and when I read advice such as 'just put him to bed earlier' it honestly made me feel like a bit of a failure. Some parents really have tried everything and sometimes nothing works and they just outgrow it.

My husband and one son are larks. They've both found getting into work before the phones start ringing the most productive part of the day.

My other two sons are like me valuing a later start.

My son and daughter in law have three larks. All the children have double beds. So parents take it in turns to do the early shift. Crawling into their beds rather than waking up everyone.

It is brutal @Itsnotmyfaultisit

We once went to a & e (advised by 111) at 9 pm, we were there until 130 am, got in at 2. He STILL woke at 6! I was wtf 😂

We had to get up at 6.30am to be able to drop DD off at nursery and later at her childminder at 7.45am.

So obviously weekends were also early. We just run with it, early swimming sessions, empty supermarkets, parks with ducks who were still hungry, cafe with a much needed coffee at 9am and a two hour nap in the afternoon we all used for downtime.

I think DD was around 9 when she would consistently sleep longer to 9am, before she would wake up but read or listen to audiotapes.

It's a phase, like so many other things.