to expect a 6 and 4 year old to sleep past 5.30am?

[Trixidoll]

They are in bed by 7.30 and usally asleep by 8.30. My sister seems to think nothing of it (her DCs are the early risers) whilst I think it is abnormally early.

We need a wider research field please.

My 3.11 and 5.5 yo wake at 5:30 every day. I've tried later bedtimes, doing more physical stuff, doing less, nothing makes a difference. They're asleep in the evening somewhere between 7:30 and 8:30.

rumpledtit

Try edging bedtime back by only five minutes over a longer period until your DD has a more acceptable body clock pattern.

I love these discussions. When I say that my kids wake up early we get 'helpful' advice too.
Put them to bed late and they still wake up early and are miserable all day
Wear them out?! Ha! They are always outside, we do regular long walks with the dog, they play football plus various other activities!
We tried sending them back to bed but they just disturbed one another.
6.00 is our time for them to get up and they do wait but it took a lot of work.
Personally I have made my peace with it now took me 7 years

YANBU - have you got one of those bunny alarm clocks or similar. Worked a treat for us - bunny asleep, its time for you to be in bed - bunny awake, you can get up. (You need to start with bunny getting up roughly when they wake anyway, then tweak it slowly later, IME)

I also don't think its at all unreasonable to expect them to play quietly in their room after they've got up. We used to leave cereal & a little jug of milk out for dd so she could have a 'special breakfast' at weekends in her room though as she really did need to eat soon after getting up or otherwise was foul for the rest of the morning.

YANBU! We had years of early rising, but as soon as DS was old enough to understand we started re-educating him on early waking

We have a monitor with a talk back facility, so if we hear him before 6:30 he gets told v sharply to get himself back to bed. After that he does now, finally, play quietly in his room (playmobil helped here massively)

He frequently plays v happily in his room until 8:30 - 9am

(we had months and months of 4am wake-ups when he was tiny btw - and it's taken a LONG time to get here. He's just not allowed to get out of bef pre 7am anymore.. )

*bed

YApossBU to EXPECT young DCs to SLEEP past 5.30am.
But YA certainly NBU to expect them to not wake you up!

My 5yo DD wakes up at about 6am about 50% of the time. No problem with that because she plays quietly in her room until 7am. If she was waking me up and insisting I start the day at 6am, I would have a very big problem with it!

I think its very easy to get into the trap of 'rewarding' getting up early IYSWIM. I have friends who get up when their DC do, even if its 5.30am, play with them, put the TV on, get breakfast etc. Its no wonder their DCs jump out of bed ready to start the day at 5.30am.

YANBU. I don't expect to be woken at all! If DS wakes before me, which is usually about half the time, he's expected to play in his room until I go and say it's alright to come out. He's 2.2 and has understood this perfectly fine since we moved here (and he went into a bed) in April last year. So, he'd have been about 17 months. I've never had a problem.

I'm quite lucky though I suppose as, currently he sleeps about 12-16 hours a night. He didn't wake until nearly 11am today and still ready for bed at 6:30pm which I push until at least 7pm.

Anything before 6.30 is 'nighttime'.

After 6.30, I am happy (ish) to get up.

This morning it was 7.15, and it is remarkable the difference it makes to my mood. I was practically swinging from the lights!

I agree about the rewarding thing, DS gets up earlier at weekends because he is allowed to put the telly on than he does during the week when he's not.

Whoknows - exactly the same happened with my DD. When DS was tiny, we went through a stage of letting DD (about 2.5 at the time) watch telly if she woke up early, as we were so desperate for sleep! We just made a rod for our own back, cos she started getting up earlier and earlier, so excited to watch telly. We soon put a stop to that!

5am is a long lie, its usually nearer 4am round here.
DS1 (4)will sleep until 7am but DS2 (17MO) likes an early start and wakes us all up.

Not a chance that he will go back to sleep.
We have tried everything.

My dd1 was always a good sleeper and would sometimes go through to 9am, but as she has got older she has got up earlier. She is now 7 and will get up anywhere between 5 and 7, usually its around 6/6.30. If dd2 (1.11) is awake then she will get her up with her.

But, they just go into the lounge, turn on the tv and dd1 will usually make their breakfast. They are pretty much quiet enough that we can still stay in bed until 7.

This thread has made me feel so much better! My kids wake in between 6 and 6.30. I am awake but snoozy until about 7ish. I always feel guilty for not getting up and like a bad mother. I am glad it is normal to stay in bed! They are 5 and 6 btw.

Yanbu.

I am with u - mine are younger but do the same. Hate it but things can only get better.

HA DS1 is 2 and has gone from 7.30 to 6.30 recently. I don't mind the TV. If give him a cup of milk and a blanket, he lies on sofa watching Cbeebies for a bit (ok an hour) whilst I snooze. Brrrilliant.

It's just too early when 'morning' has with anything earlier than a 6 at the start of it...

I have a 5yr old and a 3yr old. The older one didn't sleep 'through' until 2 yrs but has been pretty good since then. The youngest, not so good... I was regularly starting the day at 5am-ish until we bought a GroClock. It's set to 6.30 and is not perfect, but makes it easier to put her back to bed because it's still 'nighttime' as the sunshine hasn't appeared yet.

Definitely far too early for me. When my DD was tiny, she once got up at 5.30 and I still remember the misery of being zonked out and waiting for CBeebies to start. Once, and once only.

Nowadays, it would be back to bed, it's still nighttime. Easier to get away with while the mornings are still dark.

My two are 6 and 4. They are up at 7-8 am at weekends. I seem to have to wake them at 7 am on schooldays.

If it dark (and not a school day) I can sometimes convince my DD that it is still night time and she will go back to sleep! (7.30 ish...)
But several of my chums with kids have early risers and like one of the other posters say it really doesn't make a difference if they go to bed earlier/are active etc - their body clocks just tell them it's time to get up!

Put them to bed later. If they need less sleep, it wont kill them to go to bed at 9pm.

My friends 6 yo DS gets put to bed at 9pm as if she put him in bed at 7:30, he'd be up at 5:30am..... exactly!

I would find that really intolerable! DD used to do that occasionally when she was very little but at 4 and 6...no! Is your sister annoyed about it? If she isn't then it doesn't really matter I suppose.

Mine are told 5.30am is still night time so to go back to sleep, they are 3, 6 and 8 months. The day here starts no earlier than 6.45 on a school day and 7.30. Dd just naturally seems to sleep in past that anyway but if she woke at that time I would treat it like a night time wake, as I did with the boys, keeping things quiet and calm, soothing then putting back to bed. Therefore I would say YANBU!

7am is wake up time in our house, any earlier is "back to bed, its still nighttime!"

Why on earth do you think I was quite happy for DD2 to follow her night owl sisters 8-8.30 pm bedtime even though she's 3 years younger.
I don't do mornings, she does!
It's ok now she's 10 she can play on her computer quietly, but when she was little 6 am was firmly discouraged.