Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

AIBU to expect a 5 year old to just play quietly till 7 am ? ?

68 replies

ginger19 · 26/04/2012 08:17

Just that really. Personally I think that he could muster it. Let me sleep till 7.
DS wakes at 5.45..or 6 ish .DH thinks 5 is too young to be left to his own devices in his room, or say , downstairs.

DS just nags and whines till I or DH get up with him....How does it work in your home?

Thanks!

OP posts:

Jnice · 26/04/2012 08:21

My dss have always needed food pretty soon after waking so mostly would either persuade them to come to bed for a snuggle or have to get up to make breaky at that age.

But now ODS is 9 he can sometimes be persuaded to make ds2 breaky and play with him for a bit. Those mornings are heaven!

DaveGrohlsgirl · 26/04/2012 08:21

We have always had this rule in our house as DD is a very early waker on occasion.
However we don't let her go downstairs......partly because at age 4 / 5 she was not ready to be on her own, but also because sometimes she woke up at 3am!!
We have a stair gate, it is not opened until 7am. At age 5 she played, now. at age 8 she reads, and more importantly she is safe

Bletchley · 26/04/2012 08:25

No. yANBU. But it will take a bit of training and practise until he gets it. Stick with it.

valiumredhead · 26/04/2012 08:27

DS wasn't allowed out of bed until 7am unless it was for a wee. He could read books in bed but no noise until 7. Interestingly he ended up sleeping later and later once he realised nothing was going on in the rest of the house.

timmyleedances · 26/04/2012 08:31

Nope I do it with DS. Have done now for about a year and a bit (he's 5) He isn't allowed out of his room till 7 (unless he wants a wee but then it is straight back into his room) He can read, play a games whatever just don't come out. Took some time to get it into him though

BertieBotts · 26/04/2012 08:38

Really? DS has been allowed unsupervised in his bedroom since he was 2.5ish. He's been coming downstairs to watch TV in the mornings since he was 3, but I know that he won't touch anything or do anything else - you need to know whether your child will, TBH.

What about one of those clocks with the awake/asleep bunny or the sun and moon? It gives young children a visual cue as to whether they are allowed to come in and wake you up or whether they should play quietly in their bedroom. Obviously you may have to enforce this at first.

Birdsgottafly · 26/04/2012 08:39

Mine would stay in their rooms and play.

However, in my youngest and eldest case they didn't need as much sleep as i was trying to make them have, so they went to sleep later.

Squirrelz · 26/04/2012 09:02

My 4.5yo DS has a sun/moon clock, and if there's just one star left (which I think is about an hour) he can play quietly in his room. No coming to mum or dad (we're divorced - separate houses) until the sun appears, but he can go to the loo. He seems pretty consistent with this now, although it took a little while to establish.

Pleasehelpifyoucan · 26/04/2012 09:05

How can a child who is old enough to go to school be too young to be left for a half and hour in a child-proof room? Most odd. Mine also stay in their rooms til after 7, my 6 year old plays for 1 or 2 hours sometimes if she wakes early, with lego, or does drawing or looks at books. I absolutely wouldn't be getting up at 5.45 for anything, bar a medical emergency!

birdsofshoreandsea · 26/04/2012 09:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AnnaFalactic · 26/04/2012 09:30

As others have said, depends on the child. DD, nearly 6, comes downstairs, gets her own breakfast, watches tv and gets herself dressed for school. She doesn't get up as early as your DS though, sometimes I have to drag her out of bed in the mornings!

sheeplikessleep · 26/04/2012 09:34

DS1 is 4 and reads looks at pictures by himself in his room if he wakes early.
Nice and quiet, just the occasional page turning.
Wish DS2, who is 2 would do the same at 5am

beingagoodmumishard · 26/04/2012 09:40

we taught our DS from when he was about 4 that he only got out of bed before 7am if he needed the toilet, he was ill or had had a bad dream. We are now encouraging him that even later is better on a weekend . If he wakes up earlier than that he has to play quietly in his bed, either playing with his cuddly toys or looking at/reading books. He has been absolutely fine with that.

To be fair he has never been a very early riser but we have the opposite problem in that he takes a long time to go to sleep. But the same principle applies and that once he has gone to bed he has to stay in bed and if awake he can play quietly as above. Again we have had very few problems with this and it is just part of his bedtime routine.

Original poster

ginger19 · 26/04/2012 09:41

Thanks all

I have tried the alarm clock. Not any success there.Will be much more firm!

OP posts:

TheProvincialLady · 26/04/2012 09:43

If DH thinks your 5 year old is too young to play by himself, he can get up with him every morning.

5 years old is plenty old enough to be quiet until 7am. My 3.4 year old knows not to disturb us until 7.

Chandon · 26/04/2012 09:50

My boys were not "old enough" to be self sufficient at that age, but around 6-7 they were. At 5 they might come into my bed for a quiet snuggle. If they woke up before 6, I'd send them back to bed though.

juts a bit of patience. It is natural for most kids to wake early.

blackout curtains help BTW

Notinmylife · 26/04/2012 09:52

I think that is a perfectly reasonable expectation. My 4 year old is getting the idea, and will play quietly most days. We got a clock that shows when he could get up, which is a handy tool, but he started re setting it and coming in saying it was time to get up. He couldn't understand how we knew he was lying!

Pleasehelpifyoucan · 26/04/2012 09:55

birdsofshoreandsea, um, I did get up at 5.45 or 6 for years, when the children were babies and toddlers. The whole point is though, that by 5/6, the entire household doesn't need to rise to meet their needs at this time point, they are learning to be independent, go to the toilet by themselves, self-direct their play. Fine, if your child isn't ready at 5, but there are also lots of mainly mummies who seem to think being all sacrificial about sleep is required for decades, it isn't unless they have a real problem at that time in the morning. I have friends who haven't slept properly for 10 years, more fool them.

birdsofshoreandsea · 26/04/2012 12:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AngryFeet · 26/04/2012 12:24

I have a 7 and 5 year old and thankfully they don't wake before 7-7.30 most days. At the weekends we like to lie in a bit and so they either play together or if they are hungry I get up and make breakfast and put on the pc or a film and go back to bed for a bit. I think I trust them from about the ages of 5 and 3 to not do anything stupid but I did just lay around relaxing and didn't go back to sleep so I was aware of any funny noises etc. Only in the last 6 months have I felt ok to go back to sleep for an hour and know they will be safe and sensible. Depends on the child really. It helps DD (7) is sensible and looks after her brother though.

lou2321 · 26/04/2012 12:34

I think 5 is quite a reasonable age for them to play in their room TBH. If it is safe ie stair gate on etc it is quite feasible that they can play in their child saef rooms from about 2 years old. I have always used the day/night clocks for both mine, it took a long while after DS2 turned 2 for him to get the hang of it but 9/10 times he will wait for it to go off.

I also wanted to encourage them to go back to sleep if it wasn't 7am as before 6 is very early for them to wake up if they go to bed at say 7/7.30.

And no most children don't wake up because they need you - they just urm wake up (noise/light/need a wee) same as adults really!

BettySwollocksandaCrustyRack · 26/04/2012 12:35

5 is plenty old enough to play quietly till 7.......so no YANBU!

HexagonalQueenOfTheSummer · 26/04/2012 12:39

My lively 3 year old will play in his room until we get up each morning; occasionally he will come through and wake us but generally he just plays.

OP, YANBU

Mcnorton · 26/04/2012 12:44

My 3.5 yo son always wakes too early (5.20) and have tried the sun/moon clock and he gets that he should stay in his room but he just yells for me, and I haven't been able to crack that one. He's worked out that technically he is still in his room so playing by the rules, the cheeky so and so. I gave in and let hm get in my bed to shut him up. Must try harder....

margoandjerry · 26/04/2012 12:57

YANBU but you have to have training on this. You can't just implement it.

I have always had a rule (since the DCs were sleeping throuhg properly) that I don't get out of bed before 7. So even when they used to wake up at 6 or whenever they could come into my bed and climb all over my head and be really annoying but nothing good would happen (like we get up!) until 7am. It was horrific and I spent many hours being smothered but actually eventually it set their clocks right and now they don't wake up until 7 and if they do they know not to bother me. DCs are now 5.5 and 2.5 so I have been implementing this rule for 5 years and it's only now working.

Flip

1 2 3

Swipe left for the next trending thread