Early hours with young children

[nooriginalnameshere]

My ds wakes at around 6am. He's wide awake and wanting attention. I'm invariably completely knackered. AIBU to wonder what parents do with their young kids between the hours of 6am-9/10am on a weekend, particularly for kids not allowed tv....

People are just funny about tv- I personally like noise in the background at home whether from the tv or the radio

Mine were up at 4am this morning and whoever said it is inhumane is correct! I try and ignore the kids for as long as possible to see if they will go back to sleep. Then encourage them to play in to
Thier room. We start to get requests to go downstairs after around 40 mins. Once downstairs it's CBeebies time as I cannot function at that time in the morning. Then it's a mixture of tv, food, colouring, jigsaws etc.

I was very strict with my first child with tv- none until probably 18 months. Second child knows all the theme tunes!! You do what you need to survive, unless you've experienced it you've no idea how hard it is day after day. To those saying go to bed earlier, if you want 8hours sleep with a child up at 4am, then it's 8pm bedtime. I get home from work at 6pm, kids need bedtime, tea cooking and housework
It's 8pm before you've blinked some nights!

Screen time isn't harmful to young children. It's only an issue if that's all they do.... perfectly fine if they also do a broad range of other activities and get lots of exercise.

Some are saying go to bed earlier. How do you do that with a child who won't go to sleep until midnight (due to Sen) then a baby that wakes hourly.

TV is definitely used in the mornings here. My husband works late and isn't in until early hours so the TV keeps the eldest and little one occupied for a bit in the morning. Our DD is like a marathon sleeper I wish her brothers were more like her she loves her sleep.

We've just ordered new blackout blinds to try and keep the boys from waking to early as I reckon the sun is getting them up earlier now.

Why no TV?

Surely that's when it's invented for!

If it helps we play for a bit. Chat. Breakfast.

And then TV for a while and I can sit and have a tea/coffee while it's on.

Generally DD loses interest pretty quick and switches back to toys. But I've learned she'll play a lot longer/better if the telly stays on whereas if she's playing with no background noise (TV/Music) she'll get bored quicker.

We all get up, shower, getting dressed, have breakfast. No lie in on alternate days as DH are awake anyway and can’t go back to sleep.

No TV but we are a low key TV family anyway.

When DD was small we had to be at the pool for swimming at 9.30am with a 30 minutes drive and Sundays we often ended at the farmers market and the park afterwards.

When she was really small, she had a decent nap of 1 1/2 hours from 9am again, so I could use that to sit down with another cup of tea.

7am was a lie in for us.

Yes 6am is a perfectly acceptable time for him to get up but I don't want to get up at 6am on a weekend! Surely you're not all reading books for between 1-3 hours?! A book takes us a maximum of ten minutes to read.

He's 5 for context.

@nooriginalnameshere no, most of us use the TV! Can't have it both ways unfortunately. A bit of tv on a weekend morning isn't going to turn their brains to mush, but it might just save yours.

TV or iPad until I can function around 9am. No way am I playing make believe at 6am. Plus side I get a snooze on the sofa so I'm not exhausted

This is me!

Oh wait I'm sorry I've just seen you've asked how parents do it, I have no idea I'm totally with you 😂😂

6am is a win in this house. Most of the time it’s 5.30 - DS4 plays in his room til DS1 wakes then one is does an hour til 7 then we swap. We both get an hours peace at some point in the morning then.

Do you have a partner? We take it in turns to have a lie in.

Normally...

TV
Books (read aloud from a chapter book)
Games
Cook and eat breakfast
Get dressed
Have a bath maybe
Play in garden

We're normally in bed by 1030 pm

In the summer when it is really hot we have been known to go to the beach for about 0730 for a few hours before the heat of the day.

My DH and I also alternate days.

So one lie in each. While the other one parents 6-9am. DH is way better than me and generally when I get up they're in full swing of a Lego/Playmobil world.

But there's always an hour of telly or Netflix involved.

Then unless we're headed out somewhere whoever did the early get up gets to disappear for a long bath.

My DS is 4 and if he gets up at 6 he gets sent back to his room and told that's not an acceptable time to get up .... especially on a weekend. He either has to try and get more sleep or play quietly in his room.
He's allowed the iPad after 6.45 ( don't know why we've decided that time!) Which will often keep him entertained until 7.30ish.

Although he is now starting to sleep later which is bliss!

If he’s five he’s old enough to be in his own room playing until seven - I thought he was a toddler!

He’s also old enough to play while you snooze on the sofa

My kids don’t have screens as in personal screens, but if I’ve tried everything and they still get up too early for me, then I can’t see an issue with a bit of telly! Mine now get up closer to 7, and I can do 6-6:30 no problem, anything before 6 and I’m like a zombie! Cartoons on for kids, and either coffee and start the day, or doze on the sofa next to them for me.

My kids have always been early risers (between 5.30-5.45) and they’re now 5 and 7. They have iPad time for 45 minutes until we get up, and then they have to entertain themselves with drawing or playing football in the hallway.

To be fair, he doesn't know it's the weekend does he, really? So my DD (10) still gets up around 6am despite obviously later and later bedtimes. I think the key is to split it into manageable chunks of time, so some telly first thing, some reading, some play dough, then maybe you cook while they 'wash up'......it can all take hours and then you can say right it's 10.30 now, time for me to have a coffee and you can have a snack and play on the Kindle. Although I've also always thought that if had the capital I would set up a special playgroup that operates at the weekend just for early risers. I might still do it!

Our 3 yr old decided we should start getting up at 6. We didn't entertain it. First we went into her bed with her to doze, always telling her it was not time to get up yet. Then we bought her a digital clock, covered up the minute numbers and told her she wasn't allowed to wake us until she saw a 7, unless she was ill or had a nightmare. It's worked a treat. Having the knowledge of whether it is time to get up yet has seemed to relax her because we don't see her until 7.30. We told her that she could play quietly in her room until she saw a 7, but she is genuinely just asleep.

Now I'm sure this would not work for every child, but have you tried something like this? At 5 I would think it is definitely worth a go!

From a very young age, any time our children have tried to get up before 7 we basically treat the situation like it's still night.

I know someone whose child is up at 2:30 am every morning, ready for the day's entertainments.

We tried a gro clock, child just reprogrammed it. It's not the worst thing a child can do, waking at 6.

Surely at 5 he’s old enough to be told to stay in his room until a reasonable time? Or to amuse himself downstairs with his toys/books while you snooze on the sofa? My 5 year old knows better than to ask me to amuse her at the crack of dawn!

Isn't that a normal time to get up?