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....

TV is the work of the devil so should be avoided for the best part of any day yet sitting on your phone while your children entertain themselves is perfectly fine. 🤔
Nothing wrong with the TV being on whatsoever. Do what works.

With 5 I would say your child can be in his room, quitely playing or reading in bed.

Also, getting a clock and asking him to stay until, let's say 7am, is also possible.

I thought you meant you have a toddler. Saying that, one of DD's classmates in Reception/Year1 was an early riser, think 5am or less. They managed with the rules of silent play/reading etc and often the girl would drop off again. I think indulging him with TV ust means sh ewill go up to watch.

I tend to have the TV on in the background for a bit of noise, so CBeebies is invariably on. DD is 14 months and as a result, she can take or leave TV. It's quite funny to see her quietly playing with her blocks and suddenly leaping up to dance to her favourite theme tune.

Conversely, I have a friend who was never allowed TV growing up and then when we went to uni together she became hopelessly addicted to it.

DD wakes any time between 6 - 7am. We come downstairs and start the day; breakfast, cheeky bit of TV and playing with toys. I know it's been a good week when I haven't seen Ra Ra the Lion.

I will not entertain the idea of going downstairs before 7am, so regardless of whether it's 5.10am or 6.40, it's into bed with us and either watch TV or the iPad. Then it's downstairs for breakfast and playing, always out by 9am for outside entertainment. I feel zero guilt about his screen time because I know it's well balanced

When do children start watching TV for a length of time (ie a whole program)? My 10 month old will look at it for seconds then crawl off again, so I am now looking forward to be able to stick it on and snooze on the sofa - when does that happen?!

Mine are older now but ds2 was a 5:30am wake up kid. Luckily so was dp, so they would go down have breakfast, watch tv, do puzzles, play with construction toys then me and ds1 would get between 7:30am-9:30am.

NewAccount DD is 16mo and has just started watching an entire TV programme while having a cuddle, but only if she's tired. She's not fussed about TV most of the time but when she's sleepy she'll bring me the remote and ask for "Beebies" and we'll watch something quietly together. Then she's off to play again! I've never acted like TV is a treat and thus far she rarely asks for it or pays much attention to it - maybe once or twice a day when she's not at nursery, and not at all on the days when she is. Fingers crossed it continues!

NewAccount, DD used to watch CBeebies in the morning and at about 14 months would watch a whole show eg babyjake. I don't have a problem at all with the tv being on but DD gets really tantrummy when it's on (especially the peppa pig channel) and she needs to do something else and she was behaving really badly at nursery and home (hitting etc) so we turned it off. She just gets transfixed by it, this only started in toddlerhood, maybe we initially let her watch too much. Being glued to a screen all day is no good but I think there's a place for good kids tv and I hope we can get to the point where DD can enjoying it again! Watching tv as a kid certainly did me no harm!

My dc are only allowed tv in the morning at weekends (Or it's impossible to motivate them to get ready for school). Weekdays dd3 is an early riser so I always make sure something is out for her to play with in the living room. No one is allowed to wake me until 7am unless there's blood, vomiting or imminent death. From 8yo dd1 brings me coffee at 7.10am.

At 5 most kids can play in their room for an hour or so first thing (though they may need a bit of training to do that if they are used to being able to come and be entertained by you). Maybe have an easy, favourite toy picked out especially for that purpose and mention it at bedtime (if it won't stop him getting to sleep) "In the morning you can play with your hospital set until the alarm goes off. OK?".

My Dd used to wake this time & often earlier. My. coping mechanisms were: get up with her
Make a cup of tea
Watch cbeebies
Get lots of chores done
Go to bed early!

When ds arrived he would go to bed and wake up, a lot, and would then lie in whilst dd would wake up! 🙁

It does not last forever but this is life with children!

Aged 14 & 11 now, dd still asleep at 9am this morning
Ds awake at 6.30am
Me awake at 8.30am

5.30am is late here 😂 we do tablet time until 7am else I'm foul and then we start the day once I have come round 😂

None of mine have showed any interest in the TV until 2 ish onwards tbh. The 19 month old doesn't even register it.

My Ds has never slept beyond 7am and he's now 13.

I bought a sleep clock with a rabbit that woke up at a certain time. It certainly saved us. At 5 years old child can easily understand reason so say you can't get up til the bunny wakes. He used to play with toys in his bed or room until that time.

Now he gets up and goes downstairs and gets his breakfast and watches tv until we get up about 8.30

It probably changed when he was about 6 and could get up and go down alone but i always got up about 7am anyway. Now I enjoy my lie ins on a weekend

The bonus is he's never late for school as always up and ready by 7.30am on a school day

Get him some comic books to look at. Donald duck, Asterix etc. My 5 year old can occupy himself for hours looking at comics :)

At five you should also be able to tell him he has to stay quiet in his room until 7am. He's old enough to understand.

Stick the tv on! The many times my eldest, she's 9 now but when she was a baby she would wake at 5 😩. So id pop CBeebies on and just lie on the sofa! It's tiring when they wake early, I wouldn't go punishing my self by having a no tv rule lol.