To get up at 5am every day?

[mum677778]

I’m a mum to one lovely toddler. He’s in nursery for two days a week (whilst I work part time) and the rest of the week he’s home with me.

I really want to retrain and take my career in a new direction, and need to find some work/study time in between looking after my son, the part time job, cooking, cleaning and general life admin.

How hard would it be to get up at 5am every day to work/study for a solid 1.75 hours before my son gets up at 7? I would then work for another hour or two in the evening when he’s gone to bed.

Is it doable or will I be a dead woman walking?

My concern would be that you'd wake the toddler and end up getting nothing done while dealing with an over-tired and grumpy child

I had to wake up at 5am for work purposes for a couple of months a few years ago (luckily didn't have to leave the house). Tough at first but as long as you go to bed earlier and get the hours you need in, it's fine. My body clock adjusted quite soon, which was annoying once I didn't need to wake up at 5am any more.

Oh, and there's something very calming about being up and about at that hour too. I don't particularly consider myself a morning person but I got an absolute shitload done. Absolutely no one bothering you for anything and no distractions.

From experience………Easy in Summer, much more difficult in Winter.

5am is a normal time to wake up for a lot of people. You just have to be in bed at 9pm and don't fall out of routine at the weekends if you can help it. I've been doing it for 4 years now and quite love it! I started because of work but now I'm part time and get up at that time on my days off too.

Personally I think you need to choose morning or evening. I used to work from home around my kids and never managed to get up at 5!! I would work when they were at preschool and in the evening.

You need to get plenty of sleep to be able to do it consistently for a few months.

If you stay up late and wake up early, you’ll lose interest in no time.

@Notimetolive

From experience………Easy in Summer, much more difficult in Winter.

Agreed! I'm up with the lark in summer - 4am is perfectly normal for me. Today, pitch black at 7am! Although I said I'm naturally a 5am starter upthread, it falls back naturally bit at this time of year, but I set an alarm just in case.

I ran my HR consultancy l. ike this in lockdown, worked 5 till 7am, kids/home learning all day and then work 7.30 till 12am it's utterly exhausting and in my opinion not sustainable for any long amount of time. I was too tired to be great with the kids, not doing my best in my business and just felt I was no good at anything whilst trying to do everything.

You may be able to engage in better but have back up plans and schedule regular days off to find you time to recover.

I work from 4.30am to approx 7.30am most mornings and it's hands down the most productive time of my day. When I hear my DC start to stir, I make breakfast and pack their nursery bag so that gets us ahead for the mornings as well.

I work this way as I've found that I'm too tired to get anything done in the evenings after I've wrangled DC all day.

I used to do this regularly, when studying for an OU degree.
Once it becomes a habit, then it is easy.
I was up at 5.00 am every day.

I can do this.
I find it easier to do things like that early in the morning when I have a fresh head. Trying to concentrate/ read/ retain any information late in the evening just doesnt work for me.

As long as you go to bed early, you will be fine.

I much prefer getting up early and then when 5pm comes around I can switch my brain off and know I dont have to face back into opening a book/laptop again once DS is in bed.

I'd say doable.

I'm up at 4am 4 days a week to take my ds swim training. Then he also does 4 evenings.

I've often thought I should use that time I'm hanging around wisely and retrain!

You just have to be very strict with your sleep routine.

I'm in bed most evenings from 9/9.30pm. So I don't get to watch the 9pm tv most people do and therefore don't get involved so much in the staff room with conversations around tv.

And I make time to watch anything good on catch up and have a few hours downtime!

Oh it's definitely doable! Just bring your bedtime forward. Plus it's nice having that time by yourself in the morning.

I would add an extra day at nursery or its it's too much money. I wouldn't get up earlier in the mornings. I would study after your child has gone to bed then sleep.

I dont think I have ever seen the word doable wrote so many times on one ( so far ) short thread 😂.

Realistically you probably won't be studying for 1.75 hrs , by the time you are washed , dressed , breakfast , cleared the table , found your pen note pad , faffed around , and anticipated your dc getting up early because you are making noise it's more likely to be only around a hour studying. Or at least it would be for me anyway.
.I think evening study may be better or as PP have said if you can get your DC into nursery for half a day then use that time.

You can't work at both ends of the day though, as I know from bitter experience. Pick either morning or evening, whichever works best for you.

I try to do life admin stuff during my DC's TV time before dinner so it doesn't cut into work time. I can't concentrate on work with the TV on but I can pay bills/send emails etc. and also cuddle them at the same time, so win-win.

I'm a student. Some of my friends get up at 4 to work on essays before children wake up. Totally manageable, if you get a good night's sleep first.

I’ve studied whilst working and parenting young children. Breaking up studying into short 1-1.5 hour chunks is really inefficient. I’d try and find a solid half day here and there if you can, minimum 3 hour chunks. You’ll be constantly refreshing yourself where you left off and forgetting what you learnt and wondering why you aren’t progressing. Plus the mental load of switching on and off mentally into and out of study mode twice a day for short periods is tough.

I wish my son slept until then! I have to get up at 5am when he does!!

I'm up every day at 04.30 , work full time and have a toddler. its not too bad tbh

It’s doable if you’re a morning person. I get up at 5ish most weekdays and have for years. It’s the only time I can carve out to exercise. I go to bed quite early and it’s fine. I don’t feel tired during the day.

You will struggle to do morning and evening work. This is essentially what i did to get through the lockdowns wfh with a toddler, and while it is doable it is also exhausting. (Although of course I had a toddler running around all day as well, which scrambled my brain.)

I could do 5am start so long as I was in bed by 10.30, definitely no later - I know I can manage on six hours sleep. I like mornings and am productive as long as the sun is up (so winter it didn't really work out as I was so dozy), but you do have to write off that early morning if your child is ill or just has a wakeful night.

Totally doable, but you have to be strict with yourself about your bedtime. I used to get up at 4:30, 5 days a week, to get in a gym session before work. exH would do the childcare drop off, I would collect, and be pretty much full on all evening cooking and cleaning up from dinner, sorting uniforms and lunches, baths if needed, getting the DC to bed, etc. I aimed to start getting ready for bed myself by 9, maybe 20 minutes reading (very important for my MH to have downtime everyday) asleep by 10pm. Both ex and I had one "lie in" in the morning (I was still woken by the kids on my days, but I made sure I stayed in bed, snoozed if I could, rested if I couldn't).

After a couple of weeks, if you stick to it religiously, it starts to become habit. After a while I was waking before 5 without an alarm. As long as I got to bed in time, I wasn't tired. Only difficulty was if I ever had a social thing on a Friday night. Starting at 4.30, then not going to sleep again until after midnight is exhausting.

I am up at 5 every day for work. It's fine. I just make sure I'm in bed for 10pm. I don't find it hard.