Early morning starts with children

[Sacmagique75]

When I was a child in the 90s I used to wake up super early. I’d quietly put the tv on and watch live and kicking for hours until my parents emerged, I did not dare open their closed bedroom door before they woke and came out. Which was never before 9am on a weekend. I certainly didn’t barge in, demanding breakfast at 5:30, crying and whinging until they relented. My two young children have always been early risers but now at the ages of 6 and 4 is it too much to ask that they quietly entertain themselves with tv for an hour rather than demand I get out of bed before 6:30?

I hear you. Solidarity.

My eldest figured out the gro clock on the first night. I've accepted it's just the way it goes during the week and at least we're all in time to get ready for the day!

At the weekend I tell them to stay in their rooms until 7:30 and often they'll play (loudly) together so I just let them put the telly on for an hour or so to get some peace. Teach them how to use the telly!l would be my only advice!

I think you are very soft OP.

I certainly wouldn't entertain early morning whinging, completely unnecessary.

My children only had water during the week but at that age I did a little morning tray with a juice carton and a pain au chocolate snack for when they woke about 7am.

At first I brought them down, set them up and then went back to bed.
Soon they just did it themselves.

It gave us a good hour extra in bed which was heaven.

They were super quiet and we had the sofa set up to watch cartoons etc under cosy blankets.

They loved it and we SO loved it.

We gave them lots of praise and they knew to come to us for anything.

Mine is 9 now, but from around 5 ish, he's been able to go and grab himself a drink and breakfast (cereal!) And he'd read a book until 7, or 7.30 at the weekends. Nowadays he just slopes off downstairs at 7.30 to go on his tablet. It took a while to get to the point of not coming in super early but he was waking up at 4/5am every day and I was dead on my feet as a single parent so I had to be firm and send him back until it was the right time. Gro clock didn't work, I pretty much had to go 'when the big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the 7 is when it's getting up time'

Dude if you figure this out please share it, my lad always wakes up and the first thing he says is I'm hungrrrrrrrrrryyyyy

we had “weekend cereal”
which was something fancy like coco pops - we would leave it laid out for them and it was a real treat for them 😁

Same here (not a groclock, but similar). Mine are quite civilised at the weekend, and have been for a couple of years now. They're 8 and 6, and perfectly capable of playing or watching TV for an hour or two without an adult present. Assuming they're healthy etc.

It definitely helps that they've never been super early risers anyway, and are pretty compliant kids generally.

So... yes OP, it is possible, but a good helping of luck is involved!

This is when I say my 2.5year old doesn't go downstairs till 8.30am any day of the week- she can play or have cuddles with us- but she is not allowed to be noisy.... this was so she can go anywhere and know the same. Apparently got up at 6.20 for her aunt this morning though
I don't understand getting up at 5 or 6 with babies/toddlers- literally don't go downstairs till 7am at earliest... all of my friends and family who were up early are still up with the larks...
She gets some water- but that's it until breakfast at 9am (she has tea at 6.30pm)
I get up at 6am weekdays and leave before she is awake...

We had the same upbringing. SMTV for and a chocolate trifle for me. I’d be there for hours. Just me and my cat.😂

Luckily my kid doesn’t wake up that early unless she’s unwell. And she doesn’t tend to leave her bed until she knows I’m awake (which is often before her, anyway) She’s only 4 though, so I don’t expect her to be sorting herself out just yet.

Set it to 9am at weekends? 😂👍 you’re welcome

Be careful what you wish for! My DD (6) is a late sleeper and every morning before school I have to shake her to wake up at 8am. I’m dreading the teenage years!

My son would get himself cereal from 4, his older sister has never managed this though and he feeds them both at the weekend when we need a lie in!

Maybe let them choose some ‘special weekend cereal’ and give this a try.

My DH and I take it in turns to lie in, me on Saturday, him on Sunday, until 9 unless we are going out for the day and need to be ready early.
I think it is one of those things you have to accept as a parent, until teenage years there are less lie ins.
FWIW I was born early 80’s and my Dad got up with me at 6 every weekend and watched Rosie & Jim and Rainbow with me.
My 7 year old gets up at 6am and is allowed his iPad (with very restricted access to specific apps etc) until 7am when my 2 year old wakes.

I hate gro clocks and the attitude that goes with them. I get up when my kids get up. If it’s too early then we’ll snuggle in bed for a while. I wouldn’t dream of telling them they aren’t allowed to come to me. My eight year old will often read for a while if she wakes before me but that’s her choice. If you can’t cope with getting up in the morning you need to go to bed earlier! Four is still very young. It won’t last forever.

We tried the "treat it like a night waking" thing and that just didn't work, the problem was that from DS1's POV, it wasn't a night waking, it was morning time and he wasn't upset and in need of resettling, he was awake and happy and ready to start the day. We tried for some time but we could spend hours and not turn the light on and tell him it was night time and it just made no difference.

I understand why people suggest it though as with DS2, he can be coaxed back to sleep, if we consistently send the sleepy time message.

Gro clock does work for ours though better for DS1 and only up to a certain point - they will reliably wait till the sun comes up for an hour or so but we couldn't take the piss and get away with 8am or anything

Ha ha had to laugh at this post brought back memories of the late 70s - I dare not wake parents on a Sunday morning.....would watch TV in lounge - always remember sitting through that awful religious programme with Dana waiting for the Flumps to come on. If I was very early the Open University was still on with bearded man and a flip chart HAHA!! Oh those were the days.....

I have no idea why people are laughing at you OP! Like it's unachievable and you're daft for thinking so. Yet most of us were brought up that way. I was the same in the 90s. At the weekend I woke up, got my own breakfast and played with my toys until my parents came through.

My 3 year old knows not to come through until his gro clock shows a sun (7am). If he wakes at 6 or 6:30 he plays with toys or looks at his books til 7. We built this up gradually. If a 3 year old can do it then a 4 and 6 year old can. But you have to implement the rule. How else did our parents achieve it? There were rules and you abided by them.

Tbh I loved weekends playing with my toys or watching videos before my parents got up.

There is a balance though - I remember being 7 and vomitting overnight in my bed and thinking that I shouldn't wake my parents up. That was grim.

This is exactly why I would never impose any rules about disturbing me. All these people congratulating themselves because they’ve trained their kids not to bother them… just makes me sad to be honest. And I’m sure they’ll say that of course their kids can come to them in an emergency but this post just shows that a small child can’t necessarily identify what counts as an emergency and what doesn’t.

Yes I agree, I am probably too soft. But how do you stop the whinging??? What’s the secret?? I am prepared to make some changes and try new things!

It’s really fascinating reading through these responses. I certainly feel I’m missing a trick on the discipline as I certainly feel I have put effort into getting them back to bed, making it clear it’s not time to get up, frog marching back to bed. They just seem to wake up so very early and the younger one in particular, claims to be starving.

Those that use them, what consequences do you give and how to you actually enforce rules and boundaries? That is where I come unstuck because once the obvious methods haven’t worked (rewards, taking away nice things), I think to myself - maybe the answer can only be shouting and the threat of violence. Which of course I don’t and would never do.

I guess the next step is to encourage and help independence to make their own breakfast, but the current reality is my littlest one wants me to physically be with her - and don’t get me wrong I do go back upstairs but then she’s whinging, calling “mummy mummy” and almost defeats the object as I can’t doze with the noise anyway!

Also recollections probably do vary- infact as a PP pointed out live and kicking didnt actually start until 9:30 (so my parents must have stayed in bed till gone 11! Lucky bastards 😆) - but also, it didn’t start until 1993 and I was already older than 6 by then so I probably just don’t have memories of being the ages my children are and what actually happened. My parents are alive and Im curious to ask them….I certainly don’t have memories of them hitting me but my dad definitely shouted. And when he shouted we did as told without question. But I also shout (when really pushed) and it has no effect whatsoever.

I know comparison is the thief of joy but it seems as though lots of other people (that I know) their children have organically just started sleeping in a little later than my own once they started sleeping through the night. And I’m envious as I just feel I would be generally happier if I wasn’t shouted awake with a start every single morning at an ungodly hour. But then who knows what trials and tribulations have happened behind the scenes to get to that point!

I don’t think that waking up early and needing help with breakfast is a matter for discipline, I honestly don’t. I’m quite big on kids getting enough sleep and on families having a routine that works for them, but I do think getting up early is just what most kids do.

My two year old is pretty good really, but 630 is a lie in by his standards. His friends are the same. Most wake between 5 and 6. The only time anyone sleeps later is if they’ve had a very unsettled night.

@Sacmagique75 (great name btw)

I don't have consequences, I just relentlessly took him back to bed every time he was up before the sun on his gro clock and explained that he could read books or play quietly. He tends to look at books. Stand firm. 4 and 6 are more than old enough to understand. If they've a tablet and you're happy for them to watch pre-downloaded videos then that's good too, but I think toys and books are better.

At 4 I had a little breakfast made up for me in my room on weekends. My mum left a yoghurt or whatever and some fruit. Things that were easy for me to eat by myself. This was only at weekends when they wanted a lie in. That would keep me happy til they'd get up later and my mum would make dippy egg and soldiers for me.

Our older ones don’t wake us up and they wait quietly with iPads or books or play in bedrooms
they are 4 , 6 & 8 been doing this for at least a year now

Mine are 7 and 5 now and lay in until at least 8:30 on a weekend

Your 90s childhood is exactly what our kids do, probably since the age of about 5+?