To think this is the worst thing about parenting small children?

[Iheartherain]

5 bloody am.

I thought the clocks going forward had reverted us to a more civilised wake-up time of around 6, but no.

Please don’t give advice as a year or more of trying to fix this hasn’t worked 😅 but honestly it is pretty miserable. I can’t have hobbies in an evening or watch ‘adult’ TV or nights out or date nights if we got a babysitter.

I am sick of being tired and yawning, fat because I seek sugar to boost my energy and always have a headache. It’s shit.

I kept mine up until I went to bed about 10pm. They slept all night. Now I go to bed about 9pm and they stay up till they want to go to sleep.

I absolutely love this! But only as an anecdote and not as something actually happening to me,

My 2.5 year old has always woke early regardless of nap lenght or bedtime, touch wood he has slept till 6 three mornings in a row now, not sure if its fluke or he is just adjusting naturally but as other say i think it does just come with time, some are just early risers.

I think you win.

Ditto! Totally agree with this. I think some are set to wake early & others are night owls.

Haven't read the whole thread, but whoever tries to compare the awfulness of a toddler getting up at 5am to a teenager, is an absolute moron.

I've got a toddler, I've also got another who is 20+. The teenage years do not even compare to the toddler years 🙄

5am? Think yourself lucky. My daughter often used to wake up at 3am, and be wide awake ready to get up for the day.

I have three teens, and two of them were early risers as toddlers. The early rising years were worse than the teenage years (so far) by a mile!

OP - it's awful and I remember it well. It gets marginally better when they can entertain themselves. It's just ghastly and nothing worked for us - gro-clocks, changing bedtimes, even more outdoor activities than usual....nothing. It's absolute hell, made worse by the 'Oh, mine has always slept until 10 a.m.' brigade.

Drink coffee. Eat crap. Pray for death.

It will eventually pass, but by then you'll be too knackered to care. Motherhood is great, isn't it?

Oh my god that sounds awful! What better to do with the early hours of the day than sleep? Beautiful lie in sleep, the best kind ☺️

I have a teen, and so far find it 100 x easier than the phase where they wake at silly o’clock- and I don’t think either of mine got up quite as early as 5 am 😱

I have an appalling sleeper. DS is 2.5 and has been a terrible sleeper his whole life. I find it extremely depressing am literally on ADs and my weight has ballooned.

It takes hours to get him to sleep, it makes no difference if its early or late, and once asleep he will only stay asleep until 12-2. He then wakes comes into our room and will scream if we try to take him back. He is a fidgety sleeper so basically I dont go back to sleep. This happens every single night.

I am broken, I don't think I'll ever get over the massive sleep defecit I have. I would trade picking up drunk teens every night in a heartbeat.

Unless you’re going to be getting on a plane, that’s unacceptable

Worms. Worms has been the lowest point of my parenting so far.

Yes lack of sleep is the worst part definitely! I opened this thread thinking, I don't care what this is about nothing is worse than lack of sleep... 😂

Works are fairly brief events though surely?

Babies and toddlers never made me sick to my stomach with fear, like my teenager's actions hasve done, but that's another thread.

The dramas are much bigger with teens, but far between. I had early rising small children and it was an endless, droning hell.

However, when they are old enough to stay up late and watch what you watch, they are also old enough to stfu and chill in their own part of the room

Yeah but sight of them wiggling out of a bottom…

"Drink coffee. Eat crap. Pray for death"

This is perfect, this was my life for 18 months 😮

@FilthyforFirth I hit a really low spot this time last year and we did sleep train. But I know it doesn’t work for everybody.

My toddler has given me quite a few hair raising moments, to be fair.

My last one use to start his day at 4am for a long time. My current one is between 5 and 6 which I find ok as I have to get the others ready for school run/work and and seem to run late if we sleep in later.
I thought early mornings were the worse but my youngest throwing up over my face the other night has topped that. Especially as I have now caught his big and started vomiting myself 😭

I dunno... We've not had worms, we've had lice and that was pretty horrif but honestly parasites versus actual psychological torture? (I have very bad sleepers!)

You do realise what works for one kid doesn't for another.

My eldest had dinner at 5 everyday and slept 8 till 8. She only had a drink of milk after her dinner.

I don't think she slept so good because of anything special I done, she is just a sleeper.

Unfortunately second time round wasn't just so easy.

Some kids just like to get up early, some like to torment their parents all through the night too, no routine, black out blinds or stupid white noise stuffed animals will make a child sleep much differently than they want to themselves.

Sorry I meant to clarify that I don’t necessarily agree that putting kids to bed later means they will wake later. Some seem to have an internal clock that makes them wake at the crack of dawn. Mine doesn’t but we have the opposite problem & I kid you not that we have had bedtimes of 11pm! We have also tried everything! Solidarity to all sleep deprived parents 😴.

It’s worth tweaking bedtimes and nap times to see if it helps and I wouldn’t ever say ‘try nothing.’ What is frustrating is when you have tried it and people come on and behave as if you are slightly dense.

with some children the “tweaks” can get you from horrendous to slightly more bearable but still awful and that’s as far as it goes