To ask when you stopped getting up when your children did?

[Strongwindssighed]

Mine are very little so I know it is a while off but at what point are they free to get up, get own breakfast, actually let you relax a bit in the morning?

I really don’t like seeing 5 when I wake up!

I still get up with my 6yo, I wouldn’t trust him on his own downstairs! I wouldn’t get up for my older 2 9&13 but they are never up before me and ds.

If I want a lie in I just bring my ds tablet up to bed and let him get it to bed with me and watch it in the morning. Terrible parenting I know but I’m a single parent with a full time job and sometimes I just need an extra hour of sleep at the weekends!

Mine would go and play or put the tv on from 3 but come and wake us when they were hungry until they were about 7. Neither of thrm have ever been massively early risers though.

From ages 7 and 4 I could trust them both to get themselves up, dress, get their own cereal and then chill with the TV on. I just got up, they've been up since 7. It's bliss 😎

From age 4yo dd could go and put the telly on so I could have an extra hour in bed.

Once DD waS 3 if she woke up before 7 then she came and got her kindle and wrnt back to bed with it until i got up. Then from about 4.5 she would go downstiars and make cereal (we'd leave everything out the night before) as at pre school they taught them how to do their owm breakfast

@BingoMarieHeeler 8 & 6 year old currently down on their own and that’s a recent thing. I feel bad though! And haven’t trained them to get their own breakfast yet
An 8 &6 yr old should be able to fix a bowl of cereal, training? surely they watch you and have had a try?
The 8 yr old should be doing basic tasks about the house.

From about 5/6 they would get up and come downstairs to play. DD2 has been getting herself breakfast (cereal with milk) for a while now - she's 7, approaching 8. She's always been the earliest riser of our three, and is usually awake from about 7 nowadays. She came in to me at about 8.30 to chat about what we were going to do today, which I think is a perfectly respectable time to get up!

Not at that stage yet, but when I was about 4 my mum worked really long hours and needed to sleep, she would leave me a dry bowl of cereal and a half cup of milk with a spout on the in the fridge so I could get up and 'make' my own breakfast.

Similar to others, I didn't get up before 7am after the baby stage. If they woke before that, they played in their rooms or watched TV on almost silent at the foot of our bed until we got up. Before 6am, they were told to go back to bed.

When I had no2. If DD2 woke up, my eldest would climb into her cot and they would play, I have some lovely photos of this cute time.

Dd is 7 and I get up with her on weekdays, but weekends I leave breakfast out on the table for her and she’ll come down at the crack of dawn whilst I sleep. She’s sensible though, doesn’t go in the kitchen and uses my en-suite if she needs the loo. She’s only ever downstairs on her own until 7:30ish which is classed as a lie-in for me 😂

This was never a big issue for us. I'm an early riser myself anyway (DH is not), but none of the DC ever got up shockingly early, if they did they came into bed with us to sleep. That said when DC3 was a baby and still waking for feeds the older two would go downstairs before us and get themselves something to eat at ~7am, they were preschoolers at this stage. No screens were allowed, they would draw or play with toys or 'read'. I was in bed but awake and could hear them, I did go through a stage of never having the radio on in the house and the doors were ajar so I could hear what they were up to.

Now they are teenagers so I'm usually up first and it's the other end of the day that is the issue, I'm often first in bed at 10am.

It does vary from child to child but I agree with the PP that no screens in the morning is a good idea (I still hide controls every night so the youngest doesn't get any screen time till after lunch), telling them it's too early to get up so they have to stay in their room and read means they often go back to sleep once they are school age. It's basically the same rules as for a baby, night time means no lights, no chat, and stay in the bedroom. Make it boring for them.

When they were much younger than most people seem to admit on these threads. Early mornings was hands down the WORST thing about parenting for me, so the sooner that stage could be stopped, it was! Genuinely can't remember when, but a lot younger than many of the ages here ha, and I have NO regrets!

Kids at secondary. And I STILL have to get them up 😩

My 6 year old DT’s will not go down on their own unfortunately, despite our encouragement! And I wouldn’t trust them to get breakfast without us just yet. We have a tv in our room now though so we can at least stay in bed a bit longer and they and the toddler watch tv for a bit.

I think from the age of about 3 my son would entertain himself for an hr or so until 06.30-7 ish. Pot luck whether that was something very noisy in my room or tv in the lounge. After about an hour ish on his own he’d be hassling me to get up.

Really depends on the child when they can be trusted to just play or watch TV quietly and get something simple to eat.

My 4yo will go downstairs and put the tv on if she wakes. The cat supervises her!

She wakes me or her sister if she gets hungry though as she can’t reach the cereal!

The stair gates were on until our DC was nearly 4. He never got us up earlier than 6.

Mine is 14 now and I can't imagine leaving him to get his own breakfast. I like being up with him and walking him down to the bus.
We're rural so I leave him at his 'stop' and walk back before the bus comes. 😊

I only have the one and he was never an early riser.

Mine are 4, 6, 9 and 10 and they have all been OK alone from about 5 ish for a while. I leave snacks and a drink out when they where smaller. But to be honest they rarely wake up before 7am because the 2 younger ones still wake a lot in the night. Most of the time before aged 6 they would just crawl into bed with us otlr play together. I'm normally only half asleep though.

I’m more of a stay up late person than I am a morning person 😂 I know not everyone’s cup of tea and might get judged for it nut I always let me DD now 10 at the weekends stay up and sleep in.
i know how many hours sleep she requires and her sleep pattern
so school nights she went to bed at 9 pm and woke at 7.30
non school nights I would let her stay up til midnight and she wouldn’t wake up until 11 ish.
now she goes to her when she feels tired wakes up when she wants and if I’m not awake she doesn’t disturb me at all, she will just do her own thing .. this has been for a good few years.

9 and has been playing downstairs unsupervised on a weekend morning since about 6 or 7. More recently she has started to make her own breakfast (toast, cereal or a sandwich)and also leaves snacks for her older sister who has disabilities. At her age, I would watch cartoons or play board games with my younger brother before any of our parents got up on a Saturday.

Mine is 14 now and I can't imagine leaving him to get his own breakfast. I like being up with him and walking him down to the bus.
14?? time for the apron strings to be snipped, that's just silly, as a parent we prepare them for life.

Are you the owner of the only 14 year old in Britain that will allow his Mum to walk him to the bus stop!?