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!

Honestly I mean this kindly, but you’re raising a man that will be utterly useless and a terrible husband. He’ll expect all this from his poor gf/wife.

You have to let him have independence or how on earth is he going to grow up knowing how to run a household if mummy is doing everything?

This is so true. DS7 usually has to be woken at 7am during the week for school, but ALWAYS wakes between 6.30 and 6.45 at weekends. He has never been allowed to watch TV before school, but at weekends he can. I am convinced that the earlier waking is because he knows he can watch TV.

To answer the OP, he started going through the the living room at around 5. It's just me and him in a flat though, and I am an early riser, so usually awake, in bed, anyway. He makes himself toast.

I would have been happy for this to happen from around 5/6, probably not breakfast but put the telly on or play for 20 minutes or so. My DS however has other ideas and wants constant company. He's 7 and has only actually gone downstairs alone once.

Post 7 I didn't get up at the weekends. They knew what the rules were that they were allowed to go downstairs and watch TV quietly.

I could trust 6 year old DS to get up and play in the mornings by himself but he doesn't want to, he always wants someone with him. Luckily my partner is an early riser so he always gets up with him on weekends so I can sleep in.

Mine is 4 (5 in June) and he will play happily and quietly til around 8 if he gets up before then. No TV but he will play with his dinosaurs or do a jigsaw. Whether that's in his room or downstairs. Sometimes he just gets into bed with me and that's OK too as long as its not the middle of the night.

I have a rule that anything before 6am is treated as night time. He does still occasionally try and get up before this and I've found him downstairs with the lights on playing! I send him back to bed. I came down the one morning and his toys had moved- he had got up and played in the early hours then gone back to bed!

Another time he tried to wake for the day around 4.50am so I took him to the window on the landing and asked what he could see. He quickly understood my point when he replied stars and the moon then went back to bed 😂

I've always been lucky that mine were never early risers. But as for going downstairs alone - it depends on the DC. At 5 my DS would be fine and get himself breakfast. But my DD it was more like 8 but she wouldn't get herself breakfast.

Between 3-5 I think. They'd get breakfast and watch TV for a bit after 8 o'clock.

My 5 yr old happily takes herself downstairs and goes on her tablet. If it wasn't for the baby we could have a lie in!

Mine are 4 and 7 and have been getting up on their own for the past year.

Eldest sorts them both breakfast (either cereal or toast) and then they sit and watch TV until we get up.

No-one is allowed downstairs until 6am, parents don’t come down until 8am on weekends.

If my almost 5 year old wakes before 7am il give him the iPad and he will lay next to me playing games quietly while I go back to sleep till 730-8. He would never go for downstairs without me though, also as someone said above I couldn’t imagine laying in till 10am while the kids are downstairs at age 4 and 7 getting there breakfast’s I could never sleep through it and would feel bad.

Never got up with them really. Before the age of 5ish if they woke up before me I would just sit them in my bed with the TV on and dose until I wanted to get up. From about 5 they have all been able to just get up and put the TV on if they want until I'm up. I'm a very light sleeper though so I'm always aware of what's going on in general as by the time they've got up I am usually just dosing. Kids are all between 6 and 12 now and all get up themselves and I'll happily dose in until 9. Youngest one knows if she wants to eat though she has to come in my room to eat her breakfast

Have you tried a sun and moon clock? You set it to the time you want them to go to sleep (and a moon comes up on the clock) and the time you are ok with them getting out of bed (when the sun comes up on the clock). You could start by setting it at the time they normally get up and gradually move it back a few mins at a time until you get to a more manageable time. This clock was my saviour with my two dc.

My 7 year old DD allows me a lay in (until 10am) on the occasional Sunday if things are put in place, so that she does not need to wake me. So, this means putting certain things on the bottom shelf of the fridge. She is happy to grab a croissant and small orange juice carton, alongside either a banana or a squeezy frube yoghurt, and plonk herself in front of the tv. I have a DS14 in the house also, so he is hovering around and able to ensure she doesn't touch things she shouldn't, although she hasn't ever attempted to thankfully. My DD doesn't like to lounge in PJs for too long though, so that will be the point when she puts an end to my lay in 🤣

You mean knowingly, right? Because I found out my 4 year old DS had been getting up to watch Terminator every morning and eating his first breakfast, then going back to bed just before I got up.
I had no idea he was doing this.

My eldest was an early riser. Had people say bring him into bed with you, he'll go back to sleep. No he wouldn't! I tried many times. I used to go downstairs with him to the living room. There were lots of toys, I'd put the tv on (ready for when CBeebies started) and doze on the sofa. The living room for was closed so he couldn't access anything dangerous like stairs or the kitchen. I suppose the only danger could be the tv, but this was before flat screens so it wouldn't be possible for him to pull the tv on himself. If I had him now, the tv would be on the wall out of reach. Luckily he was happy with toys and watching tv so I could sleep on the sofa. It wasn't a deep sleep but it was enough to keep me going till bed time!

It was a gradual thing so I can’t remember exactly - first we’d not get up straight away and one of us would drag ourselves out of bed 5 mins later, then 10 mins, etc. My younger one was more sensible than the older one, I think they were about 5 and 4, or 6 and 5.

The main reason I had them close in age was to get my weekend lie-ins back earlier. The memory of 5am starts still brings me out in a cold sweat.

Mine started getting up in the morning and putting the tv on from age 4 by himself. As soon as he worked out how to use the tv by himself that was it. He just bypassed me and went downstairs. Mind you, he’s a very independent/strong willed little soul.

He’s 5 now and will help himself to fruit/yogurt in the morning. But I’ll often get up and make him toast/cereal to go with it (before going back to bed for an hour).

I can trust that he will play with his toys and watch tv while I’m asleep and be fine. It’s not like the house is massive or anything, there’s not much downstairs that I’m worried about.

I wouldn’t leave him if he wasn’t happy, but he genuinely loves his Saturday morning blip of independence. He calls it his ‘day off’.

God help his future wife.

About 7 or 8

When my eldest was 7/8 she would get the breakfast for her siblings at the weekend. We used to leave it out for her (cereal etc). They were allowed an hour of tv.

I think my son was about 7 when he started going downstairs on his own. Before that, he would often play in his room for a while before we got up.

He is 10 now and goes down by himself, can get a drink/cereal if he wants to. He occupies himself with no problems at all.

He is a very early riser - up at 5.45am most mornings so I am grateful for this!!

From birth.

Dh is a morning person, I'm very much not. Mornings were always his gig.

My eldest is 7 and on a weekend he will come in and ask if he's allowed to get up, watch tv, have iPad time etc. he has a younger sister and now they get in bed together so we can have an extra hot in bed. It's bliss

About 6/7. We had a cupboard with their bowls plates and cutlery and breakfast cereals etc so they could get breakfast and they knew how to get their netflix on.