…to ask 5 1/2 yr old to stay in bed/room until 6:15am? When do your kids get up?

[Newbie887]

Weve been trying to get youngest son who is 5 1/2 to stay in his room (either in his bed or playing quietly with toys) until the sun on his gro clock comes up at 6:15am. He is generally awake at 5:30am.

It’s been about a year now of trying and we are just not getting anywhere. Everyone is tired. Personally I think we should give up trying and accept one of us gets up at 5:30am with him, but partner thinks we should keep at it. Ideally he would like him in his room until 7am but we have compromised on 6:15. He regularly resorts to shouting at him each morning when he won’t keep quiet, which leads to crying / tantrums / generally shitty start to each day, and he rarely does go back to bed anyway.

what time do most children wake up? If they wake early will they play in their room / take themselves downstairs to play or do they wake the whole house as my son does?! We have some very well behaved cousins in the family who will either sleep or entertain themselves until gone 8am each morning, but not sure if this is normal

Youngest has always woken about 5/6am and they are 6 now. Later bedtimes don't work, we just get a grumpy early riser instead. 5 years is still young.
One of us just gets up with them. No need for shouting or punishment, they haven't done anything wrong. Some kids are just early starters. It won't be like that in a few years.
You can get clocks to help them understand morning time etc and give that a try. I would be having a word with your partner about him shouting at LO and work on that more than anything. Can't be nice for LO waking up and having that.

I think 5.5 is old enough to understand to stay in bed for a bit! I have a 5 year old and he generally stays in bed (or his room) until we come at get him at 7.30 although he's not a very early riser so hasn't been awake for hours by that point!

Our 3 year old is an early riser and we just live with it, and currently we get up with our 5 year old whatever time he rises because to be honest I wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing he was awake anyway.

I think at over five it’s not unreasonable to start having little one stay in their room for thirty minutes or so if getting up that early is causing tension. He is still quite young though. I personally wouldn’t do longer because for them, half an hour is quite a long time as it is. Any younger and I’d get up with them if they weren’t responding to the gro clock because they likely just don’t understand it. They can’t help when they wake up.

At 5 years old, I'd be getting up with him. And certainly not yelling at him, poor little guy what an awful way to start the day.

5 is old enough to understand that there’s no need to wake up the whole house. If he refuses then there needs to be consequences.

Yes that’s old enough to understand. By 6 my eldest fully understood do stuff in your room until 7am and then you can go downstairs and watch tv, I’d be down by 7.30.
whats his bedtime- how much sleep does he get?

I think you probley need to take it in turns getting up.
I lived in a flat when mine where that age l would get up give them some breakfast and stick kids tv on when it started at 6am then go back to bed, l was only in next room, not so easy if you in a house or limit tv though.

I don't think it's realistic to expect a 5 year old to get up and entertain themselves quietly for almost an hour every single day, to be honest.

i don’t get up with them - I take them to the toilet, put their little light on, and give them some books to look through until it’s time to get up. Mine are under 5.

Shouting won’t work, and some kids are early risers, but I don’t see a problem with them staying in their rooms until a more reasonable time.

My child of a the same age lays in bed till 7am and the sun is on their clock. We have been very strict from a young age about it. They go to sleep around 8pm (start bath at 7.30pm). They aren’t allow to play in their rooms but read

Thanks for the responses, and it’s interesting to see the differences in opinion. I think that’s the problem; at 5, they are not babies and can understand direction / rules but are still very young so he is in this kind of grey area atm where I’m not entirely sure what is reasonable to expect

He goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:30 generally. This holiday he has done two full days of forest school and one full day of walking round london when we went on a day trip, plus a late night yesterday trick or treating, so I thought he would be sleeping in a bit more after all this but no! 😩. His elder brother also doesn’t need a lot of sleep but by this age I’m sure was ok to read in bed or play in his room until it was a reasonable time

Yes this is my experience too…he is generally very wide awake at 5:30am but even by the time we are leaving for school at 8:15 is looking tired. He has mild behavioural issues and I’m sure would be able to cope better with more sleep. He is so stubborn though

Our youngest is an early waker and cannot play on his own so we tell him he has to come into our bed for cuddles till 6.30/7. Although he's now 10 so he can go downstairs and watch TV/get breakfast.

Could your son go and watch TV when he wakes up? Most kids can turn the TV on and at 5 he will be ok in his own for a bit.

Can he read on his own yet? If he can, could you plan the books he can sit and read the night before? Is there a particular thing that's causing him to want you - needing the loo, not being able to get his light to switch on or similar? Maybe if you could change a particular he could entertain himself - or maybe not, you may well already have thought of that.

And maybe 3/4 of an hour is just a bit much? Would 6am be viable as a temporary measure? Or start by asking him to make it to 5:45 and then push it to 6 and 6:15 as he gets the hang of it?

My 6 year old gets up ant time between 5:30 and 6:30. I get up with him.

My DD always wakes early and the gro clock was a waste of time and money.

We have an Alexa but you could use a digital alarm clock. I wrote the time she wasn't allowed to leave her room until on a note and stuck it below the time display on the Alexa nwe told her she has to stay in her room (reading/playing quietly) until the time matched.

This was from about age 3.5-4.

We then as we got comfortable (we live in a bungalow) started to allow her to go to the lounge and watch TV after the time write down (have a wee and watch TV is out little rhyme)

I know some people leave a carton of juice and a wrapped pain au choc as a snack first thing as well.

Sleep is so important and this at the weekends protects our sanity.during the week we all wake up for work and school so early starts are not noticed.

I will add we made sure there was a lamp by her bed with a switch blutacked in reach.

At that age, ours went downstairs and put on the TV (well video!) and got some cereal.
V strict instructions esp on Sunday mornings.

My 5 year old stays in her room till her YOTO light goes from red to green at 7. Unless she needs a wee. I've no idea when she wakes up as she is either in bed or playing. Sorry, don't mean to rub it in but that's the truth. Can you add something exciting to do in there? YOTO player to turn on and listen to?

We use the gro clock and all of mine have been capable of understanding that they need to stay quiet in rooms until sun comes out on it. We set it for 15 minutes later than they were getting up at first (so 6am for example). Then moved it back by 15 minute intervals every few days until we stuck at 7pm. We never yelled at them though. Just blandly, repeatedly returned them to their rooms with minimal engagement. Same as if they got up after bedtime.

we were very strict with the Gro Clock and had no getting up before 7 as a very firm rule established by 2ish (we used the gro clock before that but had it a 6.30 before).

we didn’t start the day with shouting or unpleasantness but nothing started before that sun went up and children were returned to their rooms (where there were books and a few toys) by a very boring grown up who gave no attention until 7am. All of mine got it pretty quickly and it became the law of the house (sleep is so important to everyone’s happiness and children’s development!), I realise some kids will struggle with this more than mine did but I do think it’s worth finding an acceptable way to carry on.