Do your young children get up in the morning without you?

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If so, how old are they? How long for? And what do they do?

Ds has just turned 6. Sometimes if he's up early he will play quietly in his bedroom, read or listen to his yoto for half an hour. He doesn't go downstairs without an adult but that's mostly because if he went downstairs the dog would want to go down too.

Depends how young you mean. My 6 year old will come wake me up but there has been a few times when I’ve been poorly I’ve asked him to stay in his room till 7 ( he wakes around 615)
He mainly plays Lego it with soft toys

Absolutely not, they're 5 and 2 and even the eldest wouldn't do anything without us!

From 4/5 year old, DD used to go downstairs and get cereal and watch TV. She'd wake me if she needed me but some mornings would be very content.

yes 9 and 7 and for about 2 years they often come downstairs and watch tv/read/play switch. They are early risers, especially the 9 year old.

When mh DS was 3.5 / 4 years old we lived in a flat, so he got up and watched TV and played quietly in the lounge without us for about an hour in the mornings. Then we got up and made breakfast. He would get up at 5.30am so having that extra 1 hour laying in bed made a big difference. As we were in a flat it was basically just 1 room along from our bed!

We moved into our house when he just turned 5 and continued to go downstairs and chill out with the TV on from about 5.30am.

My friends daughter still demands she wakes and gets up with her at 6am and she is 8... fuck.that.

My five year old will go downstairs and play in the playroom with his toys if he’s up first, he knows he’s not allowed to turn on the tv or cook anything

My son wakes around 6 and plays in his room until he hears my alarm at 6:45. So every morning we have to tidy all the toys that have been pulled out 😅 he’s 5

Yes.

My eldest has been waking up between 5 and 6 am his entire life. so when he was about 3, I just started leaving snacks on the side so he'd get up and watch ipad eat a snack and I'd join him at a more civilised hour.

Note that he was a child for which things that he wasn't supposed to touch, just didn't exist, plus I would leave my bedroom door open, we lived in a flat so he was no more than 10 metres away anyway, and I'm a light sleeper since kids.

Then his brother came along, and whilst he wasn't such an early riser, he just joined in with that routine once he moved out of my room (he is the one voted most likely to burn down the house when I'm out, so I did make sure that what he would want was available to him without him having to get inventive).

These days they're tweens/teens (eldest still an early riser) and they still do the same - wander down when they're ready, make themselves breakfast and feed the cats if I'm not already down.

We all normally get up together at 7:30 but during the holidays 4 year old gets up before us and potters around by himself for an hour until we get up and have breakfast together. If we don’t look like we’re getting up he just gets on with playing with his toys or listening to his Yoto while we’re still sleeping.

Mine have been doing this since age 6 and 3. Eldest used to do it alone from 4. They will watch TV, read books or play with toys. Sometimes they will have toast. I'm less keen on them eating when we are asleep.

I used to be awake but in bed. Now I'm often still asleep (on Sundays or school holidays).

Sort of. They (6&9) stay in their rooms until 6:45, they usually read or listen to a podcast, younger one plays with his cuddly toys.

They don't go downstairs without us - I wouldn't mind at this age, they just prefer not to

My almost 4 year old stays in bed and listens to stories on her speaker from about 6am until 7am. She shouts to us when she wakes and her dad puts the stories on. On week days this gives us a hour for showers and tidying and on weekends, it means we sleep until 7am.

Yes, my eldest has done it since she was 4, we leave out bowls, cereal etc and she gets the milk from the fridge and puts the TV on. Now she's 7, and takes her 3yo brother down in the mornings sometimes

Yes, my youngest is 7, but they have both definitely woken up before us from about 3/4. They play with toys and watch tv. It is a phase (can’t drag my 12 year old out of bed!). But yes, youngest definitely is often awake 30-60 minutes before I’m up. Often I am awake or dozing but not out of bed. He can make himself toast or get cereal, and we have a fruit bowl so he can help himself.

They have definitely been doing this from 3/4. But we don’t have anything particularly hazardous and we live in the middle of nowhere, so even if he went outside, there isn’t really anything much to get into - or at least no more so than if I was up and sitting in the kitchen with a coffee.

That said, I’m a morning person so I’m generally up not long after.

We use a groclock with my 6 year old and she does stay in her bedroom until that comes on (unless she needs the toilet). It's set for 6:30am as that's the time we get up on a school day. But there's no-way she'd go downstairs by herself and amuse herself. I'm a light sleeper, so I wake up as soon as I hear her awake anyway.

mine is 6 and she has known not to wake us before a certain time (originally on the gro clock, then the Yoto light colour, now she can tell the time) since she was 2.5. Until she was about 4.5 she just lay in bed listening to her Yoto player. Since then she can get up and play in her room. I’d actually be ok with her coming downstairs but she’s never asked!

her younger brother is under 2 though so I just have to get up when he does. Thankfully that’s not before 7, usually 7.30 in the holidays. Mine seem to be good sleepers on the whole!

Mine is 6 and usually goes downstairs, watches TV and eats cereal, however during the holidays she's had the wonderful habit of loudly waking us up and proceeding to ask big questions about the world or life itself whilst we're still half asleep. And if all else fails, 'what are we doing today?'

My 8 year old happily goes down this last year, feeds the cats for us and watches tv until us or her older sister are up. She will get herself a snack but won’t make breakfast for herself yet as she can’t reach the cereal and won’t eat toast.

6 year old will happily get up, sort herself some cereal and entertain herself. The 4 year old comes into us if the sun is on his yoto (7am) and his sister is still asleep. If she's already up then the eldest will give him cereal too. I've woken up in a panic a couple of times this holiday past 8 to find both kids curled up on the sofa with a blanket watching something together. They also feed the cat as she likes to sing the music of her ancestors if she isn't tended to the minute the first person wakes up.

I once got up to the sound of popping and my two laughing. They’d blown up balloons and were popping them with a big kitchen knife each.

My 8 and 6 year olds have been getting progressively better at this for the last few years. They can play (quietly ish) for probably 2 hours. The noise does wake us up but we can sort of doze on and off quite happily. They either play together or separately, read, listen to yoto. From say half 6 to half 8. They don't go downstairs without us though

My two almost 8yr olds really dislike getting up/going downstairs without a parent. They have had groclocks since they were 3yrs old, but have never abided by them. When I tell them to go back to their rooms til X time, they only come out every 3 minutes to ask again. They can tell the time and both have watches and clocks. When I tell them to go downstairs without me (they have access to everything they may need), they come up every 5 minutes complaining why I’m not coming.

They are both early risers (6-6:30am). I really feel like they should be able to cope for an hour by themselves in the morning now.

Since they were three they were allowed to leave their room after the magic light came on at 7am. They could go and get cereal and play downstairs. Usually could do about an hour before theh started squabbling

Oh Jesus this would drive me mental. They should absolutely be able to amuse themselves at this age. By 8 I relished my sneaky little mornings alone without adults around.