‘Get up 1.5h before your child does to get things done’

[Cla7]

AIBU to think that this is a smug and/or thoughtless comment from those who are lucky enough to have good sleepers that usually do a solid 7pm-7am? My DS wakes up at 5am, no one in their right mind does yoga at 3.30am or the household at 4am. In fact the only time I did this was in my 20s when I came home from a party and was high, but these days are long gone.

My 4.5 year old still rarely sleeps through the night. Add in perimenopause and a stressful job and I am permanently exhausted. I have only have energy for the bare minimum beyond parenting and work.

I don’t know who all those people are bouncing around getting things done at dawn or after the kids have gone to bed, but they are clearly have more natural energy reserves than I do!

It's an Absolutely Not here. My 5 year old gets up with the birds and my 10 month old wakes through the night. I am absolutely knackered the whole time. There is no way I am getting up at 3am in the morning for "doing housework". My housework and standards are on the floor. We are in survival mode here.

The type of people who peddle this nonsense as life advice either have no children, teenagers or magical unicorn sleep children.

I also don’t get this. If my early rising DS heard me up, he would just get up early too.

Yanbu
My children have never slept in enough, or reliably enough to get up at 4am to have a the before they woke.
Anyone who gets up at 6 or 7 and it’s before their children has a totally different parenting experience.

I am tired enough getting up at 7 or half 7 so no thanks! Who is doing this?!

It’s what I do but I wouldn’t say I’m smug. If I don’t get up at 5am to exercise then I can’t fit it in before work, as well as getting 3 kids to where they need to be, and that’s with DH helping too! I I cant exercise after work as that is mostly ferrying the kids to various clubs and trying to fit dinner in before a stupid hour. Any early start is necessary for me if I want to fit in the things I want to do.

My eldest us d to sleep 7-7 ( she’s 4 and now goes to bed so late 😭) but even then I’d wake up when she did! Precious sleep time!!

I am an early riser and you are definitely not being unreasonable.

With my first child I started getting up at 5am so that I could have an uninterrupted and peaceful shower / get ready slowly before he woke up at 6am. I now have a clingy 4 month old too so that no longer works, she seems to sense when I'm no longer close by and immediately wake no matter the time.

I think what the saying is getting at is that parents need child free time in order to get things done. Some parents do this in the evenings, some early mornings and some don't bother at all. I prefer to exercise and do housework early in the morning as I'm shattered by 9pm but others can't sleep while their house is messy. Different strokes for different folks!