What age did your DC start waking up at a civilised hour?

[MellowBird85]

DS is 22 months and I do count my blessings that he sleeps through as I know many children at this age don’t! I also know young children are naturally early risers but I just want to see some light at the end of the tunnel because I am so sick of getting up at 6am - it’s like being in the army! I’m jealous of people WFH / furloughed who are enjoying lovely, long lie-ins. I’ve never been one to laze about in bed all morning (7:30 - 8am at the latest pre-DS). So can you give me some hope of when I might expect DS to wake up at an acceptable time? I’m assuming people with children get lie-ins at some point?!

At around 2 we introduced the gro clock and started with a 7am wake time which dd was in line with by about 2 and a half.

11-12. He still beats me getting up most days.

It got to nearer 6am at 5 years old.. Still waiting for after 7

Following... I would kill for a consistent 6am start at the moment, DS is a 5am riser 😴

My 14yo and 13yo both slept until 7.30-8 from 3.
My 6yo slept until 8-9 from 2.5.
My 8yo slept until 6.30 from 4, 7.00 is the longest now and that’s only the last year. Luckily from 4 he entertained himself in his room until 7, maybe 7.30 and from 7 he’s happy until 8 on occasion.

3.5 onwards both mine woke up about 6-6.30 got in bed with us then we normally got another hour or 2. From 5 onwards definitely after 7am

We were having the issue with 16mo DD but we've moved her bedtime an hour or so later and now she's sleeping till 7/7.30 which is much more pleasant! I just don't think she needs the fabled 12 hours, 7-7. She generally needs about 11 hours, so putting her down at 7 means she's up at 6, but putting her down at 8 means she's up at 7, etc.

But some kids just have an ingrained body clock that takes longer to sort!

Also used gro clock. If it is blue go back to sleep if yellow you can come get me/shout etc. From around 2.5/3 years. Few nights of at 6am saying "back to sleep the clock is blue" then dc understood.

Now at 4, if there is one star on his gro clock (close to morning) he can play quietly with teddies on his bed.

Depends on the child. I have one who would sleep in until 10am often if we allowed (age 8) - never ever wakes me up.

And one who gets up 4.55am-6am every day NO MATTER what he eats, activity level, bedtime. I don't expect him to lie in until he hits puberty

Thank you for all your replies, as I thought, there’s so much contrast!

@ScarfLadysBag yes I agree about the 12 hour thing...DS is closer to 10.5. And we’ve tried putting him to bed later - makes no difference. Sigh.

@nervousnelly8 5am bless you!

Mine was 10 before he started sleeping past 6.30am, sorry OP you could be in this for the long run. Saying that once he got to 5/6 he learned to play quietly in his room until it was time to get up. In some ways early rising was a good thing as I had to be up for work early anyway and ds always bounced out of bed, no issues getting ready for school etc, it was just the weekends I would have liked to sleep later.
Now at 11 he's like a teenager and i have to wake him most days.

Ds1 used to wake at 5am every day no matter what time he went to bed or how many times he woke during the night. He's 3 now and usually wakes between 6am-7am. Sometimes 8am! Although I now have ds2 to contend with so can't enjoy those potential lie-ins.

23 month old sleeps from approx 7.30/8 until 8am.

What time is your child going to sleep and what is their nap schedule?

My 9 yr old is still snoring😮 god help him when he goes back to sleep. He has never been one for waking early even on Christmas morning I’m the one who wakes him!

My 19 month old usually wakes up between 8am and 9am and has for months, so I think it entirely depends on the child, rather than the age.

For contrast, my step son will get up at 6:30am without fail and he is 7.

@heartbrokenfool he is bathed and in bed by 7 but doesn’t go to sleep until 7:30-8pm. Nap is 1.5 to 2 hours long starting at 12-12:30pm (I sometimes have to wake him up and he takes ages to go to sleep at bedtime if he’s had a 2 hour nap).

It’s looking like I’ll have to accept this is a lot to do with the individual child (sob).

My eldest is 4 and is still up at 5:30 every morning

I don't know about naturally early risers. I conditioned my first to wake at 9.30 he did this from 8 months onwards. I'm now working on my 12 week old and although he still wakes on the night he's picking up on the 9am vibe. 😂

My 28 month old sleeps until somewhere between 6:30 and 7:30am. I think he is quite unusual in that he's always been a good sleeper. He was just born that way.

Unfortunately, now it's my 7 year old who bounds in the bedroom door at 6am. She was definitely waking at 5am still when she was 4. They're all different. It does get easier though when they are old enough to entertain themselves. We certainly started a bit of tablet watching in the morning around 3 on the weekends. It meant she could at least wake up but be quiet and entertained in our room with her tablet and headphones while we got an extra hour or two of dozing.

I don't think they are all early risers. Mine hate getting up before 7, and have since literally 6 weeks old. But they aren't great sleepers and are natural night owls. You win some, you lose some I think sadly.

@Babyboomtastic that's true. Our boy has 12 hours sleep-9.30 til 9.30 but I don't get lots of time in the evening on my own. If he went to sleep at 7 he'd be up at 7 I guess. Eventually we will hqve to change his hours when he goes to nursery.

From about aged 2 my ds1 slept in until about 7.15/7.30 however I now have ds2 who thinks 5am is a perfectly acceptable wake up time and is often so loud it wakes ds1 up too. Cannot wait until they are old enough to go downstairs, get themselves some breakfast and watch cartoons so I can finally have a lie in!

Others have mentioned it, but I'd definitely try a gro clock. We've been using one since about that age and it works well for us.
I've actually no idea what time my daughter (3) actually wakes up in the morning, but she knows she shouldn't call us to get up until when her sun comes on her clock (7.15am). It's still a bloody shock as we've usually been up in the night with the baby, but it does work for us as at least she's not up bouncing on us from early!
Mostly she'll sit in bed and "read" books or sometimes she gets up and plays with the dolls house in her room. We won't tend to get up super early with her if she needs the toilet now. Good luck, I hope it gets better. Not enough sleep is just awful!

5:45 - 6am still at age 6 but she goes to bed at 6:30 ish so I can't complain. Putting her to bed later doesn't change what time she gets up so at least I get peace in the evening

One of mine, by about a year old, the others not until full time school 😭
Now they are teenagers, I am still up on the dot at 7am, and I have to hound them out of bed or they’d be there until mid afternoon.