Worried about screen time linked to early wakings - would like some insight

[Ineedtodiet]

So before I start, I’ve been searching on early wakings, not just on here but generally for some time now and I really have tried quite a few things, none of which make any difference. I’m just explaining this because the focus of my question isn’t the time my toddler wakes up, exactly.

The situation is this, DS wakes up at around 5. This varies by about half an hour either side, 430 has happened but is exceptionally shit and that’s rare! Usually it’s 450-520. Did have some brief respite when the clocks went forward to 6, but now have gone back to 5am!

So since nothing has got him to sleep later, I’m just trying to make life as easy as possible for me if I’m honest which involves screen time. The problem is that this means DS can easily clock up three or more hours of screen time in the morning before we ‘properly’ start the day.

I really don’t know what else to do at that time in the morning, my main worry is that this will affect his development in some way. If anyone has suggestions (about how to manage morning time) they’d be gratefully received.

@jacquec that might be true except he wakes at 5 in midwinter too! 😂

Mine gets up at 5 and I’ve never put the TV on then. That’s not to sound smug, I’ve just never thought about it because he wakes up with so much energy! We make breakfast, read some books, I tidy up/ stick a wash on while he plays, plan our day, play with toys, get ready etc. we tend to leave the house around 8.30/8.45 most days.

mine has up to 40 minutes of tv when I’m making dinner when he’s shattered from the day so I’m not anti screens by any stretch!

Do you wake up with energy though!? I think he’d happily do whatever but it’s me. Also, I’m so stiff and sore in the morning after a night in one position, it takes a god hour and a half for that to wear off.

I have an early riser too, anything from 1am onwards but 4.30am is more usual. Mine is blind with complex disabilities so I can't rely on screens but I do use nursery rhymes on Alexa, I keep things low key and boring with minimal talking to them as I hope that, one day, they will learn to have a more usual sleep pattern. I feel your pain, it's exhausting.

No of course not! But I find getting into the day helps rather than trying to stay sleepy as then the misery of getting up lasts longer! Mine still wakes every two hours at night for a breastfeed so I’m exhausted- but it’s a short season in the grand scheme of things so I just get up and get on with it the best I can.

Honestly, if that's the only TV he watches and the rest of the days is playing and doing things, I wouldn't worry about it. Although I do admit at times to going for a walk at 6am with one child, as the house was small and child was very noisy and I didn't want everyone else woken up. Particular at this time of year it can be quite nice.

@Purplefoalfoot gosh I don’t know how you do it, mine at least mostly sleeps through

@bloodywhitecat before 5 is just hideous isn’t it??

@Keiki thanks, he doesn’t watch much to be fair, unless unwell or similar.

We had this. I stopped putting the TV on till cbeebies came on at 6am and refused to entertain her. I'd just lie on the sofa with my eyes half closed. Turned out it was really boring with no entertainment and she started sleeping till about 5.45am which was a blessed relief compared to the weeks of 4.30am get ups.

I have tried that … trust me, name it, I will have tried it.

I hear you OP.

My 3yo DS has been walking up at 6am for the last few months and I've had quite bad morning sickness this whole time.

I bring him breakfast in bed and we have a little chat when he wakes, but then I'm sleeping or getting sick :/

DH can't help as he works mornings.

It's been screen time until I can function, which can be until 8.30am or even 9.30am on really nauseous days.

I do feel guilty but I try to be really proactive once I feel better by 10am with things like group classes, the park, library, playing in the garden, arts & crafts etc.

He does also have nursery for 3 hours a day in the afternoon.

If I did get up with him at 6, I'd just feel like shit the rest of the day and wouldn't be much use to him, so I think it's justified.

Morning sickness is awful

I guess this is the thing, these are loved children who are interacted with and warm and safe and fed and clean. But I do beat myself up over screens.

I had almost this exact thread OP, it’s infuriating. Especially when people say “have you tried black out blinds” and you think “yes!! I’ve tried everything!!”

2 things helped DD:

1. going on holiday to Singapore where she was on a totally different time and then coming back so we were able to reset a bit. Appreciate this isn’t very practical advice 😅
2. time, as she’s got older gradually the wake ups got a bit later and now she’s on tl 6.30am most mornings

my husband and I were also worried that she was waking for some 5am peppa pig so we stopped it and only played with toys / read books for WEEKS, it made no difference. I went back to bringing her to bed and giving her my phone with peppa on silent so I could at least get some sleep

solidarity, it’s really shit but it does improve

I feel your pain! My two rise anywhere from 4.50 onwards (despite every attempt at pushing it back) and I absolutely shove them Infront of iPlayer, there is no way I am actively mothering them pre 6am. The older one doesn't nap anymore and it is a lonnngggg time til bedtime, there's only so much arts, crafts and duck ponds that fill a 14 hour day and I will not be inflicting them on my neighbours by shivering in the garden at 5am either! My toddler has learnt so much from cbeebies so I'm not overly bothered as it's definitely educational. Some days they will be glued to bloody Hey Duggee for 3 hours before 8am, others they'll watch an episode and then potter around with cbeebies running in the background until we head out. Its exhausting and see anything that helps me keep my sanity intact as a positive!

Sounds miserable, OP. Sympathies. I had one extremely early riser out of 2 DC and yes, they had screen time for about 1.5- 2 hours in the early mornings at that point.

That was an earliest rise of about 5.30, though. Anything earlier and we did say it was still night time. And got the gro- clocks etc etc. The thing about kids is that they do keep changing so even if something didn’t work a couple of months before, after a cognitive leap it will then work, so it’s worth keeping trying periodically.

You sound like it’s all you on the mornings, which is tough. No DP around to help?

going on holiday to Singapore where she was on a totally different time and then coming back so we were able to reset a bit. Appreciate this isn’t very practical advice
I think there is something in this! We went to the western US and had a horrific journey back of 3 flights and 30 hours in transit but it absolutely worked for fixing the early rising. It used to be a consistent 5.30 start in our house with murmurings from 5 but now we get a respectable 6.30/7. So credit to my sleep consultant- British Airways’ IT failure 🤣

I have a early riser too. It's improved a little now he's 6 (anywhere between 6am & 6.30am) and we have only recently allowed hil to watch TV for 30 mins on a weekend before we get up.

It's tough but we would read in bed together, play games, do a puzzle, draw, cook breakfast etc. I'm sorry but there's mp way I'd allow 3 hrs of screen time. I think you are being a bit lazy tbh.

I don't think that screen time is directly harmful in the way you are assuming. A lot of people seem to think that it (literally) "rots brains" which makes no sense.

As long as DC have some social interaction, outdoor time, active time, other activities than screen based, and some undirected/not-directly-entertained time, it isn't a big deal. The problem is that screen time can block out or be more attractive than these activities, or can end up being used as a crutch to fill in every spare moment when a parent is unavailable to entertain DC. But presumably you ARE doing these things, just not at 5am! Having specific hours where the TV is always off is helpful, IMO.

Think about how much TV we all used to watch in the 80s and 90s. I know families where it's on constantly as a kind of 24/7 background noise too, and their kids are just normal, not wandering around like zombies. I really don't think a couple of hours at either end of the day when everyone is knackered is an issue.

We used a groclock and if it was still blue the DC had to stay in their room
and play quietly. It took a few weeks of setting five minutes later each day and lying on their floor saying blue clock, mummy sleep and pretending to sleep (on repeat for as long as it took for the clock to turn orange), but it did work.

In the day we talked about blue clock meaning sleep time or quiet playing, and we practiced it at nap time. They didn’t sleep much longer, but ‘read’, sang, played with toys etc.

People with Gro clocks … seriously, behave yourselves.

DS actually slept until 545 today which believe me is a lie in.

I probably am being a bit lazy, but I honestly don’t think that many people are doing meaningful activities at that time in the morning.

I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend. I couldn’t solve the waking up early but I could solve the having to get up with them. I apologise for misunderstanding what you were after.

I'm with you @Ineedtodiet, no one is doing puzzles and baking pre 6am!