Does the bunny clock work?

[wearehipsandmakers]

DS (3.5) has a tendency to come into our room from whenever he wakes up (between 5-6!!) to check if it's time to wake up and join us, every 5 minutes until we cave in. partly this is because he obviously isn't very good at judging the passage of time. I was thinking of getting one of the clocks where the bunny's ears pop up and eyes open to let him know when he can come in and disturb us. I know part of it is just him trying it on so I also want to make it clear when he can come in to us and this seems a good way to go about it.
But do they work?

I hate that bunny. Unfortunately little ones like to play with the dials and the bloody thing goes off at 2am. I thnk there is one that has a little light that goes on to show the bunny awake and when the light goes off it shows the bunny asleep in bed.

I had one and sent it back, it didn't work very well. Instead we had a digital clock and taught DS1 to recognise 7.00, repeatedly instructing him "don't get up before seven zero zero". Worked well.

For a while.

Tell me more - my DS (nearly 7, but still refusing to learn to tell the time) also gets up very early. He usually goes downstairs to watch TV but still manages to wake the whole family, usually between 5- 6 in teh morning. However, through a careful analysis of the TV listings the other morning, I discovered that he must have gone downstairs at about 3.30am This device sounds like an ideal way to keep him in his room.

Have posted this before, but don't pay for the bunny! Stick some cheap fairy lights on a timer. Loads cheaper..

I've heard that putting strings of christmas lights on a timer is just as effective and a bit less of a waste of money - at least you can use the lights and the timer again!

Yes it's worked for dd2 and then dd3 for about 5 years now. Our bunny now has only one ear but still keeps 4yo dd3 in bed til it pops up.

We did do the lights on a timer thing but this works better for us.

We had one for DD1. It worked pretty well - she understood to stay in her room until bunny woke. Except for the fact that the clack noise of the bunny's eyes opening woke her up if she was still asleep

So mostly great, but not so great if they sometimes sleep later than bunny...

We got one for DS3 (who was then aged 3.5) last Xmas.

He loved it, but he figured out very quickly how to make bunny's ears pop up himself, so it was no use as a "time to get up" guide.

To be fair, we mainly bought it for him because he loves clocks, rather than to try and keep him in bed.

Btw, are you a Throwing Muses/Kristin Hersh fan?

I like it because the ears popping up rarely woke my children, whereas a traditional alarm and also the lights going on did wake them.

We had Strict Sanctions against popping the ears up yourself. Mostly involving a lot of parental yelling to get back to bed until the REAL pop up time.

I am indeed and you are the only person to ever comment on the reference. Have you seen the childrens book she did recently- Toby Snax? DH got it shipped over from the states at great expense but it is rather nice.
So.. I like the isea of light on a timer but won't those also wake him up if he's not (hah!!) up already?

No I haven't seen it - will look on Amazon.

My DH plays a lot of online fantasy football games and always has teams called ThrowIn Muses as he is a huge fan of la Hersh.

I love the first Throwing Muses album to bits and I love Your Ghost - the one she did with Michael Stipe.

The bunny is crap! It's flimsy and breaks and it's too easy for resourceful little buggers angels to pull the stick thing up by themselves and then come through to your room saying "the bunny has woken up!" even though it's only 5.30. I hate that fecking bunny. Don't buy it.

I keep meaning to get one of these instead

not the demon bunny clock...

www.babysleepshop.com/acatalog/Sleepytime_Bunny_Clocks.html

The bunny worked for us

Timer lights don't wake them up unless the timer's got a loud click... + the lights won't either dependent on where you put them/ how bright they are.

No, we sent ours back- it worked for 1 day. They also look minging.

Bunny worked for us really well.

The bunny clock scared the crap out of my DS. We tried using it from when he was 3.5 - 4 ish. He doesn't normally scare easily, but this had him freaking !!! The only way he would settle was knowing that it was in the bin.

DS now has the motto "Not a peep until the beep" - ie he can't get out of bed or shout until he hears our alarm clock. It usually works

xx

lol Northum. Our boys are so brave aren't they.. Mine's terrified of Pingu

LOL at bunny clock post - its ok unless you want to sneak them into bed early which I can still manage to do with mine (phew) and then I set the bunny, it pops up about 30 minutes later and scares the crap out of everyone!

The bunny clock has 2 main functional problems 1) it clicks loudly when it pops awake (arousing a half asleep child to full on wakefulness), 2) it pops up when shaken or hurled across the room, even at 3 in the morning!

Worked a treat for us. DS used to wake up at 6-ish and come straight into our room to wake us up. Now we set the alarm for 7.15am on nursery days and 8am on weekends and he sticks to it about 95% of the time.

he is 3 yrs old by the way and we've been using it for about 2 months.

lol nope not for us. If it was asleep ds1 would wake it up by fiddling about with the ears and say 'but look mummy its awake!'