would you recommend those day/night clocks for toddlers?

[hobnob57]

Been thinking of getting one since our DD learned how to open her door and fusses around in our room until we move, at which point we get "HELLO! ARE YOU COMING DOWNSTAIRS? MAKE ME MY CUP PLEASE. COMING DOWNSTAIRS NOW MUMMY?" This can be anytime from 5am. More often that not it's closer to 6 and we can't be bothered to scoop her up and put her back to bed, only to not reach that precious dozing stage before 6:30 when we're up anyway.

I'm rambling, sorry.

There are two kinds of clocks that I can find

• the mains-operated bunny one
• the TV characters battery operated one

Are they any good? Worth the money or worth persevering chucking her back in bed?

Both have night lights which I'm not sure about because she's been fine without one up 'till now. But then again, with the summer coming the sun seems to rise at 3am up here in June so I don't know why I'm worried about night lights - more worried about getting ANY sleep!

dd only like the daytime picture as the princess is wearing a pink dress in this one, so as soon as she wakes up she changes it to the daytime face, can't work out if she hasn't quite grasped the idea of staying in bed or if she is just taking the p out of me!

we have the mains operated rabbit day and night one where the rabbit is in bed and dark and then when the light comes on the rabbit is up etc. It has worked brilliantly with ds and I would definitely recommend it. I have heard that the mechanical rabbit clocks often wake children up when the ears pop up!

We have the mains operated one too.

We had to do a lot of emphasis on waiting for bunny to wake himself up. DS learnt the first day that he could switch it to daytime .

But it has def helped. I am having some success with 'mummy doesn't get out of bed until the first number on her clock is 7' in sending him back to his room to play (if he won't go back to sleep I'll put the light on for him). He hasn't worked out how to alter the clock. Yet.

we have put ours up high out of reach hooked onto a peg on the wall. We have found that if he goes through a phase of ignoring it and coming in early saying it is not working .. then we reinforce it with a sticker chart and he pays attention to it again.

It took DS less than 24hours to work out how to wake the Bunny up.

"But Bunny's awake now Mummy" at 5am.

Waste of money IMO.

Banana - glad its not just my DS that goes for that technique

Not really worked here - we got the Thomas one and although it seemed to initially work, after a few days I think the novelty wore off and he just ignores it now (and we are not strict enough to enforce it )

But I did notice the other day when he was actually still asleep when we were up so I had to go into his room to get him - it was still dark outside, Thomas had woken up, the little nightlight had gone off and you couldn't see Thomas' face at all - so I am hoping that is why he has ben ignoring it - because he hasn't been able to see if Thomas was awake or not

He is also only 2.7 so may be a little young yet.

I wouldn't recommend. We have the Thomas one and I am still sleep deprived!

I looked into these and definitively decided that my dd would not give a monkey's about this clock but then she is only 2 and 5 months - for those that this clock has worked for, how old are your kiddies?

Hmmm. She knows the number 7, so I'm wondering if a digital clock would do the trick just as well (or not, as the case seems to be!).

Either way, she needs a clock I think. [goes off to google]

The sleeping rabbit one seems best of the day/night clocks but very expensive if it doesn't work. Is it still ok as a normal clock?

But then recognising 7's is better on a digial one....

My DS is 2.8.

The clock bit is very small - so not very good as an actual clock. But is digital.

i had the mains blue rabbito ne it was hopeless starting using when dd1 was 2.5 years in the end she asked for it to go as found the night light to bright.
we have crayola digitail clock radio
k&x=13&y=17

it is perfect dd1 is 3.5 years now. she has the lcd back light on the lowest setting @ night which isnt to bright.
she can read the numbers on display.
it is very reasonably priced looks great.
when the child is old designed for ages 3-11years they can wake up to a buzzer or radio or record there own message.
radio is very clear 2.

www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=crayola+clock&x=13&y=17

Thanks for that - it's definitely something we'll consider!

We have the mains bunny one, it has been very effective (but dd is a fairly compliant soul!) but it's not good quality. Total nightmare trying to replace bulbs etc - DH more or less had to disembowel the wretched thing and it's not been the same since.

I am a skin flint and didn't fork out for a bunny light. I just got a plug in timer switch and an old lamp. DS and now DD were told if the light was off they had to stay in their room. If it was on they could come in to see Mummy and Daddy. DD is 2.4 now and we have been using this technique fine for a couple of months (can't remember how old DS was)

we have a thomas one & ds worked out how to wake thomas up within 20 mins. It was a 3rd birthday present, and a complete waste of money.

We use a time switch and night light combo like muddlingthru. Night light isn't enough to wake them up if (by some miracle) they are still asleep.

Works very well, and we still use it now and they're 6 and 4. Think we started around 2 1/4.

Now I'm torn. DD is 2.3 and I'm wondering if the light option would be best as it's the most visual but the clock might have longer term appeal? She definitely loves her numbers. I'll keep procrastinating thinking.

I'm a kidsleep bunny clock addict. Both my DC (4 and 2) have had one in their respective rooms since they were about 21 months (both got the hang of it about aged 2)

We have been consistent though - if and when tthey ever got up before bunny woke up they were silently returned to bed, the door held if they insisted on running out. We thought it worth a litle effort for long-term gain and it's worked. They both stay beautifully in their rooms until bunny wakes up. Even when you can hear they're both awake before bunny.

Utter utter fan here

Love the tip about the timer and the normal lamp as the other clocks are sooooo expensive. Will try rigging that up with a timer to prevent the 5.30 wakeup that has been the norm since Xmas!

I used fairy lights on a timer for dd and then graduated to a digital clock. With ds we just went straight to the digital clock and said he couldnt come through until the clock said 7:00