What do you DO with your early risers?

[stainesmassif]

Ds2 has decided on 5am as optimal getting up time. What do you do when your kids get up at sick o'clock? By which - watch tv or do you start your normal day etc?
Have tried cc for the mornings to no avail - just wondering how you fill all the extra time.

Wait until 5.30 am and then come downstairs, get breakfast, lie on sofa and groan softly while children's TV babbles on

I think I'm going wrong by putting off breakfast til 'breakfast time'.

DD comes into our bed and reads books and sorts shapes. I have recently found out that this is NOT NORMAL and we are lucky that she doesn't want to rampage around.

We are also lucky to live in town. I sometimes take her out for coffee at 6.30. I see other parents doing this. It feels like you're at least doing something nice for yourself, I like to get out if I have to be up.

I pretty much go down the route of lying groaning on the sofa too while the watch kids tv.

Lay around groaning and drinking coffee whilst Cbeebies babbled on.

Or lay in bed whilst she climbed all over me.

Or sat in a corner of her room bleary eyed whilst she played.

Ds1 used to happily lie in bed and watch tv whilst I had a hug with him and a doze. Ds2 wants to sit on my head and eat the mobile phone charger.

I think 5.30 a.m. is not an unreasonable time for a person's body clock to start the day if they've had enough food, activity and rest, particularly in the summer. It's not my body clock, unfortunately, but I don't think I can change my children's by more than maybe half an hour! I reassure myself that at least this is a limited phase for me, whereas farmers have to get up this early their whole lives.

I had this but I cut out daytime naps totally and kept putting him back to bed when he woke.
Took about a week and now he generally sleeps 8-7 with occasional early wake up and comes in with me for a cuddle and to watch tv in bed. We quite often have milk and a banana in bed as he thinks breakfast in bed a rare old treat.
Blackout blind? Put to bed a bit later? Get one of those sleep clocks where the sun comes up when it's time to get up?

Actually just aware you didn't ask for advice on how to stop it....sorry. In that case we watch tv in bed and have breakfast!

Mine wake anywhere between 5:30am and 6:45am. DD2 would sleep longer but DD1 is incredibly loud and boisterous so she doesn't let her. I make them stay in their room until 6:30am if they're not making too much of a fuss and then bring them downstairs for some toast and fruit and either Dora, Barney or cBeebies while I have coffee and try to sort myself out. Around 7:30-8am we're usually functioning.

I plan on getting an alarm soon and set it to 7am. They can do what they like in their room but until the alarm goes off at 7am we don't go downstairs. Is that too harsh?

Get up and watch the discovery channel. I have actually got slightly addicted to Flight Crash Investigators.

Ignore them?

Depends how old surely

Mine have to stay in bed til even

If they get up earlier they know to stealthily creep about eating breakfast & watching tv

Ds was four when he stopped coming into our room & staring at us until we got up

Sorry seven

Yes much groaning here.

You see, I partly feel guilty that we do the tv, groaning thing, partly extremely annoyed to be up and another part of me thinks I'll miss it when it's over. They are 3.5 and 1.5.

Dd is 20m, ds is 5. We get up and they play whilst I / dh do dishes / make packed lunches etc and then have breakfast after half an hour or so. Then tbh I don't know what we do - it seems to pass in a blur. I think I minute on my phone and stare into space while dd and ds play / watch tv. About 730 I get them both dressed and get myself dressed and do make up. We leave for school about 815am.

MN not minute.

when mine were little I used to put sky news on and read a book and not engage with the dcs at all

they soon worked out this was very boring and would stay in their room until they heard us moving about

DS isn't quite as, er, challenging in this respect as he used to be (seriously, try a GroClock/ similar as soon as you think he might be old enough - THE best £30 I have ever spent). He was a 0500 riser, more like 0630 these days, though we can hear him up and playing from about 0600.

So - our routine was/ is:
take the mornings in turns with DH
take DS downstairs as soon as he gets noisy, so the other parent can stay asleep
make a simple breakfast which DS can get on with basically unsupervised
give it to him in the lounge on a coffee table
put CBeebies on telly (or a suitable DVD if it's too early for CBeebies)
Doze under a blanket on the sofa if DS will let us!

If it's a weekend, let the other parent sleep until at least 0830, as they'll be on duty tomorrow.

DS often eats a second breakfast later in the morning, by the way - we just go with this because he is a complete string bean, bless him.

Lie in bed groaning, trying to entertain DS with our phones. This can last up to 30 mins on a good day (ie 5.30)

Eventually he makes a break for the stairs & I pull the 'pregnant, breastfeeding & shit in the morning' card & DH takes him away for weetabix and chaos creation. The unwritten rule is no musical instruments before 7 (our poor neighbours).

I get another hour in bed & then tear about like a mad thing clearing up.

Okay this may shock a few here, but when DD2 did this I used to put out a bowl of cereal and jug of milk the night before and leave it on her little table. She would come downstairs, eat and put the TV on for kid's TV.
She is now sitting beside me, 21 year old, with a gliittering academic CV and lovely boyfriend and no known antisocial probems.
In my defence the downstairs was fairly baby proofed if I recall.

iwas, believe me, if I thought he'd just get on with it without waking us anyway, I would be really quite tempted....

we also kept a box of toys and books in our bedroom when they were little and sort of snoozed whilst they pottered about ( 4 DCs ) and never felt guilty about doling out the odd biscuit at 5 am or yocking them into bed with us.
Can't do that now tho' as youngest is 13
Now worry about when they are not in bed fret about getting them up in the morning!

well i'll probably get flamed but ds has a baby pen and on the weekend days he wakes up before the birds then he goes into the baby pen with a some breakfast and to play with his toys and watch baby tv whilst i go back to bed. Didnt do his big brother any harm and pretty sure it wont harm him.

Groclock for DD (she's 3.6), and returning to bed (or at least bedroom ) till sun comes up on clock at 7am. DS is 7 months. If he wakes before 6.15-ish he gets a quick cuddle then put back down and star/projector light thing turned on.. He usually cries for a few minutes before playing in cot/going back to sleep [i daren't check as I'm usually too busy trying to get a few more minutes sleep and fearful of starting the crying again]. Or on days it all goes wrong we are watching tv, fully dressed w hair brushed by 7 (only cos if we delay dressing etc till after tv goes on, DD has been known to tantrum for up to an hour).