How do you get your teens up in the morning?

[bigTillyMint]

My DD is not a teen yet, but is behaving strangely like one. She is soooooooo grumpy in the morning and refuses to get out of bed, often screaming and shouting at us

She used to get up fine, and has plenty of sleep - bed and lights out 7.30 - 8pm, woken up at 6.30 - 7am.

How do you manage with yours, please?

you walk along the landing opening the doors and putting the landing light on, on your way to the bathroom, at least half hour before they truly NEED to get up.

you then come back from the bathroom turning their bedroom lights on, telling them it is at least 20mins later than what it is.

then you go agin 5mins later, adding some more time......

they panic

get up

and timing is right

How old is she?

Under 10 I would continue to nag and be "in charge" and follow pyschomum's excellent advice.

10/11 onwards I would give her an alarm clock and do the landing/bedroom light thing but much less nagging and bossing.

But if she's late for school don't write notes/whisk her there in the car/sort it out for her.

If she's old enough to refuse to get up she's old enough to deal with the consequences!

You go into the their bedroom ...turn light on at least 15 minutes before they are due to get up... you yell up the stairs after 15 minutes...you yell again your breakfast is on the table its yours or the dogs
they get up

Well thats what I do

3 shouts, between 6.50am & 7.10am. Then it's his problem. That is DS1, 15. DS2, 13 usually no problem, can get out of bed fine but in zombie mode for 10/15 mins.

DS1 has been VERY close to being late for school twice. (not bad in 3yrs, or rather the last 12 months when the trouble getting up really kicked in) No lift/help getting ready - happy to oblige with these if required provided he gets up in time, but not if he doesn't. He always answers all 3 'calls' but claims not to have heard! .

However, I have found that a bacon buttie or similar nice breakfast wafting up the stairs does help - he knows little bro or the dog will scoff it if he's not down pdq.

I get up at 6.30 am I put the landing light on and go downstairs put radioon load washer etc mae coffee and do lunch boxes ...the dog wakes goes into teens room...at 7am I go up say 'its 7am' and give them a shake....usually by 7.15 they are up.

You seem to have lovely responsible teens, Riven, and I see how it must work really well under those circumstances.

My niece's mum had the same approach, but it never seemed to work. Dn drove all the teachers mad by sloping in halfway through the second period, disrupting everybody else's learning and ended up leaving school with very few qualifications because of always being late for school. 7 years later is now in a dead end (and very insecure) job. She was a bright girl, who was just too immature to take responsibility for herself. She also never did anything about Of course it's her own fault but if I'd been her Mum I would at least have expressed disapproval. For one thing, coming in late for a class is very rude to the teacher and disrupts the flow of the class (speaking as a teacher myself here). And it is extremely difficult to teach someone who is regularly missing crucial parts of the course; means everybody else has to wait while you explain once again.
At 15 I would still tell my children if I think they are being rude.

(Sadly, dn never did anything about developing her real interests in art or music either. Not everybody will organise themselves just because you leave them to it).

Ds1 gets up himself and has done for a while.

Ds2 is a PITA. If i didn't wake him he would sleep till 2pm every day. If he doesn't get up first time i go back a 2nd time and hiss horrible things in his ear...Like i'm gonna get a cup of water to throw over him/chuck his xbox out. I get up pretty easily in the morning and i expect everyone else to as well

With dd (12) I give her her first call at 7.30, 2nd call at 7.45- she knows this is when she needs to start getting dressed; at 8.30 the disabled taxi comes for her. Seems to work well, but then she wouldn't want the driver to see her in a state of undress

i hate early rising too, so i usually get up at the last possible minute, which doesnt giver them time to moan and ask for a bit longer in bed

and i dont keep the noise/lights down either

DS 13 gets up by himself most mornings.
DD 11 not technically a teen I know but acts more like one than DS
We bopught her an an ipod alarm clock a bit lick this for christmas and she has it set to "Wake up" from the Britannia High series. This seems to have made all the difference and she is now getting up quite well.

my dd wakes me up at 7:30
she is my alarm
but she is a morning person ,unlike ds, who I think will be a different kettle of fish when he's a teenager

I think they sound absolutely lovely, Riven, and very very responsible. And the sort of people who will make the most of any opportunity in life.

The problem with my dn was that she was really very immature. She could not see that if you attend school (or take a job or whatever) it is your responsibility not to disrupt everybody else. I don't think she disliked school at all; she was just too gormless to do anything about getting organised. Her only interest seemed to be boys and make-up. She has done some serious growing up since and is actually a lovely person.

My own dd is far more like yours and I think would also make a success of home schooling; can't see my dn at that age ever doing anything except spending yet another couple of hours in front of the bathroom mirror.

Thanks everyone, great advice

We do do the lights on, warnings, etc, but on some mornings she still has a tantrum that she's been woken up and she's still tired...

I was thinking I might get her an alarm clock, but I need one that doesn't make a noise all night long...... actually, maybe a radio alarm might be best, out of reach so she wakes up listening to it?

I bet you'll find that vanity will kick in when she's a bit older.
It's amazing early how they'll get up to wash and do their hair.

The ipod alarm looks good - she wants an ipod nano for her birthday, so maybe we could get one at some point.

Must go and look in the loft for an old radio alarm clock that we might have up there

I don't, they get up when their alarms go off.

Well, that's a whole other problem - doing her hair (just brushing and tying up in a ponytail) takes 15 - 20 mins

Hence why we have to get her up with enough time to spare!

dd2 is such a sleepy head in the morning. Every Christmas we buy her another alarm clock - the best one is a novelty one with a rotor like a helicopter. When the alarm goes off the rotor detaches from the alarm and flies off in a random direction. The alarm cannot be switched off until the rotor is found and replaced on the clock. This means that dd2 has to get out of bed to find the rotor.

Works really well. Except for the morning when she wasn't here and dp had to get up to switch her alarm off. He couldn't find the rotor and was almost screaming with frustration.

My mother, who had a house full of teenagers (I come from the size of family you almost never see now, into double figures), had the best technique I have ever encountered.

She would come into the bedrooms in the morning and insert a hot cup of tea in the sleeping teenagers hand. The teenager then had three choices:

a)stay asleep and burn their hand
b)stay asleep, turn over and spill tea on themselves
c)sit up and drink the tea, waking themselves up in the process.

If all else failed she would swiftly remove all bedding in one fell swoop and deposit it in the next room.

We were never late for school

Dd gets up in good time to shower/wash hair/make up etc and is generally conscientious.

Ds on the other hand is terrible at getting up so will continue to look at this thread for excellent tips

slug-that is a truly brilliant method!