How to Get Your Kids to Let You Sleep In
My kids have some sort of internal alarm clock that will wake them up at some inhumane hour each morning, regardless of when they go to bed.
Maybe when they are teenagers, I will be yelling at them to wake up at noon. But, for right now, by noon, they've been up so long that I start wondering if it'swine o'clock dinnertime yet. On school days, this isn't such a bad thing- we're able to get out the door on time as long as I stay off twitter until after drop-off.
But, on the weekends, I want to sleep in. So much so that we usually go to church on Saturday nights instead of Sunday mornings.
The boys don't see any reason to sleep in, though. And this mamawants needs some extra beauty sleep.
Most mornings, the boys come running into our room, LOUD and asking for breakfast. But, I've found there are a few tricks to keep them out of our room and quiet, at least for a little while.
1. Let them know the night before that there are donuts or something equally as yummy and forbidden for breakfast the next morning. They will be little silent ninjas, trying to eat as many of the treats as they possibly can before one of their brothers finds them and they have to share or we find them and make them stop.
2. Set out paint or glue and glitter or playdoh on the kitchen table for them to play with. They'll be too busy making a gigantic mess to wake me up.
3. Leave my iPhone sitting somewhere where they will easily find it. Angry Birds, Monkey Preschool Lunch Box, Bubble Bust, and Word Bingo are their current obsessions. Or, if that fails, even my 2 year-old knows how to FaceTime their uncle.
4. Put the tv on one of their channels so that when they turn it on, a show might hypnotize them for a little while. I rarely let them watch Cartoon Network, so if that is the channel I leave the tv on, that works best.
5. Lock the bedroom door and invest in earplugs.
Or maybe I should just give up and become a morning person. What are mornings like in your house?
I was interviewed over at Wonder Woman Wannabe- go check it out!
Maybe when they are teenagers, I will be yelling at them to wake up at noon. But, for right now, by noon, they've been up so long that I start wondering if it's
But, on the weekends, I want to sleep in. So much so that we usually go to church on Saturday nights instead of Sunday mornings.
The boys don't see any reason to sleep in, though. And this mama
Most mornings, the boys come running into our room, LOUD and asking for breakfast. But, I've found there are a few tricks to keep them out of our room and quiet, at least for a little while.
1. Let them know the night before that there are donuts or something equally as yummy and forbidden for breakfast the next morning. They will be little silent ninjas, trying to eat as many of the treats as they possibly can before one of their brothers finds them and they have to share or we find them and make them stop.
2. Set out paint or glue and glitter or playdoh on the kitchen table for them to play with. They'll be too busy making a gigantic mess to wake me up.
3. Leave my iPhone sitting somewhere where they will easily find it. Angry Birds, Monkey Preschool Lunch Box, Bubble Bust, and Word Bingo are their current obsessions. Or, if that fails, even my 2 year-old knows how to FaceTime their uncle.
4. Put the tv on one of their channels so that when they turn it on, a show might hypnotize them for a little while. I rarely let them watch Cartoon Network, so if that is the channel I leave the tv on, that works best.
5. Lock the bedroom door and invest in earplugs.
Or maybe I should just give up and become a morning person. What are mornings like in your house?
I was interviewed over at Wonder Woman Wannabe- go check it out!
Labels: me time, parenting decisions
posted by Shell at
7:00 AM
99 Comments:
JDaniel had been sleeping until seven. Today he got up super early. I tried to convince him it was still night and he didn't buy it.
We are up by 7 everyday. On the very rare occassion that one of them sleeps until 8 or so I start to worry (just like they are infants) but I am still up with the other kid.
I am liking the earplugs idea...
THIS is exactly what the mornings are like in my house. No one sleeps in but I have tried every tactic imaginable to get them to do so or at least stay out of trouble for 5 minutes so we can sleep. I laughed through your list because I've tried pretty much all of them. If you figure out how to become a morning person let me know.
Ugh.. it's hell.
They bang at their door like a couple of zombies at around 5.50 every damn morning... except for the mornings that we need them up, of course.
We've tried leaving a couple toys in their room, but they haven't caught on yet.
School has me up bright and early on the weekends. 6am is the latest for me. During the weekend, the latest is 7am. I have two that sleep in and two that don't. It's not the kids that get me up though. It's soccer and church.
During in the summer it gets a tad bit easier on the week days. I actually get to sleep in until 7am. I babysit and have to be up before my nephew gets here.
Out of 3, I have 1 who wakes up ANGRY every morning at 6:30 and feels it is his duty to scream the rest of the house up. He's like our rooster. Only we have a real rooster, and I think he's quieter.
Laughing out loud at the silent donut ninjas. We have reached a happy place with our weekends. At ten, ten, and seven years, our three will happily watch tv and fix themselves a bowl of cereal on the weekends. TV is pretty limited the rest of the week, so it's like a fun little splurge for them on Saturdays and Sundays. 11:00 church on Sunday is a fabulous thing, too.
I'm constantly saying, "Just five more minutes" when they come in my room. I tell them to go play in thier room and sometimes they do. Often they just jump around me while I try desperately to ignore them. I hate mornings!
We are up by 7 a.m. on the weekdays no matter what time they went to bed. On the weekends, my husband and I take turns getting up with the kids and the other one gets to sleep as late as they want. I slept until 10 a.m. the other day and it was heaven!
oh, lets see...around 5 a.m. i get the loud annoying wake up call of my two youngest daughters knock down drag out fighting about the right way to say pretty. "it's pritty!" "no, it's purty!" "NO, IT'S PRITTY!" "NO, IT'S PURTY!" ...and then it comes to blows.
"OH, MY GOSH! WTH?" (that's me!)
true story!
(but only ONE of this daily 5 a.m. occurance. pick a topic and i can promise you they have fought about it.)
Mornings - start at 4:45 with crazy toddler. That.is.all.
What a great post!!! I can totally relate to this... sounds just like my house.
Visiting from SITS, make it a great day!
It was a beautiful day when my kids started pouring their own cereal on weekends!
Ha how do you do all that when your 9 month old doesn't have her own room, your bedroom door doesn't stay closed and you live with your in laws who may have to get up at 3 am and get ready to go to work. :P
UGH!!! I feel your pain. I wake up M-F at 4:45am so when the weekends come, I'd like to sleep in a little bit but my son is up at the crack of dawn, LITERALLY, if not before and it drives me insane! :) He always wants to eat and is pretty insistent on eating until he is fed. Once Mia hears him awake, then it's all over. And on Sundays we have to get up at 7am for church, SOOOOOO ideally Saturday would be a great day to sleep, but nope, that never happens. I'll miss these days one day, right?????? ;)
Those are great tips!!
The two babies rarely sleep past 6:30, but we are not above occasionally paying the nine year old to be in charge until 9:00. She is awesome. She will feed cereal and watch cartoons until a decent hour.
Wow. We are horrible parents.
We are pretty lucky. The earliest they rise is 7:30. I've started telling Buddy that if the first number on his Perry the Platypus alarm clock isn't an 8 or higher, he is not allowed to get up or to ask if he can get up.
I think the donut thing might work! I'm going to try it. If not, I'll go with the lock and earplugs. HA! Too funny. Us and our parallel lives...
Lots of yummy love,
Alex aka Ma What's For Dinner
www.mawhats4dinner.com
My oldest has been a morning person since I got him. From the day he came home from the hospital, he liked to rise at 6am. Which was nice when I was in school or worked.. it made the mornings very hassle free. But on the weekends & when I didn't need to be up so early? I tried everything to keep his little but in bed. Not only his butt, but he had a tendency to enjoy waking his baby brother as well.
He learned fairly early how to get a fruit bar or make his own bowl of cereal b/c I would leave a cup of milk in the fridge for him.
Even now as a teenager, he likes to get up early. I"m just thankful he's learned to leave me alone.
What's awesome is that my husband takes the morning shift on the weekends so I can sleep in. What's not awesome? He tells the kids they can't have breakfast until I'm up. I'm woken up every weekend by "Mom, can we eat now?"
We try to sleep in on weekends, but I can usually only stretch it until 8. mine is only 5 months, so hard to reason when him :) But I can totally see myself saying, "go ahead and have some donuts, I"ll be in a little later" and catch a few more minutes of snoozing :)
I was commenting that, since becoming a father, I find that it's not uncommon to have a full Saturday's worth of stuff done by noon Saturday morning.
My kids are not of the age where they can be trusted with stairs yet (but I'm bookmarking this post for when they're even more mobile than they are now), but I'm actually hopeful that they'll enjoy sleeping in.
Now, as long as you're in bed with them, they're content to cuddle. I really, really hope that doesn't change.
And Shell, it's always wine o'clock somewhere.
I just read your interview over at Wonder Woman Wannabe and knew I HAD to 'meet' you! I love your blog already, so I'm now a follower! WOO HOO! I will be back! :)
Its 8:30am here I have been up for 2 hours now and no one else is awake. Im blessed with a child that sleeps in but I, myself, can't seem to sleep past 6am every morning.. BOOOO! lol i like your ideas though
Mornings are ridiculous here. N is up by 7 am every morning regardless of what time she's gone to bed. Sometimes, she'll wake up at 1 am or 4 am and be STARVING so she downs a bottle of milk. Sleep is so overrated!
Oh gosh, I will try some of these trics when my son gets a little older. He's 14 months and has decided 5:30am is an appropriate wake up time for him. He's always been an early riser, but it's been getting earlier as he's gotten older!! Eek
I'm pretty sure that pre-setting the TV channel is pure genius.
Don't worry. By the time they are in school, and need to get up early, that's when they will want to start sleeping in!
I can't wait till MAggie is a little older so I can sleep past 7. PJ usually sleeps till 8 on the weekends, but Mags keeps waking up!
We also do the saturday night church thing because I hate getting up.
I love all your ideas...unfortunately none of them apply for the baby stage I'm in...except the ear plugs. Although I would have serious guilt at this stage, but don't think I haven't been tempted to just turn off the monitor!
these are all very good ideas! I mean we get up at about 5 am on weekdays since I work F/T ...but on weekends, we normally all sleep in until about 7 , which is such a treat for me and on Sat, it's my DH's "job" to make breakfast, so generally on Sat mornings, I get an extra hour just lounging, checking my phone etc.
I am a morning person since we are up so early each day, I'm not a late night person...at 9pm I go to bed, any tips on how to get them to go to bed before 10pm??? ;)
Will these tactics work on a 6 month old? Alas probably not...I am now an early riser due to my little one!
I wish someone would leave me some slient ninja donuts in the morning.
I'm not going to lie, I am such a horrible non- morning person, that I actually feel bad for future children. Also, I'm printing this list for future reference...
I remember those days. It gets better. Mine like to sleep as late as possible on most Saturday mornings.
I LOVE #4!!! Hypnotize them with TV!!! (HE HE!)
My kids have never slept past 6:00 am. Luckily, they now play the computer in the morning so I get an extra hour of sleep. Good luck.
Yeah, I'm too lazy to do this. I'd rather just get up then have to clean up any messes later. LOL
I have been blessed with a toddler who will sleep in to 10-11 on the weekend. If I really want to make sure that happens? I sneak in his room around 7 and give him his cup of milk and change his diaper. He'll go back down for several hours. Great kid I got here!
For YEARS I set out juice and snack and set the channel to Cartoon Network for them in the morning. It worked like a charm and they never woke me up unless someone was hurt.
Now they are old enough to pour their own juice and know how to use the remote so I no longer have to do it but they still let me sleep.
This was great! I hope to be as devious as you when my son gets older. I might have to bookmark this for future reference! If I can let my son whine and complain until 7:30 on a weekend morning, it's a good day. That or I just nudge the husband to wake up and feed him while I cat nap for an extra half hour.
Oh, man! I wish I could go to church on Saturday nights!
My daugther won't even get out of bed most of the time until I come and see her! Drives me crazy. Then when she gets out of bed she likes to come lay in bed with me and then my son does and then they are soon fighting over who is taking up too much space and who has too much blanket.
Sounds fun huh?
It never fails that on days we can sleep in they get up early and on days that we have to be up early I have to wake them!!
I love your suggestions! I will have to try some of them! I usually kick my husband until he investigates what is going on so I can sleep longer!!
Oh, we sleep in until 10am every morning...
Bwahahahahaha! So much for saying *that* with a straight face.
I LOVE sleeping in. In fact, I think being up before 10 is ungodly and having to get up before noon on the weekend, unless you choose to, is uncalled for. However, it never fails that as soon as the sun comes up, I have a three year old telling me, "Mommy it's wake up. The sun is up." Joy.
Ha! I love all these ideas! So funny! Thankfully I am in the empty nest stage and can enjoy my sweet mornings on the weekends! Yay!
Taking notes for the future...
How does the Uncle feel about facetime in the am?
I'm very much a morning person, so I don't mind my early birds. The plus is they go to bed early! But then, so do I.
Saturday and Sunday finds Bud standing by David's side of the bed screaming and crying, "Get up Daddy, get up wif me," normally by 6:30. Baby Girl used to always want to get up early, but she is starting to sleep in a little more now. Some mornings she will get up with him and turn on the TV and sit in the living room with him. But that never lasts for very long.
Ugh - my child won't sleep in on weekends and weekdays I have to PRY her out of bed.
I have my oldest child trained to clean the house on the weekends when I am sleeping and my youngest likes to sleep in with me. So far this is working out well because I am totally not a morning person either.
Sometimes it works to let my kids stay up later when I want to sleep in the next morning. Usually, as soon as they wake up though they are loud and/or arguing. Luckily, if they have longer than 2 days of no school, they begin to sleep in until at least 8. In the summer time, I end up having to wake them up to eat breakfast.
I know, shouldn't they sleep in if they go to bed late? ugh. Why?
I like the idea of donuts in the fridge, genius!
I think the iPhone one should be point 1. :) Both of my girls love Monkey Lunchbox and Word Bingo. Great suggestions!
My child is the SAME way. No matter WHAT time he goes to bed, it's a rarity that he wakes up later than 7:45 or 8:00. Unfortunately, my son is still "caged in" when he sleeps, so I can't set out breakfast and angry birds for him. :)
B is an early riser, and I have a hard time getting her to let me sleep in. We've been turning the tv on in our room and she sits at the food of the bed and watches it while we get at least another hour of sleep.
At least you've thought of some very inventive ways to get a few more minutes of shut eye :) I would totally bribe with food, too.
This weekend I decided to prepare bowls of cereal for the kids on my trip to the bathroom at 4am. When they got up at 6 they ate, watched TV and let us sleep until almost 8am! It was wonderful!
On a side note, I love your answer about marriage in your interview. Love is definitely a choice that is made everyday!
There are mornings I so want to sleep in but I am up before the kids. On the weekends hubby will let me sleep in as long as he can get a nap sometime during the day.
Mornings are rough here. I'm definitely not a morning person, but *someone* has to let the boy child out of his room to pee. We had to start locking him in when he was around 2 1/2 because he would get into things like the dish soap and cat hormone spray while we slept and empty them onto the fireplace bricks.
I have my four year old trained to stay in bed until her clock turns green. I'm not sure why she complies (I'm certain that I never would have), but she does. My two year old always wakes up at 6:30 but he will talk and sing in his crib until 7...so that's sleeping in for me! You're brave with the glitter glue!
We (somehow) trained the girls that they could not get out of bed until they heard our shower. Works brilliantly on the weekends. Not so well on Mondays when hubby gets up at the crack of dawn for Men's Prayer Group.
I never have been and never will be a morning person.
I hate waking up, but have no choice.
Really. What an attitude, huh?
No matter when I go to bed, I still hate getting up.
My kids know this about me. I am a grumbler who emerges out of the bedroom like a bear woken up too early from his hibernation.
My kids wake up early.
I trained them to let me sleep until 830 on weekends.
How?
I scared them. I'm horribly cranky if disturbed so this made the kids go, "Uh..let's just let Mom sleep..." And also, my hair is unruly first thing in the morning and that was frightening for them to see as well.
More things to file away for the future! I look forward to him making his bowl of oatmeal/cereal and turning on the tv himself.
It does get better so hang in there! You are right about the teenager thing, I can't get mine out of bed! :)
I am so not a morning person and I swear that I will never be. I try to set my alarm to get up early during the week and it never ever works. Of course the kids never wake up on time during the week but for some reason they are up at the butt crack of dawn on the weekends. It is so annoying. We got them both tvs so now the rule is that if they get up before 8 am they can stay in their room and watch tv. I know...best mom ever.
I will never be a morning person so please keep passing along your tricks. I need to stock up before baby arrives.
Girl, I hear ya. I do everything I can to set out whatever they need so that I can sleep.
Mine know that I am super grouchy all day long if I don't get to sleep in on the weekends so they'll tip toe around quietly until I get up. When they were really little I would pour a bowl of cereal, stick on the bottom shelf in the fridge with a cup of milk sitting beside it.
We put the fear of God in her that she should not come out of her room before the first # on her giant digital clock is a 7.
It works!
Damn I totally missed out by letting my parents sleep just because I was a quiet kid. I could have had doughnuts and trashed the kitchen with glue?? I think I need a do-over!
We are now getting a little more sleep since our oldest is an early riser. I always leave the computer on nickjr or spoutonline.com for him in the morning. I come out in the morning and he's clicking away online.
When they were little, I told them they couldn't get up until the sun did. Opening my eyes and seeing 2 eyes eyeballing me from the side of the bed, saying, "Sausage and Biscuits Mama" scares the heebeegeebees out of me still today. Donuts work great! Or, telling them to crawl in bed with you and sleep some more works. Don't have these problems anymore. They're all starting to sleep in. Yeah!!!!!Saturday mornings are turning q.u.i.e.t.
Taking notes for when my kids are older! I am NOT a morning person and will do anything for an extra 30 minutes in bed.
Mine crawl into bed with me, I turn the TV on something they want to watch, throw the blanket over my head and snooze away. I'm sure it will stop being so effective when they are older, but for now, it works.
You are hilarious. I can't do any of those with the baby. :( I don't mind, though. I get up with the kids and we do our thing. I am not a morning person, but they are.
No, don't become a morning person! There's something wrong with those people, I think they're aliens.
I love your ideas. I put cereal and bowls within reach and tell the kids to fend for themselves.
The great thing is that the kids are sooo hard to get up for school, but on the weekends they are up amazingly early, all bright-eyed and bushy tailed.
my kids have a finely tuned weekend radar - my two young ones for getting up with the son, and my teenager for making sure she doesn't see the crack of noon...
i've just completely given up on the notion of sleep in any form...
isn't it always wine o'clock somewhere?
My children are now trained somehow to sleep in until at least 8:30 - sometimes even 9! Baby included!!
I am NOT a morning person. At all. My kids tip toe around in the morning on weekends cause even they dont want to see me! lol Its bad.
haha! But hide the Gorilla Glue. ;)
Haha! I would SO not be able to sleep through any of that. If you can, You're my new hero.
Great interview! I totally agree on the comment about love being a decision! You'll laugh-but I just posted today about that! LOL
Know what I loooooove? How mine sleep in on weekdays, but are up at the crack on Saturdays and Sundays. Love. It.
Ummm, I think the earplug and the donuts ideas work best.:-) My kids and I are usually morning persons, so it's not a problem on my side. It's my husband who is having a hard time getting enough sleep when he's not at work. My kids keep on bugging him.:-)
These are great tips. Sometimes, when I'm lucky, Scooby will shut himself in his room and play, but usually on Saturdays, my oldest will wake me to let me know they are up, then they both go into the family room and watch tv. 9 AM is a pretty usual waking time, so I can't really complain too much.
I wish I had this list when my girls were little, I just told them to look at the alarm clock and if the first number was 5 or 6 they had to sit on their beds until the first number was 7, then they could get up.
We have those black out curtains, they help keep the kids asleep longer :)
We've recently discovered that picking up a dozen donuts on a Friday evening for them to eat for breakfast on Sat morning helps a bit. Not much...we maybe get an extra 30 minutes to sleep in.
The Playdough/glitter thing scares the living daylights out of me. I just know my kids would make such a huge mess that it would make me regret that extra 30 minutes...LOL!!!
Do your kids fight with one another in the morning? That's the other thing that causes us to have to get up on the weekends...someone always pisses someone else off and next thing you know it's like a huge world war going on in our family room!
I always thought I was an early riser, then I had kids. Let me tell you that I had no idea what the real definition of early riser was!! I did see a cool product the other day that is apparantly available on Amazon. It is a kids alarm clock that instead of making noise turns a different colour. The idea is that the kids are taught that they are to stay in their room till the colour changes before they can come bother the parents. I figure it is worth a try and I am going to try and find and order it.
I'm in heaven these days...one kid left at home, and she always out-sleeps me. It's SWEET. Your day will come :)
I think your description of sleep escaping you and children waking you up too early is a standard for any parent. I tried rewards, even gave each a quarter every time they let me sleep in. But, that only worked for so long. So, I taught my now 8 year old to make breakfast for himself and his 5 year old sister. Occasionally, I get them donuts or let them get a pop tart, but more often than not, he will make waffles or pancakes in the microwave (taught him how to use and what not to put in), cereal, or toast (taught him how to use that too). I also taught him to tell time years ago and he knows that if it is not 9 on that clock, he is not allowed to wake us.
Man.... I have a moluccan cockatoo that screams in the morning & nephews that pound around, dogs that bark cause they want out... yeah, it's early morning weekends for me too! Stop in & read Self Made Prison
Visiting from Mrs. 4444's sharefest.
We are lucky, my four yearold will sleep late... it is just the getting to bed part that sucks. One side or the other eh!? I like the glitter idea... maybe it will obscure the dust and I'll never have to clean!!!
It doesnt get any better as they get older...if my teenager doesnt have anything to say to me for 3 days you can be sure the minute i sleep in or take a nap here he comes, lol.
Visiting from SITS!
Our weekend mornings are great! We sleep in, decide if we want to go for our favorite pecan pancakes that are served all day. Maybe go for a motorcycle ride afterwards and since moving to KY we have been discovering the bourbon distilleries around here. Oh yeah, we don't have kids, can you tell? We LOVE it too!!
It is amazing that no matter what time my son goes to bed, he still seems to wake up at 6:30. He's 4.5 now. I get him a drink box and a snack if he wants it, flip on the channel with the most shows he will watch in a row and close my door. If he needs something else, he'll tell me, believe you me!
Our little girl always gets up too early now. Leaving glitter and glue is a no go, I would just have to clean it all up. I'd rather get up early than have more cleaning to do. I'll just go with the invest in earplugs idea.
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