HOW do you wake your children in the morning?

[Ravin]

The thread about whether to wake children in the morning got me thinking...HOW do you wake your children?

 

When I have to get DD up, I usually go in and nicely pat or rub her back and let her know it's time to get up. Often, she complains and then falls back to sleep when I do this, so I will wait about 15 minutes then either let her 2 yo. brother wake her up by climbing into bed with her, or (less often) turn on the lights and play reveille on my phone for her.

 

What are your strategies?

[Arcadia]

I get their breakfast ready before waking them up. That is the first thing my boys ask for when I "yell" them awake.

[SKL]

Enter the room, turn on the light, and sweetly tell the girls that it's time to get up. They will stretch and grunt until I repeat firmly and tell one of them to get up and go to the bathroom. Sometimes it takes a mild threat. :) Mostly it's not too bad. What can I say, I'm not a morning person either. ;)

[JudoMom]

Shake their beds (they have lofts) and/or pull the covers off. Turn the lights on. Clap my hands. Repeat "You need to get up. No, sit up. Do not lay back down. Get out of bed now. No, get up! It's time for school. Get clean underwear and DON'T LAY BACK DOWN! get dressed now. Get. UP!" until they are all 5 out of bed and getting dressed.

 

Yeah, I've got a couple that are hard to wake :sleep:.

[*Lulu*]

Turn on the lights in the hallway.

Start talking to them from the hallway.

Rub backs, legs and say you need to get up.

Wait two minutes and release the hounds. :p

 

I only have to wake the kids one day a week at most, they are up like clock work every day. Much earlier than I am generally.

[Lawana]

Telling them to get up works when they have had enough rest. When they need to get up despite inadequate sleep, I eventually resort to removing covers.

[Mommy22alyns]

I have terrible insomnia and a lot of anxiety, so I won't sleep well if the alarm is in my room. Rebecca uses her phone to set an alarm and get herself and Sylvia up in the morning. They eat breakfast and I get up later for coffee and we start school.

[myfunnybunch]

I open the curtains, sing a song, rub their backs. They do need a little transition time. If they're not up within five minutes, I tell the dog to wake them up. Nothing like being licked in the face first thing in the morning!

[Hockey Mom]

I only have to wake ONE of the kids up...and even then, he's usually up before me. DS9 is the early bird. Up no later than 6am every morning. DS10 wakes up around 8am (same time I wake up). Whenever I have to wake him up, I usually rub his back and speak soothingly to him. He's like me...he has to wake up "quietly". If I try to be demanding or loud it will put him in a foul mood all day (same as me!).

[amo_mea_filiis.]

I usually wake dd nicely at first, but end up pulling her off her low loft bed. Once she's on the floor I release one of her gerbils into her sleeping bag and walk out. She puts the gerbil away and swats me on the way to the bathroom.

 

Ds wakes naturally.

[Bug's Mom]

If I need to wake her, I go in and open the blinds. Before I can go rub her back or talk to her, her 12 pound cat will have jumped onto the bed (maybe with the smaller cat) and taken care if the waking part. :)

[Dandelion]

Very gently, nicely, and gradually. With a sweet sing-song voice that I don't use at any other time of the day. ;) Shock and awe wake-up tactics tend to make for a very bad day at our house.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

My boys are generally awake long before me, but if I have to wake them I go in and open the curtains to let the sunshine in and start talking to them.

[Freckles]

When I have to wake my kids up, I usually turn on the light and say "Good morning starshine; the Earth says hello!" from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They are big kids now. They usually wake me up. :thumbup:

[Tammi K]

I usually enter and tell them it's time to wake up. If they don't comply, I return in 2-3 minutes, turn all the lights on and begin singing "The Happy, Happy Morning Song." The words and melody are ever changing, but it is joyous and loud, and a touch silly. They groan and acquiesce...usually. Sometimes I have to sing verse two.

[ChristusG]

If the baby is awake, I put her into the older kids beds to wake them up. They always like that. If baby is not awake, I usually lie down beside them and gently wake them up. They wake up better for baby than for me :confused1: .

[Ameena]

DD is horrible to get up :) Unless it's at least 10am, I have to pretty much start dressing her for the day before she will wake up and somewhat get around. And then I have to watch her like a hawk to make sure she doesn't fall back asleep.

 

95% of the time I let her wake on her own schedule which means somewhere between 9am and noon :)

[tagglelim]

My kids are early-birds and are usually up before us. However, on the rare occasion that we need to get them up and they are being extra grumpy, we like to break out the following song:

 

Good Morning! Good MORNing!

We hope you're feeling swell.

Good Morning! Good MORNing!

You don't look so good.

 

Your face looks to us like a tractor ran over it.

Your hair looks like Don KING'S....

You don't look so good.

 

 

The kids seem to like that one. It was a song that played on a DC radio station eons ago, when I was a child. I had to clean up the lyrics a bit, but it still runs in my head after all these years!

[m0mmaBuck]

DD is generally awake when I get home from the gym.

 

DS is another story. He gets up when he is told to get up. I open his door, flip on the light, and tell him, "It's time to get up." The big dog then vacates his bed and DS writhes around for 2-3 minutes and then stumbles into the living room.

[nmoira]

If anyone needs waking, I open the kids' door to let the cats in. They know what to do.

[Laura Corin]

I go in, open the curtains, talk to them, maybe sing a little song. Then I pull back the covers and wait for them to climb out of bed. I wrap them up in their dressing gowns and we have a hug.

 

Laura

[Joyofsixreboot]

I guess I'm not nice. I yell up the stairs " get up" and they do.

[Melissa in Australia]

I open up their bedroom doors and turn the radio up in the kitchen

[Chris in VA]

Did has a loft bed, so I can't wake her by gently pushing back her hair like I used to. Now I

come in and flip on the light and use a gentle voice to say good morning. I was not always a sweet mom to my boys, so I decided to start everyone's day being as kind as I could. I wanted my first action in their day and their first interaction to be gentle and loving, so no harsh alarms for us.

[rieshy]

I only have 1 that I have to wake. I send in the dog to wake the 7 yo because he thinks it's funny.

[kewb]

As soon as the dog hears the blinds open he comes running because he knows I will be singing and he gets to jump on them and lick them.

 

Did I mention he is 80lbs of dog love.

[LaxMom]

I guess I'm not nice. I yell up the stairs " get up" and they do.

I was just thinking "wow. Everyone's so nice!" That's what I do, too.

[KungFuPanda]

I turn on the lights and say 'wake up baby' as I lightly brush his/her cheek. My kids are 16 and 12 :-)

 

I can't imagine an abrupt, loud wake-up where a body is expected to immediately jump out of bed. If that happened to ME, I'd be grouchy all morning. I need a moment to become fully awake or there is stumbling :-/

[Isabella]

My girls get themselves up now that they are working, but when they were little, I would open the curtains, softly say 'good morning girls', and ask if they had a good sleep etc. They would mumble a bit and roll over, and not really thrilled about starting a new day. Then I'd leave the bedroom door open, while I went about my business with a little more noise than I would usually. It took about 10 minutes or so, but they'd slowly come fully awake with that, and come out for breakfast.

 

It worked for us...We are ones that would have started the day on a bad and grumpy note if any force or yelling was involved, but that's just us...I guess everyone works differently.

 

When my middle was in her terrible teen stage, anything I did to wake her was grounds for murderous looks and crabby replies!

[renmew]

Well, I work and have to leave my house with all three kids dressed and fed by 6:50 am, so I don't have the luxury of making it nice and cheerful. I walk through the house turning on lights and talking loudly. I usually have to pull off their sheets several times and often plop bodies onto the floor. It's not fun or what I want to do, but it works and no one is usually grouchy once they've dressed and sat down to breakfast.

 

I do let them sleep in during the weekend, unless there is a soccer game or track meet to get to.

[MooCow]

I get their breakfast ready before waking them up.

 

 

 

:iagree: Then I slather him with kisses & tickle his feet. His is all warm and sweet smelling from his bath the

night before, and since he's not quite awake I can get some good cuddling in before he tells

me "Mom, that's enough." :D

[Ellie]

When I have to wake my kids up, I usually turn on the light and say "Good morning starshine; the Earth says hello!" from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They are big kids now. They usually wake me up. :thumbup:

 

Now I have an ear worm...

[jrn]

Each one has an alarm that they set. They get one snooze time before I come in and encourage them to get moving. Rarely is that even needed anymore. It used to be a huge chore to get them up. The best thing I did was get them an alarm clock.

[elfgivas]

our daytime indoor house temperature is about 8 degrees warmer than our night time. i have the thermostat programmed to start warming up the house about 15 minutes before i get up (~ 5:30am). then it continues until it reaches daytime temperature. usually, the temperature difference is enough to waken everyone. if it doesn't, it usually means they need more sleep. i give them until 6am, then grind coffee, unload the dishwasher, put mozart on.... if that still doesn't do it, then there are no curtains or blinds, so the sun will finish what i have started. they also each have a pet in their room who will want to go out, so they help, too. i can count on one hand the number of times i have had to physically waken them.

 

hth,

ann

[TravelingChris]

I normally make coffee, get her cup ready, get her pills ready, and come in with the cup in one hand and the medications in the other. Then if she hasn't gotten up after that, I come in later and tell her loudly to get up.

[amy g.]

Well, this morning, I was brandishing a coat hanger, and inviting my 17 year old to watch "Mommie Dearest" with me if he didn't get his heinie up and clean my kitchen.

 

It backfired, because then he claimed to be just too frightened to get out of bed.

[momofkhm]

I find their arm (not always easy!) and rub it nicely until I see open eye balls. I usually then tell them what's up/ why I am waking them / how much time they have until things really need to happen. It works. But mine are 18, 16 and 12.