early riser

somethingsgottogive

Gavin83 wrote: »

Can you really expect a young child to lay in bed bored for 2 hours waiting for the rest of the house to wake up?

I really don't buy that the child wakes up at that time whatever time you put them to bed. If it was me I'd increase his bed time by an hour every night until he sleeps to the time you want him to.

It's all very well saying just put him to bed later and later - but if you do that you end up with no time to yourself/with your OH!

Could he just not be burning off enough energy during the day to NEED 10 hours sleep? Is there anything you could do with him to wear him out?

Bloomin_Freezing2

Both my girls (5 and almost 2) have always been early risers 6am is normal 6.30am is a lie in! Before DD2 was born, if DD1 got up earlier than desired (weekends usually) she'd just come in out room get in bed between us and i'd pop the tv on. From the age of about 3 she come in our room, put the computer on and play on cbeebies website, clicking away happily on the mouse.

DD2 went through a recent phase of waking at 4am ish and did not want to go back to sleep. I'd go into her room with my pillow and duvet and try to sleep on the floor beside her cot whilst she watched a dvd on the portable dvd player.

I'm afraid this is something you are just going to have to muddle through, agreed that maybe get some earlier nights to compensate for the early mornings. These things do ususally end up being a phase, maybe a lengthy phase though.

plumpmouse

My 7 year old is the same.

He would get up around 5.30am - 6am every day if I let him.

He goes to bed at 7pm, reads his school reading book for about 15minutes and then has an audio book/relaxing cd on. I would imagine that most nights he is asleep by around 8pm (but I don't go in to check.)

He wakes early every day and at the minute we are battling with him to go back to sleep as he looks permently shattered.

He has a clock that projects the time on the ceiling.

He has been getting up watching tv and playing on his DS from 6.30am. We live in a bungalow so he is nearby. He is also extremely sensible and I have no problems letting him go into the living room by himself.

I think some children or just early riser. No matter what time we put him to bed he is up early and nothing seems to work.

I would second the positive reinforcement of the reward chart rather than negative. In the past we have had a prize on the top of our wardrobe for him to see and if he gets x amounts of tick on his chart he wins the prize at the end of the month. Much more effective for us than taking something from him.

We also have the luxury of him having his own room so really he doesn't disturb us or his sister at all.

I have to admit I am quite looking forward to the teenage lie ins!!!

mishkanorman

thanks for the replies, especially the positive reward rather than negative, he has been asking for a roald dahl bookset like his teacher has so we will get him that and make each book a 'prize',

last night he went to bed at 8pm - the 3rd late night in a row - this morning was a 6am alarm call, me and OH talked about making bedtime a little later permanently and agreed that it will now be 7:30pm with lights out by 8pm,

I will re-read all your posts and try and remain positive it cant last !!

Tropez

Nicki wrote: »

How do you know he hasn't (or won't in the future) woken in the late evening before you have gone to bed, and tuned into some of the more adult cartoons out there though? I won't let my 11 year old watch things like Family Guy or South Park, much less at 5.

The majority of televisions sold within the past ten years have some form of parental control on them with the newer ones having advanced features such as being able to lock out all channels between set times of the day or being able to block auxiliary inputs such as SCART and HDMI. Service providers, such as BT Vision and Sky, have optional parental control features as part of their service, allowing parents to block content based on a BBFC-style advisory rating system, or simply block unrated content and in the case of Freeview, the vast majority of televisions sold with Freeview built-in, as well as Freeview STBs, allow for channels to completely hidden from the EPG - effectively allowing the user to restrict viewing to "acceptable" channels, thus removing Babestation from the prying eyes of their teenagers

However, failing all of that, a device as simple as a timed electrical adaptor can block a TV, or any other electrical device, from being switched on during certain times of the day with ease.

Depending on whether one were so inclined, it actually isn't that difficult to allow child access to a television set but ensure that access is sufficiently restricted.

GobbledyGook

My eldest wakes at 5.15am every day. I've no idea if there was a noise or something at that time when she was little because I've tried all sorts to change her wake-up time, but I've seen her go to bed at midnight after a family party and still be up at 5.15am.

She's not allowed out of her room until 6.30am. She can't tell the time, but we have a small lamp in the hall just outside her door that is on a timer plug - if the light is on she must stay in her room.

Each night I put a couple of books or a quiet toy into her room on my way to bed for her to play with in the morning. She has a TV/DVD (no aerial so no worries about tv programmes) that is also on a timer plug. She can watch a DVD from 6am onwards.

I've tried all sorts to change her wake up time, but tbh it was just making us all tired, stressed and miserable so I think the key is making the time he gets up work for you somehow. I definitely think that positive reinforcement probably works better in this kind of situation than taking something away.

FBaby

chelle, my 5 year old used to get up early and accessed the TV freely. Not all kids are attracted by what they are not allowed to do. My son is just the opposite, more likely to tell people that they need to be sensible than looking at doing things that could them in trouble! His getting up early got him to become an expert on Spanish football (the only sport available at that time!), which proved very helpful during the world cup!

My boy still tends to wake up early, but it is getting a bit better. I would also think that 7pm is quite early for a 7yo but I agree that getting him to bed later doesn't forceably mean he will wake up later in the morning.

clare1076

my ds is 6yo and sometimes wakes up between 5.30am and 6.30am and he gets up and goes down and watches tv or plays on the wii my dd whose 4yo i have to wake her up as she's sleep for england, lol. both my children go to bed between 7pm and 8pm they don't go straight to sleep they both have a tv that they can only watch dvd's on they watch a dvd and 9 times out 10 their asleep before the dvd finishes. if on the odd occasion they go to bed later than 8pm they don't watch a dvd and they usually fall asleep pretty quickly.

chelle230

thanks FBaby,
he is very sensible, just because they are young, doesn't mean they don't know right from wrong.
he does constantly tell us what not to do lol, but does begin to get a bit annoying when he thinks he knows how to drive!!!

I will continue to stick to what works for us, despite what other people think.

minerva_windsong

I agree with whoever suggested pushing his bedtime back - maybe to about half past seven, with the argument to the younger one that because he's older he gets to stay up later (if he doesn't already) - and rewards for staying in his room (not necessarily in bed) every night for a week. As a last resort I would use the baby gate technique.

Do they have a bedtime routine? What kind of electrical stimulation (telly, computer, games consoles etc) is in the room? Also, are you sure it's definitely him waking up the little one and not the other way round?

jinky67 wrote: »

My DS was always up at 6am, he used to go downstairs and watch the Open University programmes :rotfl:

I can remember doing that when I was little And one morning finding myself watching the Atlanta Olympics opening ceremony at about 5am!