Summer is almost over and mornings of sleeping in until 8 or 9 a.m. are gone and 6 a.m. comes really soon after bedtime. After having the bedtime embargo lifted for 3 months, these early mornings are brutal on little people. Figuring out how to get my girls out of bed with smiles on their faces versus the Oscar the Grouch face we’ve been seeing has been a work in progress.
After consulting with my girls and some exhaustive trial and error, we’ve come up with a few great ideas on how to get children up in the morning without tears or arguments (for you and them). They may even be excited about it!
And Best (fastest) dressed goes to… Set a timer and whoever gets themselves ready firsrt wins. That means teeth brushed, clothes on, and hair brushed the quickest … oh, and looks presentable … gets a small prize they get to pick after school or a special activity we’ll do together. My girls like playing Clue and Rock band.
The Good Morning Song. Since the girls were babies I have sung this little ditty that I made up on the fly. It goes a little something like this…Good Morning, Good Morning; It’s great to be alive, Good morning, good morning to you. Good morning (your kids name), It’s great to be your mommy. Good morning, Good Morning I love you! (Sang to the tune of Singing in the Rain, only minus the rain and add little kids.) My girls wake up with smiles whenever I sing this.
Embedded content: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uEnbtE53ww
Wake up with a dance party or tickle monster attack. If the good morning song doesn’t work, which is seldom, bust out with the boom box and pull those little kids out of bed and straight into a dance party. I have started setting their alarm clocks to our favorite radio station. We grab our flashlights ( because you never turn bright overhead lights onto a sleeping child unless you want to instantly transform them to the beforementioned Oscar the Grouch) and dance around the room like crazy people for 3 minutes. Be careful parents, the kids love it but you could break your grove thing. I have.
Send the dog in to lick the kids face. My girls love our dog so on Thursday mornings ( kids’ Monday for those of you who haven’t learned this yet) I sent Lola in. It’s sort of like when the bomb squad sends in the robot to diffuse the situation so they don’t get blown to bits. Same thing and they cannot resist dog slobber. It makes them happy.
First one up and ready gets to choose which cartoon to watch before school. My girls seldom get any kind of television in the mornings, so if we are having a particularly sluggish morning I am not above using 10 minutes of Lazy Town as an incentive. Reward system works people.
Throw robes in dryer to lure cold, sleepy kids out of bed. My little one particularly hates mornings and especially once it gets cold out. She will make 100 excuses as to why she has to stay in bed under the covers. It usually has something to do with freezing so on cold mornings, so I run their robes down to the dryer and bring them up hot. I tell them if they wait to get up the robes will get cold again and warm, cozy robes is a one shot deal. I don’t do re-warm ups.
Get up with a smile all week and the weekend will be awesome! I usually offer that they can sleep in on the weekend as late as they like or watch Netflix for 30 minutes before bed on Saturday nights or get a 9 p.m. bedtime Saturday night which is two hours later than their week night bedtime (never on Friday though, overtired kids are a bear on Friday nights).
Bottom line is that kids need their sleep and so do you. So a really great idea to get your kids to wake up happy is to simply make sure they get enough sleep; early to bed, early to rise. But these tricks will definitely help get some happy back into your morning wake up routine.
What is your best tip for waking up your children with smiles on their faces?
All Images & Video via The TRUTH about Motherhood
