My son is 14 - geesh, 15 in 4 weeks - fairly independent young teen. He is pretty good about getting up in the morning using his alarm clock and starting his day. But he moves in slow motion. I have calculated that he wears an average of 7 items of clothing each day - pants, shirt, underwear, two sock and 2 shoes, sometimes a pullover. He gets up, gets breakfast, then goes to get dressed. Which translates into disappearing into his room for 20 minutes. Then it becomes a race against the clock with a sound track of my voice prompting him to hurry up. Ugh, this is daily. Oh, he always makes it - but days like today when he made it with 2 minutes to spare before the bus came, make me wonder.....
How long does it take to put on 7 items of clothing?
Just shaking my head over this. When I go check on him in his room, he is usually just sitting on his bed in his pajamas. Doing what, staring at his toes? LOL
Happy Day!!!
Ughh! My daughter does this too sooo frustrating. She also does the funniest thing she lays the outfit she is going to wear that day including her bra down on her bed in the shape of a person and then puts it on in that order. It takes her forever to get dressed and no matter how much or how little time she had she uses up every single minute.
it's not just you, my 9 year old daughter does the same time...I repeatedly have to ask the question "how long does it take to pee" or "how long does it take to put on a shirt and shorts" she just moves like a snail anyway. good luck, if you find a way to fix it let me know.
You have a teenager! Their brains don't work well in the mornings. Just ask them. If they function by noon things are going well. Unless there's something that interests the boy - then he's very good at getting up, right?
But he's old enough to take responsibility for himself even in a semi-awake state. You could change the routine so that he must be clean and dressed before he eats breakfast. Have him set his clock to (gasp!) an earlier time, and call him once, but leave it up to him otherwise. Refuse to prompt or nag. If he misses the bus... what? Does he walk to school? Pay for Mom's Taxi Service? He needs to do what the adults must do when they don't get themselves going.
If your son has a sense of humor, you could give him the National Toe-Staring Award for 2011. :^)
Sounds normal to me. Maybe encourage him to plan his outfits the night before.
sounds normal to me! That's how long it takes my 14yo to get dressed! So btwn the shower, breakfast, dog duty, & getting dressed....it's almost an hour. He's been walking to school these past 3 years, next year he'll be back on the bus & I know it'll be an issue!
It takes time to do all that. My daughter can take an hour to get her clothes on--especially for some reason when we need to go somewhere on the weekend. See, pick up shirt-at least 10 minutes because she puts it down 3 or 4 times. Then putting on pants takes another 15--and 5 minutes to zip them up. And don;t even get me started how long it takes just to slip on her shoes. :) She has been getting faster and I am hoping that when she is an adult, she will have it down to maybe 40 minutes.
Oh, forgot to mention about forgetting where she put her shirt when she put it down again. Under her pants that she is sitting on.
Just to add, it does NOT matter if things are planned out the night before. It takes forever to get dressed. I have even "left" her behind.
Sounds like a typical teenager :)
My middle sister used to do the same thing. And she was a total "night owl" - still is. Her brain literally does not wake up until about 10:00 am (even though her body is moving around LOL). It used to drive my very prompt mom crazy.
As long as he makes it every day I would not worry.
I would also make sure he is getting enough sleep.
That is so funny - my son who is 12 is very much the same way. Sounds liek he's just not a morning person. He needs some time to space out and stare off into space. My son goes into the bathroom and sits on the throne for 10+ minutes...
Think of it this way - most adults take a hot shower in the morning to get prepared for the day - it's not jsut to wash off the "sleep dirt" it's to wake up.
BTW - he's probably also inspecting his body - checking out armpit hairs and other stuff - looking to see what's going on with the rest of his body, wondering when his facial and chest hair will begin, etc.
My sister did this ..she went to his room and change the alarm clock one hour earlier...so she did exactly the same of everyday with the difference of not screaming or hurrying him....so when he was ready " and thinking he lost the bus.....they were minutes earlier ...he didn't like the idea of loosing one hour of sleep...so he start getting ready more faster ..my sister still have a hard time with him but now she will says " ok , time to change the alarm clock ..that's mean going to bed one hour earlier too...and he improves for a couple of days at least.
