Waking a Child for School

I have a friend that has a teen that is hard to wake up. If her daughter doesn't wake up when asked she uses a spray bottle of water and mists water in her face. Her daughter hates it now so usually gets up before she has to get the spray bottle.

My 8 yr old will sleep through any alarm clock so he won't wake up on his own and he doesn't hear me when I tell him to get up, but if I nudge him or roll him over he will sit right up and get out of bed and get himself ready on his own.

What worked for mine (10,11,13) is when they couldn't get up I told them they had to go to bed 30 minutes earlier in the evening for a week. Then told them if that didn't work it would be 30 minutes earlier than that, and so on. We only had to do the 1st 30 minutes and they are back to their normal time now and they hop right out of bed!! :)

This may sound weird, but my Mom did it to me and I did it to my kids to get them up. Whatever they drink with breakfast, fill a glass up pretty full with it, wake them up and even though they're extremely groggy, put the glass in their hands. If they don't sit up and drink it, they spill it on themselves and it always worked for us!

I have a 10 year old daughter that also enjoys her sleep. I have always had a difficult time waking her for school. I base her bedtime on her ability to wake up for school. If she wants to stay up later she has to wake up and get herself moving. I have to be pretty extreme at times by turning on loud music, turning the lights on, I have even had to resort to using water a couple of times, but it is usually done in fun rather than me yelling at her.

I have a 13 YO and have had the same problem. What seemed to would for him was to give him his own alarm clock with a really annoying alarm buzz and put it on the other side of the room so he has to get up to turn it off.

Try making him go to bed earlier in the evening. Let him know that it's because he won't get up when he's told. Start upping it by an hour, and tell him that if he can start getting up in a timely manor you'll extend it a little (by half an hour). If that dosen't work try turning the light on, opening his window coverings, and plopping a cold, wet wash cloth on his face a minute or two after you tell him to get up. That'll wake him up, and chances are he won't like it very well, and knowing that it's coming if he dosen't get up quickly might just make him move his butt to get up, so he won't keep getting the rude version of good morning!!!!!!!

M.,

I can't believe I'm going to write this. When I was little, my dad would sing to us to get us out of bed and if that didn't work, he would twist our big toe. Where the big toe goes, the body follows! I'm not sure this is a good suggestion, but maybe it will put a smile on your face!

Theresa

I would make him start going to bed earlier. You're right, the kids do need their sleep, and most kids stay up far too late. Tell your son that since it is so hard for him in the morning, he obviously needs to go to bed earlier. It also helps to have everything ready the night before.

get to bed at a decent time if your 12 yr old is going to bed late after 10 or later at nite that's not enough sleep try for 9 no later

I have no idea if this will help but I remember when I was a teenager, my dad would wake us up by singing. He's a terrible singer, so we'd sluggishly get up to get him to stop. He'd pull out his harmonica too (which he also didn't know how to play, except for 1 song) and sing tones from his childhood. He'd laugh at us as we'd give him the evil eye and go back to his harmonica if we fell back asleep. Sometimes he'd walk into our rooms and play right into our sleeping faces. My mom would be yelling at us in the background, but really, it was the signing & harmonica noise that got us moving.

My son was like that. I tryed EVERYTHING. But nothing worked. I even pulled him out of the bed after the 14 times I called him. So, I got into tuff love. And it worked after the first time.
This is what I did. I called him to get up after his alarm went off. He did not get up so I said out loud at his door "Well I guess I will have to try something new and you are telling me with your actions that you want me to do this." Off I went to the kitchen and got a small glass of water...cold. I headed right to his room and gave him a soaking wet wake up call. It worked. After that I did have to act like I was going to get the water again twice but I never had to through it at him again. Once was enough! I told him for every action their is a reaction and you will not like mine. This was a saying that worked with pick up your room and get dressed and everything after that.

good morning M., i may have been this same kid! the thing that helped me was that mt caregiver would bring a glass of orange juice into my room, make me drink it and talk to me while i did. mostly i just could,t wake up. i remember that i wanted to wake up, terribly. i just couldn't. it was like i died, every night and in the morn i had to resurrect myself. i'm telling you this in case you are having a hard time understanding why your boy doesn't " just get up" i remember people saying that and thinking... yeah it sound easy, doesn't it?? i will tell you i grew out of this but it took a very long time. i wonder if it has to do with growing patterns. good luck...

Make sure he is in bed earlier that what he is now. Get a LOUD alarm that sets across the room. If he has to get up to shut it off, opposed to right next to the bed, he is starting the wake up mode.
L.

I've had issue with my now 13yo son as well. I would say get him an alarm clock. Let him be in control of getting up with that, letting him know what time to set it. Or you could tell him that you will call him once verbally, and the second time will be of the following. If he isn't up by say 5-10 min past the time he heard the alarm or your call, then find the most disturbing sound one can not tune out, and let him know that you will use it. I would recommend an annoying bell or 2 pot tops or banging the wall, whatever annoys him the most. He will usually choose to get up on his own.

I know this is hard to do because with my 4 year old it is tough, but kids need longer than 8 hours of sleep for their growing bodies so is there a bedtime curfew that he has? Maybe setting his curfew at 9 o'clock maybe even 8 o'clock on school nights would ensure he gets the rest he needs for his body and his mind. I read an article in Reader's Digest a few months ago (wish I knew which issue it was) that said studies have shown that kids don't get enough sleep during the night so they tend to fall asleep in school or they tend not to absorbed the information from school.

By the time I get home from work it's past 6pm then we have dinner as a family, unwind afterwards and before we know it it's time to get Kalani ready for bed. I've now had a total of almost 2 hours with my son (sigh). I love weekends just as much as he does. I can relax more in the evenings and don't have to argue with bedtime.

My mom always sand to us her 'Good Morning' song. I have to admit the reason it got us up was because it was so annoying first thing that we'd get up just to stop the insanity. lol. It goes..."Good Morning, Good Morning, It's time to say good morning. Good Morning, Good Morning to you. It's time to wake up, sleepy head, time to get up out of bed, It's time to say Good Morning to me." She would just repeat this until we were up on moving. I highly recommend it, I use it on my kids now and they're up and at 'em in no time. I also don't let my kids have any caffeine except the occasional piece of chocolate and their bed time is set in stone so I'm sure they get plenty of rest. Hope this helps.

I also have a 12 year old son and mornings are not fun. I have found the best way is to let them be woken up on their own by an alarm clock-let them choose the station(somewhat). Mine does so much better when he wakes up on his own and is responsible for himself. The less we do with him in the morning seems to work better-making him answer to himself.Hope it may help. K.

At his age, your son needs 9 3/4 to 10 hours of sleep a night. My guess is he isn't going to bed early enough. As hard as it is to make older kids go to bed early (been through it myself), that's likely the only way you'll succeed at getting him up in time to go to school everyday. -K.

My 9yr old has an alarm clock and is 99% with waking up on his own. Very rarely does he not get up. Same with my 7yr old girl. Her brother actually wakes her up, but just has to tell her once. Leave him no other choice but to get up when that alarm goes off. If he sleeps in and misses the bus make him spend the entire day in his room cleaning out drawers, closet, under the bed etc. I only had to do that one time with my child and it worked wonderfully. They hate cleaning. Make sure he is in bed at a reasonable time and no caffeine to keep him awake and make him tired in the morning. It worked with my oldest two also! Good luck and be consistent most importantly. If you don't teach him this responsibility now it will be much harder for him for high school and when he gets a job.
J.

I was also the same way as a kid (and still am)! My dad always found that threating me with a glass of water being dumped on me worked! Sometimes I actually got that glass of water dumped on me as well, an boy I got up!! Always a last resort I supopse ; ) Good Luck!

Have you tried his own alarm clock? I put my son's accross the room so he had to get out of bed to turn it off.

I set the alarm clock give my son about 5 min's to respond to it himself. Then if he doesn't then I go in leave it on and gently rock him saying his name and that it's time to get up, until he wakes and gets up. Then I turn off the alarm clock and just pay attention to be sure that he doesn't fall back asleep.

I don't know if this will help or not, but my 6 yr old has started having troubles waking up. Here's what I've started to do to wake him.

I start off singing (not a great singer, just pretending I am.) a soft song. Any made up song about waking up. Then I change the music style keeping the same words. If that doesn't work, I grab his horse pillow and pretend the horse is pooping on him or farting. Sorry to be so gross but that usually wakes him up. He then tries to make the horse do the same to me. We get to laughing and next thing you know he's awake. If that doesn't work, the "tickle bug" comes out and gently tickles him. Most times he starts to laugh before I can even tickle him.

I guess the moral of the story is to try waking him with something that makes him laugh. Who wants to wake up to loud annoying noises or grouchy nagging?? I don't.

Give it a try and see what happens.

Best Wishes,

J. H.

Hi M., the best thing that I have found is that in my family we all have to wake up very slowly. If I have to be out of bed and moving (starting to get ready for work) by 5:30, then I will set my alarm for 4:30 and 5:00. Once 5:00 comes around I can hit the snooze button two or three times. I know it sounds crazy, but by doing that i can finally wake up to the world in a much better way. I was raised like that and that is how i raised our son. I know i have to wake up three or four time but it makes morning time MUCH better around my house. I've even converted my husband to it now!! LOL!! He used to make fun of me for having what he would call "pretend time". Now he's not laughing anymore. I've change him over to my method now! Anyway that's the best advice that i can give. So far that usually works 95% of the time. You will always have a few morning when no one wants to get up. But that's apart of being a "responsiable person". Some days I wish I wasen't! LOL!! Anyway, good luck!!

It depends on how desperate you are and how hard he is to wake up.

I go into my daughter's room every morning to wake her up. She rarely actually gets moving the first time. However, she (almost) always gets up when she hears my shoes hit the hardwood floor outside her room - guess she knows that sound means that she only has about 15 minutes to get dressed.

However, if he's more difficult to wake up, you can do like the mom of one of my highschool friends who used to keep marbles in the freezer. In the mornings she would wake her son up nicely one time. The second time, she would take the marbles out of the freezer and dump them in his bed - the cold marbles hitting his skin woke him up every time (they always rolled toward him because of the indention he made in the mattress).

C.

I have an 11 year old daughter and have the same problem. I do find that when I take the time to sit and talk her awake, then she's a little easier to get up. But when I'm rushed to get myself ready I don't always feel I have the time, but then I'm wasting more time running back into her room every 5 minutes to holler at her to get up.

I like the idea that another mother gave with bringing some orange juice in and talking to her. I've been getting very frustrated lately too and realize I just need to take a little more time with her in the mornings.

Good luck

I usually set my daughter's alarm clock a few minutes earlier than she needs to get up so if she takes a little extra time getting up it is ok. I do have a back-up though........I have a small squirt bottle of water that I keep in the refrigerator. I have only had to use it a couple of times, but it does do the trick of a quick up-rising out the bed. She pouts and moans for a few minutes on how mean I am, but gets over it soon. I think it is the age too. My daughter still goes to bed at 8:30 (and she is 11 and in 6th grade) b/c she is just one of those kids that needs more than 8 hours. Good luck.

I have a 15-year-old with the same issues. Recently, I began taking a long metal spoon and knocking on his door. Not a nice tactic, but it is effective!!!

A friend of mine uses a water gun on her son.