When Your Kids 3 and over Wake up Before You Do

My daughter slept with me and I got up when she did. I guess I'm not one for sleeping in, and she wasn't that earlier of a riser. Her bedtime was about 8:30- 9:00 from the start. I was often awake before she was. So, it wasn't an issue.

If it had been, I would totally have put out cereal and milk like others have said, and used the TV for a bit. (The world isn't strewn with 3 or 4 year-olds who have choked to death on cereal, or drowned themselves in the toilet, while their parents were half-asleep in the next room...)

Yes they get up early. We do not watch them. They know the rules.

The 2, 3 5 and 6 YO get up before us and they know to NOT wake us but play quietly downstairs. If the baby is up, though, then I'm up.

Pretty much my kids would watch cartoons quietly and make either cereal or pop tarts. Then they waited until we got up. They may be up that early but they were still half asleep and not capable of mischief.
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Oh my god, after reading Gamma's response. Okay, if you have a child prone to choking then yeah, don't leave them alone eating.

The rest of us that let our kids eat without us hovering seem to be doing okay. All four of my kids are still alive and they eat without me life guarding since they were about one.

Okay really, you got a kid choking that much and you never looked into the cause?

I'm with Flaming Turnip on this one. Pop Tart or dry cereal and a drink, and turn on the tv. Buys you 20 minutes to an hour, depending on the show you choose. Totally worth it!

When my kids were three they would get up and watch tv until I got up. I made sure that it was on the Treehouse channel before I went to bed at night, so they just had to turn it on. I would leave a container of Cheerios out and a sippy cup with milk in the fridge.

ETA: I would worry about a toddler perhaps choking on a Cheerio or drowning in the toilet, but not a three year old! I expected my kids to use the washroom independently as soon as they were capable!

Mine climb into my bed and I turn on Disney Jr for them. It only takes one show before I wake up myself. I mostly wake up before them on non-work days anyway, but sometimes I like to stay in bed with a book so they just join me. Occasionally when they wake up at the same time I hear them talking and playing in their room. They generally don't go downstairs without mom or dad. The 6 y/o is obviously a lot more independent than the 3 y/o.

I had a gate up in their doorway or at the end of the hallway. The kids did NOT have free run of the house for any reason. I had a baby monitor on the shelf in the hallway so I could hear them at any time.

I did have doorknob protectors on the bathroom doorway in that hallway so there was no access to it. Kids can drown in the toilet or tub and even the sink. So they didn't have any free access to the bathroom until much older.

Kids can choke to death and they don't make a sound when they do. Please don't leave any food in her reach while you are not in direct line of sight with her. There is no way I'd want to wake up or turn around and find a child choked to death. They can also choke on a toy. It's not worth the risk.

I had to turn my grandson upside down way too many times to ever let the kids eat anywhere except at the table during meal time. I worked child care a lot of years and I know kids choke even when they take tiny bites normally.

If you don't like her waking up so much earlier you might consider her bedtime. She has had the 3 year old growth spurt? Where they look more like a pre-schooler instead of a toddler? Then she needs a lot less sleep than she did a few months ago.

She may only need 9 hours at night now. So if she's waking up at 6 then she needs to go to bed at 9pm or a bit later so she'll sleep more in the morning.

My grand kids got up between 7:30 and 8 on most days. They had a busy morning and then lunch. They went down for a nap at noon. They would usually sleep until 3:45 or 4 when they were much younger. As they got older they would wake up more like 2:30.

They'd often do a nap in the early evening. Around 5:30 or 6 they'd do a power nap for about 30 minutes or an hour. They'd always go down to bed around 9pm without a fight. Once they got around 12-14 months they wouldn't do that evening nap anymore.

So all together at 3 they were sleeping from around 9pm to 7:30 or 8 every day. Plus they still took at least a 2 hour nap at noon.

That's 12 or more hours of sleep for a 3 year old. They don't need that much.

So, you don't say what time she goes to bed but if you are putting her down before she needs to go down then you are the only one that can solve this problem.

If you're putting her to bed too early then you're going to have to get up too early. Having time to yourself in the evening isn't worth it to me. I enjoyed the kids and had fun with them after dinner.

My time was better spent getting the sleep I needed. I didn't want to get up at 5am. I kept the kids up until 8:30 or so then we started baths and jammie time. They always went down fine and slept through the night.

Hi,

I want to say that I totally get your concern. My son is 3 years old and he has always been our morning alarm on weekends and not he does not entertain himself. We have done the same as you, move to the couch and encourage him to play by himself but he hasn't been willing until recently, a little before turning 3. We are gradually moving into more independent mornings. We have a space in the pantry where he can get snacks and cereal and given him the task to go in and take something for himself and eat a lil snack before actual breakfast. This has work for us, although there is some mess to clean afterwards, I see he feels in control and happy and we can take a little time to decide to be finally up. Hope this is of some help.

We used to take turns. They'd come into our bed and watch tv for less than an hour. One parents would stay and snooze. The other went to another bed and really slept. Some tv on weekends isn't going to hurt them. It wasn't all morning...

My kids are fine at 3 to go downstairs and turn on the tv until we get up. Now that I also have a 7 year old, he usually takes care of making the all breakfast. Now, when my 2 year old gets up, one of us gets up with him.

oh yes. set up a safe space for her in which to play quietly. my kids were generally good to go for about an hour or so before they were done and needed mom.
khairete
S.

I usually fix my DD something easy to eat (microwave oatmeal, cold cereal, fruit, etc.) and have her eat it in my room. She has a little table and chair, and I set my TV to PBS. When she is done eating, she pushes the power button on the TV and watches that until I wake up all the way. (I am a very light sleeper, so I don't fall all the way back to sleep... Just doze for another 30-40 minutes.

If she wakes up over an hour earlier than usual, she is usually willing to fall back asleep snuggled in my bed. :)

I know several parents put a clock in the kids room, and teach them that they play in there room until the clock shows a certain time, or set an alarm and kid can come out when it goes off.

Our daughter used to stay in her bed looking at books or playing quietly. Once she was 3 at one point we put a small TV in her room so she could look at videos. It was not attached to cable, so no "channels" could be seen on there.

Then we worked up to allowing her to get a snack from the fridge or from a certain shelf in the kitchen and watch her videos on the "big" TV.

We never had a problem with her waking us up.

My kids sleep in (unless they're in school) so I'm almost always up before them. If not, they wake me up when they get up. I've never been able to sleep once they're up.

I put a digital clock in the bedroom and put making tape over the minutes. Then I taped a 7 above the clock. I told them, "When the clock says 7, you can get up. If the clock doesn't say 7, you need to go back to sleep."
I let them keep books and soft toys at the end of their beds so that if they couldn't sleep, they could read or play quietly. It worked quite well.

Until she was 4 I would get up, get her Cheerios and a sippy of water, and she would come into my bed and watch a movie while I dozed a bit more. TV, I know.... Gasp. But I'm a single mom and had usually been up later getting stuff done, so getting up at 6 or 7 was not an option. It worked for us and she didn't watch too much TV other times.

But that's if she was getting up at like 7. Any earlier than that and I would have made her stay in her room.

Try pushing back bedtime a bit and see if that helps.

My friends son was "trained" to go potty, get a book or 2 and get RIGHT BACK IN HIS OWN BED til one of his parents got up. That worked for them.

I would do my best to push back his bedtime a bit.
Sounds like he is getting enough rest for the night.
Try at least an hour later to start.

My daughter had a baby gate at her door when she was around that age, it was secure and though she could climb it, it made noise so I heard her and would get up. When she got older we just leaned it against the door (mostly to keep the cats from pawing at the door and waking her), that made noise too when moved. Now, she's 6 and much trustworthy not to get into things that can hurt her.

When my oldest was 3, we were up with her. Either taking turns or both up. 7 isn't too early for everyone to be moving anyways. But the time the youngest was 3, the other two were 5 and 7...so they would help him get a pop-tart or something and they would play. However, the days of the week we normally get to sleep in past 730 ranges from 0-2. So it's normally a non-issue for us.

All my kids have gotten up before us and I have always had to get up with them. I don't leave them alone (while I am upstairs sleeping) in the house till they are 5. Right now I will take a nap on the couch with them up. They are 4, 6, 9. I do usually wake up to some dumb mess.

I wasn't ok with my kids waking up on their own until more like 5. At 3 I either got up and vowed to get to bed earlier myself, or snuggled them in bed with me as long as I could.

I'm really not thinking it is super safe for a 3 yo to be roaming, nor do I think starting the day off with tv because "I" was tired was the best thing.

adjust nap and bed times.

I let them have Wii time until I get up.