Those of us with kids have either been there done that, are going through it or will go through it..... the mutiny of teenagerhood. LOL .... So I thought about creating a thread to give *hints*, suggestions or personal experiences on how to deal with certain situations. I will start it off ........ Short of throwing ice cold water on a teenager how in the hell do you get them to wake up in the morning without having to threaten their lives? Any suggestions??
"When a child turns twelve, he should be kept in a barrel, and fed through the bung hole, until he reaches sixteen...at which time you plug the bung hole." Mark Twain
I suggest the ice water. seriously. I started in 2nd grade with their own alarm clocks. To this day, they get up on their own, make beds, get dressed and come down for breakfast by 6. and just so you know, that's all I have good to say about my two 14 yr. olds at this point. I am currently shopping on CraigsList, trying to find two barrels that they will fit in.
I walk in, turn on the light, open the shades and turn on the radio alarm clock with volume just below loudest setting. I find they go around behind me trying to undo everything so at least they are moving around. The next trick is to keep them from ending back up under the covers especially in this weather!
Step one- Buy lots of wine. Step two- Drink lots of wine. Step three- What was the question? Seriously, Mini Me had the HARDEST time getting up, she has two alarm clocks, and then when I get up, I go open her door to make sure she's up. The consequence of being late to school has been enough to motivate her to move in the morning. She's a freshman, a girl, and wants her social time, so when she's late, she misses it. But it might be different for a boy....
:iagree: And it is my understanding that they act like this until around 26 years of age, Red. I gave mine lots of responsibility and then pulled it from her if she acted like an idiot. She's 18 and thinks she's grown.....right!!!!! Sherry
:cheers: I've gotten him up 30 minutes earlier, taken the comforter off of him into the hallway, tossed a cat on the bed with him, yelled, threatened bodily harm, water gun/spray bottle, whatever works, not that it works half the time, 5:30 is really early to get up no matter how old you are!
I dont' have a teenager (yet) but my son is almost 11 and sleeps like a rock. Seriously. I used COLD water for a long time, and this past school year bought him an alarm clock. There's been morings it's gone off for 20 minutes, and when I go in to check on him, he's still sound asleep. I'm not even joking or exagerating! So now I'm just back to the cold water. If he's faking it, he'll jump when he "feels" my hand over his head with the water. If he's really sleeping, then it wakes him up. And this time of year the cold water REALLY is not fun!!! Don't know what I'll do next year when he goes to middle school even earlier...
I guess I'm lucky, my daughter is 10 and always has been a early riser no matter what time she goes to bed, so she has a very tight bed time at 9pm and she gives me no grief about it either. She is up before I am in the morning if I don't have to open at work. She also gets her own breakfast. Yep been doing that now for a couple of years, now I don't know what is going to happen next year with middle school, but she wants a alarm clock now. She doesn't need it though. She could have slept in this past sunday and she was still up early lol. She just doesn't know how to sleep in.
Mine was and still is that way. She gets up early 7 days a week and is a morning person. I, on the other hand, am not a morning person so it's good one person is in our small family. She has always gone to bed at a decent hour and been up early the next morning. She was taught that throughout her life. I go to bed between 9 and 10 pm every night unless it is one of those non-sleep nights, due to age. Now her jobs at college require her to be up early every morning. Sherry
Make sure you place the alarm clock away from the bed where they have to actually get up and and walk across the room to turn it off/snooze it. Another thing I do (and probably why we don't have problems getting up even with year round sports) is an early bedtime. As kids get older, some parents tend to let them stay up later - but studies have shown the older kids get the more sleep they need, hormones, growth spurts, brain formation, etc. Don't tell his friends, but my 16Y0 goes to bed at 9:30. Some nights he goes to bed even earlier on his own because he is exhausted. If he is not in bed by his bedtime, then he goes to bed that much earlier the night before, if he did get up late and miss the bus - he goes to bed earlier the next night. I also don't let him stay up super late and sleep in on the weekends, as I feel that interferes with his sleep schedule.