"I didn't not wake up, I woke up, turned off my alarm and went back to sleep". This is the explanation that I get at least once a week. They honestly think that some how turning off the alarm counts as getting up on time.
The high schooler has to get up insanely early. He is up at 5:00 or 5:30 depending on what he wants to do in the morning. The bus comes at ~6:25 am. When my husband was here he was his alarm clock. He would wake him up, cook him breakfast. Jon loved that, he felt so loved and cared for by Jim. Jon really misses his morning eggs and daddy love. Even at 16 you can't get too much of that. So now that Jim is gone he has to do it himself, drag his butt out of bed and make his own breakfast. He has figured out that he doesn't get up to one alarm. He has to have two, one next to the bed and another that is across the room. He has to actually get out of bed to turn it off. That does the trick most days (but not all).
The middle schooler. He has always been an early riser but heaven almighty the beginnings of puberty seem to have made him sleepy. All that growing going on or something. He is the one lately that just doesn't get up. He is so lucky because his friend comes every morning to stow his bike in the garage and wait at the bus with him. Jeff is quick getting up when his friend knocks on the door. Jeff eats his bowl of instant oatmeal, throws on some clean but wrinkled clothes, makes his own lunch and is out the door. He likes to get up early so he can watch cartoons. Being 13, right in the middle of man and boy.
I wake up in the morning and try to wake them but that measure is not well received. Something about mom waking you is bad?! So I lay in my bed and listen. I listen to hear Jon get up and take a shower. I listen to hear Jeff's music. When I don't hear it when I think I should hear it, I do pound on their bedroom door but that goes over like a lead balloon. Better to let the non human alarm clock do the dirty work. With Jeff if I tell him his friend is at the door he will then bound out of bed and get ready. So with him that is my current tactic.
They both have missed the bus before. It happens, it comes early or whatever. I understand, mostly. I drive them to school and make them do a chore when they get home. I also make them go to bed earlier. The target bedtime is 10 pm. Which is fine as long as they get up on time, they don't, I bug them until they submit to going to bed earlier. Making a teen actually do anything they refuse to do is mute. Better to make it easier for them to do it than not.
Oh, last week Jeff's bus didn't come. Just not at all. I ended up driving him to school myself. He was a bit disappointed when he found out that if the bus doesn't come you get an excused absence. So he went and he didn't need to. To me he said he was glad he did but I know ;)
So if you have younger children invest in alarm clocks and teach them to wake up to one. You might want to put it on the otherside of the room ;)
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3 comments:
I hate my alarm clock. It is the object in my house that I despise more than any other. The idea that I would have two to keep up with is enough to make my head spin because we both know that I will end up walking down to turn her alarm clock off because she will forget how to make it be quiet. :) My poor technologically deficient child.
What about when the kids just sleep through them as they go beep, beep, beep. Argh... drives me nuts.
Cindy, small girls don't have the swinging range or strength of teen boys. Safety first!
Alexis, mine is even worse that beep, mine is a chicken that gets progressively louder. No one could sleep through that!
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