Monday, November 21, 2011

Here we go again.

From November 2011
What's this weird "6:00" on the wall? 

I'm glad you asked. 

It's our last-ditch, desperate effort to keep our children from dragging us from our bed at 4:30 am. I'm not kidding. No, I am not. 

We went and bought clocks for the children. We spent Family Home Evening discussion what a "6" looks like on the clock. And explaining that if they manage to keep it quiet until 6:00am, they earn a cotton ball each. When the jar is full of cotton balls, they win a prize. 

If they fail (oh they shall fail most spectacularly says the rare pessimist in me) they lose a cotton ball. 

We are desperate. 

And exhausted. 

And hating Daylight Savings Time so much that it makes me want to vomit. 

Try to understand: we are begging/bribing our children to stay in bed until SIX O CLOCK IN THE MORNING. This is very very pathetic. 

I'll keep ya posted. 

9 comments:

Brian and Kelsey said...

Sounds like a good idea. What if you talked about what they can do in their room or bed quietly if its not six? Like have a "morning" play kit that they only can use in the morning and thats it. so its a special thing. Remember when we used to get games together on Christmas Evek? If every month or so you changed what was in there and made a big deal about it, theyd stay interested.

Morgan Hagey said...

Good idea. They each have a bunch of books, but maybe tonight I'll slip some toys in their rooms too.

Erin said...

A good plan. I'm sure they will catch on eventually; probably pretty quickly! If they aren't caring too much about cotton balls (long range thinking is hard for little people. And lots of big people for that matter) it may also help to have an immediate reward and consequence (in addition to gaining and/or losing a cotton ball) like, if they get out of their rooms they lose a regular activity or favorite toy for the day (or a portion thereof). Staying in their rooms can mean getting to choose what's for breakfast or something. Anyway, good luck! Happy sleeping!

Stacy said...

This is heartbreaking. And a little funny at the same time.

Jen said...

I hope it works! I've done a box like Kelsey suggested before--it worked pretty well. Hope you get some more sleep!!

heather said...

I've honestly considered doing the SAME thing... only my babe is still too young, but as SOON as he's old enough to recognize a 6....

BloggingBills said...

Another option is to put food easily accessible: like a snack in their room that they can get to and eat, but not one that will goop up the place (dry cereal?).

Or teach them how to work the remote/DVD player and pre-load it with a show... Headphones for each kid so that they can listen in quiet (splitters needed: cheap from Radio Shack).

Lisa S said...

I'm thinking you've tried putting them to bed a little later than usual?

Morgan Hagey said...

Lisa S- yes, we've tried that. No dice. Spencer in particular is a morning person with an obnoxiously accurate internal clock. The boy will wake up before six no matter what time he goes to bed. It's nutty.

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