How to Sleep When You Have Small Children
Earlier this week, I offered some tips on how to wake up kids who are, uh, not matinees . As expected, I have heard from many of you who, like me, have the opposite problem: children who are not only awake but also fully energized for the day ahead. In the godless morning hours.
Just because they are matinees does not mean that for the foreseeable future, we want to get up every day at 5:30 in the morning. So how do you sleep when you have small children?
Take turns with your partner
Okay, my real advice is to marry an early riser. This is what I did and I highly recommend it. Not only does my husband wake up around the same time as my son, he really gets restless even if he tries to sleep. I usually suggest getting up and putting the frozen waffles in the toaster, but his answer is always the same: “No, I’m not sleeping anyway; go and sleep. I’m not trying to brag here, but seriously, it’s great.
If this was not one of your partner qualifications, then do the following and take turns at least on weekends (or whenever your schedule permits). In fact, you have to decide who gets to sleep on the weekends at the start of the week so you have something to wait for when your cute baby bursts through your bedroom door day after day, long before the real “morning” comes.
Get them a glowing alarm clock
The peculiarity of children is that by the time they can tell the time, they are probably old enough to walk in the morning without you. This is why the lighted alarm clock is the most recommended tool for parents who get up early. You can set it up so that it lights up when they can leave their rooms. No light? No exit.
We had one ( actually this one ) and have been using it with my son for about two years. To be honest, at times this damn thing was more annoying than it was worth, because every 5-10 minutes he left his room and asked: “How many minutes before the green light turns on? “I say “ almost annoying for more than it is worth, ”because it was even better than nothing. It was an idea he could understand, even if it drove him – and therefore us – crazy that he didn’t know exactly when he was going to be released.
Let your kids live in the same room
Yes, one child will inevitably wake the other up when you don’t want to. But they can also entertain each other. One parent I asked said that her oldest daughter, who is 4 years old, crawls into her 2-year-old daughter’s crib in the morning and they hug and hang out together. This gives her an extra 20 minutes of rest before the nagging starts, and 20 minutes can be critical.
Store cereal wherever they can get it
When they’re old enough to leave their rooms on their own for a little while without you, store the cereal where they can get it, along with a small jug of milk on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. They will feel like big kids taking care of themselves and you will get a little more rest.
If all else fails
As usual, the parents on our Offspring Parenting Facebook group have a few, well, unconventional ideas, if nothing else worked for you:
- “Teach your elders to play cartoons,” says Stephanie. “And put the donut box on the counter within reach of the kids.”
- “When I get up, I tell them we’re going to start deep cleaning the house,” says Christina, who is also strong enough to save the kids only TV time on Saturday morning to buy herself a few precious hours.
- Teach them basic life skills, like Carrie, who says, “My older sister knows how to ‘cook breakfast’ and serve peanut butter spoons to anyone who is hungry.”
- And I’m sure you’ve thought about it already, but just in case, Autumn says, “I give my 4-year-old daughter a snack and her Kindle, and that gives me an hour or two.”