Soon after turning 3, Hattie fell into a pattern of waking up at the crack of dawn and screaming and screeching from her room, which would cause her mommy and daddy to wake up very grumpy. Her loud antics at 6 a.m. also started to occasionally wake up her sister, which made sister and mommy hysterical!
I tried everything. Punishing her each morning she did this, trying to bargain with her what she would receive if she didn't wake up so loudly. Regardless of what I did or did not do, she remained our unpleasant alarm clock at 5:30 or 6 a.m. almost every morning. After months of this, I wanted to pull my hair out!
Finally, after many grumpy mornings, it dawned on me to put an alarm clock in her room {duh!}. I tried to teach her to read the time, but the blank look on her face made it pretty clear that she wasn't ready for that, so I decided to just set it for 7 a.m. and instructed her that this object would let her know when it was morning and that it was a BIG GIRL thing to have and use. She lit up with enthusiasm. I practiced with her on how to turn it off in the morning. She learned that quickly. We were ready to try it out!
The first morning, we heard nothing until Christmas music blared from her room at 7 a.m. - clock radio set to Sunny 99.1 in December - and she came running out of her room squealing, I did it! Praise, of course, followed.
It has worked like a charm every morning since. Since December is over, we now wake up to Mexican music, Hattie's choice, instead of her screaming unbearable loudness to get out of bed. Instead of grumbles with my morning coffee, I now want a breakfast burrito :).
I just want to say, thank you, Mr. James F. Reynolds, for inventing the radio alarm clock. You have made my mornings more delightful indeed :)!
And I know that so many preschoolers go through early morning wake-ups, so if yours is in the midst of this lovely phase, and you're about to pull your hair out, this little tip is for YOU :)!
4 comments:
Here's a fun tidbit- my mom started having Allison and me wake up to an alarm when we were 3 as well. And to this day, I wake up immediately when my alarm goes off... I have never once pushed the snooze button. So MAYBE Hattie will embrace this concept and love it forever like I did? :)
Oh, interesting indeed! Y'all must have been early risers, too ;).
Hattie will have me to thank for her promptness, I guess. I'm the same way. Have never hit a snooze button in my life.
note to self, reread this post when i have a 3 yr old :)
Wonderful idea! I used to never hit the snooze button, then I married Bryan and he rubbed off on me. ;)
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