Morning People We Are Not

I have never been a morning person. Ever. My mom and I have some horror stories we could tell about our mornings together growing up.... Mornings that involved her physically dragging me into the bathroom and closing the door (where I would turn the shower on and curl up on the bath mat to go to sleep again). Any roommate I have ever had can vouch for the fact I had an obsession with my snooze bar (sorry to those of you who had to live with that!). I STILL hate mornings. But now I have to worry about getting my own kids up and around in the morning. And it looks like my mom was right when she said, "One day you're going to have a child just like you!" It's the ultimate payback, I guess.

Chase is impossible to get up in the morning. When I have him during the week we have to leave the house by 7am, and it takes him at least 45 minutes to get ready. It's ridiculous. When I go in there at 6:15 to gently wake him up he yanks the covers up over his head and yells things like, "Leave me alone!" or "It's still dark outside!" or "I'm tired!" or "You're not my friend!" And then I spend the next 45 minutes yelling things like, "Chase, hurry up!" or "Brush your teeth!" or "Stop entertaining your sister and EAT!" or "Apparently you're going to go to daycare in your PJ's today.... Get your shoes on!"

So I decided the kid needed to be introduced to the alarm clock. I talked to him about how he's getting bigger, and grown-ups use an alarm clock in the morning, and isn't that cool? Ha. Anyway, he seemed to think it was cool so I put his clock radio on a loud country station and set it for 6:00, figuring it would give him some time to slowly wake up on his own. I set out his clothes and told him when he was ready in the morning to put them on.

The next morning I got out of the shower at 6:15 and thought, "OK... moment of truth!" I was looking forward to hearing that country music blaring, but when I walked out of the bathroom I heard nothing. Huh. That's weird. I walked down the hall toward his room and it was completely dark. I looked at the clock and saw that familiar blinking dot I know so well.

My 4-year-old found the snooze button.

I said, "Chase, what happened?" and he barked at me, "I turned it OFF, MOM!"

Now, I will say... things have gotten better. He no longer hits the snooze (after I explained he could just lay in bed and listen to the music for awhile), but he still doesn't get up on his own. I taught him how to read the clock, and he knows he has three jobs to do before 7:00, and must do them in this order: clothes, teeth, breakfast. He lives for breakfast, so it seems to be a good incentive to hurry up and get those other two things done so he can eat.

I'm trying to train him now so I don't have to drag him into the bathroom every morning like my mom had to. Ha! We'll see how that plan works out....