If you’re amongst the many parents struggling to get kids out of bed on these dark mornings, don’t despair. The post-Christmas slump is something you can get over, in partnership with your nanny, if you apply a few simple ideas. The first thing to remember is that lack of sleep is one of the major causes of difficulty on waking. Many authorities believe our children are chronically sleep-deprived.
Count-back with your kids
One of the biggest ways of getting buy-in to a decent night’s sleep is to do the count-back from getting to school in partnership with your children. It’s so easy to decide on a bedtime and impose it without making clear why or offering any clarity. Sitting down with even little children and showing them what time they need to go to bed to get enough sleep before they wake up. This can make a huge difference to their understanding that they are cooperating with you. Not fighting against you! If you need to be at school at 08.30 and that means leaving the house at 08.10 which means breakfast at 07.45 and therefore the alarm going off at 07.15 … the point is, you know all that, but a chart or diagram helps your child to see that bedtime is a necessity not a punishment.
Daylight bulbs and wake up clocks
Many parents find that there are both physical and psychological reasons for snoozing and sleeping through alarm clocks. Physical reasons can include the simple fact that it’s dark when the alarm goes off. Psychological reasons may include the feeling that there’s nothing to look forward to now that Christmas and all its parties, presents and even Nativity plays, is over. In such circumstances, having a wake-up alarm clock is often a nudge to earlier rising. Nanny can help by taking your child a drink once the alarm goes off. For some reason, a drink of water first thing in the morning seems to encourage wakefulness.
Evening routines
Again, working with your children helps them understand why routine matters. Cooperating with your nanny to establish a great evening routine is a wonderful route to successful mornings. Packing the following day’s back-pack, laying out the next day’s clothes and making sure that you, as well as your child, are ready for the next morning. This demonstrates the value of forward planning.
Give everybody something to look forward to
Playing a favourite video at the kitchen table, treating everybody to a fancy breakfast once in a while, or having a little treat or game waiting at the front door for kids to enjoy on the school run. This can all help energise your children to get up. Of course you have to do this on a random basis, and only occasionally, otherwise it becomes an expected ‘reward’ rather than a rare and exciting treat. One of the easiest ways to get people happy to get up is to play a pop song and get everybody dancing. It’s a proven fact that just a couple of minutes of energetic movement resets the body-clock to wide-awake!