<p>When our kids were little, if they didn't wake up on time on their own, their bedtime was pushed back 15 minutes for each infraction on the grounds that they "must need more sleep". They had to wake up responsibly for a week to earn back the later bed time. </p>
<p>The problem resurfaced temporarily in high school and the solution was a weekend grounding if we had to walk in the room. The child has 10 minutes leeway from when he is supposed to be up to when we actually hear the shower running. That did the trick for S1 who values his social time. (He does use a rather loud alarm that requires him to get out of bed to shut off, which is an irritant to the rest of the family but he is also the last up in the morning so it isn't intolerable.) S2 is more of a loner so would need a different punishment to work on him, but he is also a morning person so not an issue. </p>
<p>Over the years, we also had a couple of live-in nannies who claimed to have a problem waking up and wanted the children to get them up. They were told they would be fired if they didn't figure it out (without the help of the kids) and the problem quickly solved itself in each case. </p>
<p>I think the subconscious has to get involved in caring about the outcome. Inability to wake up is a personal pet peeve that probably stems from H who somehow could never hear the babies crying in the middle of the night.</p>
<p>With many/most digital alarms, when the alarm goes off, you turn it off by pressing the reset button (that is a different button from snooze). When you hit "reset" button, the alarm goes off and the alarm clock is reset for the next day. therefore, when you go to bed that night, you don't have to do anything, you don't have to remember to turn alarm on .</p>
<p>Usually with an analog clock alarm, you set the time and then turn the alarm switch on. Then the alarm goes off and you turn the alarm off. Then when you go to bed, you have to remember to turn the alarm back on. (If you try to turn it off and turn it right back on, usually the alarm goes off again immediately.) Also, if I remember correctly, when you set an analog alarm, you turn the stick thing to point to the time that you want it to "go off". Accuracy is a bit hard when setting an Analog alarm -- especially if you want it to go off an a half hour. It's hard with an analog clock to get accuracy to the minute with alarms.</p>
<p>I could be wrong about analog clocks (the newer ones).....</p>
<p>
[quote]
Inability to wake up is a personal pet peeve that probably stems from H who somehow could never hear the babies crying in the middle of the night.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>LOL I can't tell you how many times my H would wake up in the morning and say to me, "The baby slept thru the night, right?" Yea, right!</p>
<p>Funny how you train yourself to "tune in" certain things - like babies. Many years later, I still wake up to crying babies in hotels, etc. My husband wakes up, no leaps up, at the sound of any fire alarm, fire engine, etc. since his college dorm was a fire trap - fear works in both examples. However, my most startling wakeup was on a retreat when a bagpiper came through our halls at an early hour so we could be up for sunrise. It worked. We were ALL up!</p>
<p>You can also set it to go off every day of the week, so you never have to remember to re-set the alarm.</p>
<p>(This works wonders with my darling boyfriend, who is in the same boat as the OP's son -- "Oh, sure, I'll just get myself out of bed after you leave...")</p>
<p>Since our D was breast fed, TheMom took the pragmatic but appreciated point of view that there was no point in <em>both</em> of us having trashed sleep when baby D woke in the middle of the night.</p>
<p>If I could tinker with three items of my physiology, one of them would be to get along with less sleep. My efficiency drops horribly without enough of it. I hate the days when it becomes a question of "Coffee or a nap?" Each has its down side.</p>
<p>I set my alarm 45 minutes before my wake up time...it's set to just play a CD, and eventually the music seeps into my dreams and wakes me up (usually about 5 minutes before "get up" time). (It's also interesting how the music will manifest itself in my dreams.) Then I just lay in bed staring at the numbers until they become the time when I should be getting up. Since it's digital, all I have to do is hit "off" and it stops playing, and it's programmed for the same time every day.</p>
<p>
[quote]
They do make some superloud alarm clocks these days. Snooze alarm abuse can make a kid very unpopular with his roommate.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>But beware - super-loud alarm clocks will make a kid unpopular with his entire hall, especially if he wakes all his neighbors up at 6 AM. ;) We had someone like that in my hall freshman year.</p>
<p>You might be surprised when your son is on his own. We have the hardest time getting him up for school. He works at a residential camp over the summer and were shocked when we learned he was the one who wakes up the other kids on his staff (and complained how hard it was to wake them up - that amused us the most) for the 6:00 AM kayak rides. I guess he knows we will get him up for school but no one will do that when he is away.</p>
<p>Yes, some kids do realize that they have to get up on their own once they are away from home. </p>
<p>My son is like my brother, even when my brother was "on his own" he could not "hear" his alarm - he'd miss airplane flights, etc. He's a responsible person, he just can't hear alarms. His wife now has to shake him awake.</p>
<p>TheDad:
"Since our D was breast fed, TheMom took the pragmatic but appreciated point of view that there was no point in <em>both</em> of us having trashed sleep when baby D woke in the middle of the night."</p>
<p>You must have a very nice wife! I remember lying there wishing like crazy that my husband would get up, change that baby, and bring him in for a feeding.</p>
<p>I can certainly identify with you guys, both my boys had "colic" as babies and we had it very hard with those midnight-morning walking back and forth for 30-90 minutes or so on a regular basis, it did not help much that my older son was born weighing 11 1/2 lbs, see? I have been having trouble with that kid since birth LOL:)</p>
<p>I never got up with my babies once they stopped "pooping" at night - which was usually within a week or so. I'd keep their cradle next to my bed and when they woke up, I'd grab them and put them in bed with me. After the first wake up, I kept them in bed with me and they "ate" when they wanted -- I never sat while breastfeeding at night. When they wanted "the other side", they'd cry, I turn us both over and go back to sleep. I never lost any real sleep. I had a strict rule with my babies at night -- no lights on, no talking, no rocking -- this is sleep time. I had to do it this way because if I allow myself to really get woken up, I am unable to fall back asleep. Breastfeeding while laying down and sleeping is awesome!</p>
<p>Even though they were in bed with us, my H never heard them cry.</p>
<p>Lots of times, I wonder why we got 2 kids who are very difficult to deal with, they are not troublemakers/destructive/rude or anything like that, just the regular ADD/ADHD symptoms. When I see my friends'/relatives kids who sit quietly, do what they are told the first time you tell them, pick up after themselves, do their schoolwork on their own and especially as babies don't cry much and sleep through the night, people with those kids don't have a clue as to just how lucky they are!!</p>