What age do you let your kids get up in the morning by themselves?

[Anonymous]

DD turns 5 in a couple weeks and has been a 5:30am riser since the day she was born. We keep a strict 7pm bedtime (sometimes even 6:45pm) to make sure she gets enough sleep but even when she is up til 8/9/10pm on special occasions, it's still a 5:30am wake up in the morning. We also have a 2yo that sleeps til 6:30/7am.

At what age were you comfortable letting your kid get up alone in the morning? Did you make breakfast accessible or what did they do?

[Anonymous]

3.5, which was when they left the crib. My oldest is so responsible, so by the time my middle child was 3.5, she was 5.5 and easily could help him.

They're 4 and 6 now. They get up at like 6:30 and quietly go downstairs to the basement (if they're loud they lose the privilege). At 7am, they come up and get dressed on weekdays so that they're ready by the time we wake up. They both eat breakfast at school. On weekends we do have yogurts ready in the fridge that they grab.

[Anonymous]

Definitely by 5. They grab a yogurt pouch and watch tv until others are up. They loved the independence!

[Anonymous]

Our house is small so I hear them and am up no matter what. Occasionally, I will make sure the iPads are out with a granola bar and water and send them down to veg. But that only works if I REALLY need to sleep, like I'm sick or something.

What saved us when our oldest work up at 5:30am every damn day was taking turns. That way we each got a 100% guilt free sleep in (until about 7:30am) one weekend morning. The other did kid duty downstairs solo.

[Anonymous]

When my oldest was 5 she would have never gone downstairs alone. The lights are off, the shades are drawn, and she just generally doesn't like it alone.

[Anonymous]

When my twins were 6, I started sleeping in on the weekends and letting them get their own breakfast, but I’d make sure it was something really easy. For example, I’d put out some muffins in a container they could open and leave plates and napkins at their place settings at the table. I’d pour milk in their cups the night before so they didn’t have to handle a full jug of milk and I’d make sure they knew their cups were in the fridge. They could read and had Leapfrogs to play with or they could color. I knew they’d be okay because they were rule followers who were very safety conscious — not adventurous risk takers. They knew they could wake dh or me if there was any issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When my oldest was 5 she would have never gone downstairs alone. The lights are off, the shades are drawn, and she just generally doesn't like it alone.

OP here, we live in a ranch so it's all one floor. Our kitchen/living room is just down the hall from all of our bedrooms.

[Anonymous]

I think when my oldest was 4 she started going down by herself to watch tv. Then when her brother was 2 or so I started putting out cereal for them. They would go together. The third joined them when she was out of the crib (around 2.5/3)

[Anonymous]

Well before 5. At one point before DD could really operate the TV we just set it to Disney Junior before we went to bed so she could just turn it on and watch cartoons. She was never that hungry so we didn't set out a breakfast. We did have friends that set out bowls of cereal and room temperature Horizon milk boxes for breakfasts. You could set out granola bars or something. A 5 year old should can be pretty independent.

[Anonymous]

We allowed our kids under age 7 to play quietly in their room until 7 AM on weekends. After that time, they were allowed to go downstairs to get yogurt and watch TV. An adult is always awake by 8 AM or 8:30 at the latest.

After age 7 they were allowed to go downstairs upon waking and watch TV quietly. We allowed them to eat more foods once they were in the 1st grade (prepared fruit, cereal bars).

[Anonymous]

2 years old they did drawing etc quietly for an hour. No scissors. We would not allow food - risk of choking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2 years old they did drawing etc quietly for an hour. No scissors. We would not allow food - risk of choking.

Forgot to add that we have a gate so no risk of answering the door either.

[Anonymous]

Never. And before you all scream, we just got up when then kids did. If one of us needed more sleep, fine. They are now teens and we're up much earlier than they are, grinding coffee beans, getting ice, talking. They don't even notice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Definitely by 5. They grab a yogurt pouch and watch tv until others are up. They loved the independence!

+1

[Anonymous]

5 is absolutely old enough, OP.