Do you get your older teen up in the morning?

[Anonymous]

My son is 16 in a few months. He sets 2 alarms 10min apart, has to get out of bed to shut them off, but sometimes goes back to sleep.

He sometimes sleepwalks and in general sleeps quite deeply.

Do you wake up your teen before school, or do you 100% expect them to get up on their own? What do you do if they don't?

I value the life skill of being able to wake up per schedules, but I remember that when I was a teen, the tiredness felt on a different level than when I was a young adult.

I don't mind waking him up once and a while, but not when it's happening any days in a row. Just curious how this works in everyone else's home.

[Anonymous]

Yes

[Anonymous]

They always use/used an alarm but I need to reinforce/check on them about half the time to make sure they are up. It doesn't bother me.

Two are in college now and as far as I can tell based on their performance are managing just fine.

[Anonymous]

I wake mine up. I open the window shades right away and natural light comes in. It helps a lot.

I am up though. I would not do this if I wasn’t already awake.

[Anonymous]

No.

[Anonymous]

My children have used an alarm and gotten themselves up since middle school.

I also have a very heavy sleeper/sleep walker and I do not wake him up in the morning.

[Anonymous]

My teen does not wake up with light and noise. I am amazed. I watched it.

Of course you help your kid wake up. I

[Anonymous]

Yes, I do. He’s not allowed a phone in his room.

[Anonymous]

Yup I do, I would love not to, but it seems necessary because he sleeps thru his alarms. Let the parent blaming begin!

[Anonymous]

OP, you may not want to hear this but our DS gets up and out of the house before we wake up. The closing of the front door often usually wakes us up, sometimes not. It's before our alarm.

[Anonymous]

19:39 again. For context, re: other things/life skills, he does most things he's suppose to. Not some super teen though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you may not want to hear this but our DS gets up and out of the house before we wake up. The closing of the front door often usually wakes us up, sometimes not. It's before our alarm.

+1

[Anonymous]

The elephants in the room

[Anonymous]

Get him tested for sleep apnea and ADHD. Those are two common conditions that can create sleep disturbances and sleep deprivation.

My son had both diagnoses, and needed all the help he could get to wake up. At one point, the high school start time was just too early, and he was allowed to skip first period so he could sleep a little more.

Don't let yourself be swayed by tough-it-out parents who are lucky to have healthy kids. Your son's health comes first and he needs to get checked out.

[Anonymous]

At the start of MS, I taught my kids to get themselves up. And once my middle kid was proficient, he said “now that you know I can do it, can you go back to waking me”. So I did. And my mom always woke me by rubbing my back. Such a sweet memories. No regrets.