Woke teen up with this morning with a water gun - AMA

[Anonymous]

I'm not opposed to the water gun approach, but I think it's time to reassess what's going on at bedtime. What is he doing instead of sleeping?

Most teenagers are just not going to adhere to an early bedtime so that they can wake up feeling refreshed at 6 or 6:30. My kid does his HW most efficiently if he starts it around 9 pm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My dad used to put a spray bottle in the fridge and spray me in the face to wake me up. Then he would tune a radio to the Spanish station, turn it up to 11 and leave it on the other side of the room.

My mom used to wake me up with a kiss on the forehead.

I prefer my mom.

If a kiss on the forehead would wake you why was your dad doing all that other stuff?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'm not opposed to the water gun approach, but I think it's time to reassess what's going on at bedtime. What is he doing instead of sleeping?

Most teenagers are just not going to adhere to an early bedtime so that they can wake up feeling refreshed at 6 or 6:30. My kid does his HW most efficiently if he starts it around 9 pm.

Thanks, I have a 19 year-old and a 14-year-old, so I know a little something about teens. I still think that an assessment of the evening routine is in order. Perhaps nothing different really can be done, but it's certainly worth at least a few moments thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a fan of the loud music approach. Water in the house would be too messy for me. I pulled the covers off of DS once to be funny, and I will never, EVER do that again!

A wise man once said: pulling covers off of anybody without knowing what they're wearing is asking to be em-bare assed.

[Anonymous]

Why are you in charge of waking up your 13 year old? That's his job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can see how this is funny to most people, but it just seems mean and disrespectful to me. I would hate to be woken up that way, and I struggled with waking up for years as a teenager. I felt guilty enough about it without my parents laying it on.

Seriously? Maybe you just need a hug.

Get your butt to bed on time and then get your butt up in the morning. A water gun shouldn't be necessary, but sometimes drastic measures are necessary.

[Anonymous]

The most I've ever needed to do is yank the covers off, and that's only a few times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dad used to put a spray bottle in the fridge and spray me in the face to wake me up. Then he would tune a radio to the Spanish station, turn it up to 11 and leave it on the other side of the room.

My mom used to wake me up with a kiss on the forehead.

I prefer my mom.

If a kiss on the forehead would wake you why was your dad doing all that other stuff?

My sister was the difficult one to wake up. He's a very equitable sort of person when it comes to his kids, so he felt like he had to do it to me too to be fair. I was not difficult to wake up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The most I've ever needed to do is yank the covers off, and that's only a few times.

This is so wrong. Such an invasion of personal space. For all I know my kids might like to sleep completely nude. Stranger things have happened. Why would I want to confirm that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS 13 stays up until all hours and never wants to get out of bed in the morning. Today the alarm didn't work, yelling didn't work, yanking the covers off didn't even work, so... Call it cruel, but it sure was effective! Am I a bad mother?

No - but if it were my DS I would sleep with one eye open and expect him to start waking me up with a water gun. Try the clock- we're def ordering it.

[Anonymous]

i think that is awesome op.

But, you may want to sleep with one eye open for awhile.