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

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

As long as it was done with humor and not hostility, I think it's great. Sometimes you need to make a statement.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. It's out of character for me but he left me no alternative. He was seriously annoyed at first but after his shower he was fine.

[Anonymous]

What is the last thing you ate?

[Anonymous]

I'd try total silence. Just go into his room with a garbage bag/large box and start putting things into it. Do not say a word. Leave some clothes and some shoes he can wear to school. Some bedding too. You can stop collecting things when he is up and out of bed and getting ready. Then smile and say "GOOD MORNING SUNSHINE!" and drag the bag outta there to be discussed later.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Do you have a soul?

[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?

Make sure there's not electronics in his room at night. Take his phone and charge in your bedroom. The constant Snapchat or Instagram notifications are addicting to kids.

[Anonymous]

HAHAHA!! My mom did that once to me. I woke up startled, angry and then erupted in laughter. It was a good memory.

[Anonymous]

My dad used to crank up the base on the stereo (my bedroom was above the Living Room) then play the phantom of the opera cd--my sister and I would be up by the scream

[Anonymous]

Funny! Post again tomorrow, OP!

[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.

Yeah but you would wake up, apparently. No way would a kiss on the forehead have awoken me as a teen. My mom used to sing, loudly, off-key, on purpose. She never used a water gun, but if she had I wouldn't have blamed her.

[Anonymous]

Haha! These are great responses. OP, I think the water gun was pretty funny and obviously worked. I do agree with the PP who said to take electronics away at night - if it weren't for that, he'd have nothing to keep him up too late.

[Anonymous]

PP 15:12 again. You were also pretty gutsy ripping the covers off. That could have turned out embarrassing for both of you...

[Anonymous]

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.