Not my own, you understand. I am definitely morning-challenged and I have a battle with myself every day as I force myself to leave the cosiness of bed. But we have recently discovered the wonders of children with alarm clocks.
Some folk complain about how their kids are always up at 5am or some other hour before God has risen. But ours have always been blessed with a good sleeping-in instinct. This was great when they were tiny, but now that they need to be up for school it has begun to be somewhat problematic. The Queen, if left to her devices, will sleep until 9am. Not good when school starts at 8.45am and there are things like getting dressed and breakfast to be dealt with.
So we have been waking our children in the mornings and cranking them up for the school day. It had got particularly bad with the Queen as she likes to feel in charge of as much of her life as possible and recently, she has felt very strongly that getting up should be her domain. This means that she does not take kindly to being woken up, given a morning cuddle, having her clothes presented to her, having her curtains opened or any other morning activity being done for her by others. As you can imagine, there have been a few stressful mornings, when Mum or Dad appearing and trying to help has had the opposite of the desired effect.
Then I had a very helpful conversation with Glamourpuss, who also has a strong willed daughter, who was also getting grumpy in the mornings. Glamourpuss told me how she gives Wildchild her phone, with its alarm set. Wildchild is in charge of waking up to the alarm and bringing her mum the phone every morning. So I went straight out and bought an alarm clock for the Queen. We’re now a week in and our mornings have been transformed. The boys have one too, which has been helping them to rise, but it’s the Queen’s attitude that has undergone the greatest transformation. She has been delightful in the mornings – up and dressed without any shouting needed, and this morning she also went and spent time reading her new devotional book, praying and looking at her bible. All before breakfast.
Now a week is obviously not a habit, but I’m so glad that one of the big battles in our house seems to have disappeared. And so simply. Now I just need to find out how she bounces out of bed immediately the alarm goes off and copy her…
The Vicar's Wife 
We have a Queen of our own who is similarly strong-willed and (like her father before her) not so keen on getting out of bed in the morning…
Unfortunately for us, an alarm clock doesn’t seem to help. It goes off. She (or the Princess) turns it off. The Princess then (usually) gets out of bed. Our Queen goes back to sleep.
We’re still struggling to find an answer to that one.
I hate mornings too as did our daughters when they were younger although they are both fine now they are grown up. We found the alarm clock trick worked very well for us too. Thanks for reminding me
result! How old, if you don’t me mind asking, is the queen? I’m wondering if this would work for our own soon-to-be-7 diva.
Is it a girl thing? Neither of my sons could hear an alarm clock for the whole of the time they went to school. Now the only thing that can get my hibernating son out of bed is the sniff of a wave in the air. As a surfer, he seems to have a second sense about when there is a wave at the coast that needs surfing. Then he is up and gone to catch the daybreak – he feels it as a very spiritual experience.
Thanks for the comments folks. Seems like mornings are a challenge for everyone!
The Queen is nine years old and we really should have had the alarm clock in operation when she was about seven David, so you may find it useful. The trouble when they are young is that you need to get a proper 24hr clock, as the 12hr kind don’t work if they sleep more than 11 hours.
I don’t really think it’s a boy/girl thing so much as a personality and owl/lark thing. I’m not convinced this solution will last that long, but I’m happy to celebrate whilst it does!
If she can keep it up for 3 months it’s a habit. Hope it lasts! Definitely not a family trait though!!!