By MAD21
Every Wednesday, fellow blogger Kristen at We are THAT Family posts clever ideas for getting things done. She calls it, "Works For Me Wednesday" or WFMW. I thought I would join in on the fun. Let's begin with...
Our blessed "Good Morning Light." Oh, how it has changed our mornings and the overall start of our days.
Let's begin with the fact that I am not [NOT] a morning person. Or should I say, I never used to be a morning person. Going on the proven fact that God has a sense of humor, not only did I marry a morning person, He gave me two wonderful daughters, a cat, and a dog who are all morning people/critters.
When we only had our first daughter, as she got older she came up with new and innovative ideas as to why she needed to be out of bed the minute the birds started singing with the rising sun (a.k.a. 5:45ish) EVERY morning. Regardless of how late she was up the night before, or how many days she was up late, she was up at the same time... every morning.
First, we told her she needed to ask for permission before getting out of bed. That worked for a few months. But then when you hear the question being asked every two minutes... "Is it time to get up yet?" Ya. Well, you know.
Then, we had her pick out a book the night before to put under her pillow that she could look at the next morning until we told her it was time to get up. I drew her a picture of a clock with the "time to get up" time on it so she could compare it to her own 'real' clock, so she couldn't call out until it was after that time. This idea actually worked for about a year. Once that stopped being effective and she started calling out more often, I searched endlessly for ideas.
I happened to be watching TV one morning when a show had a segment on it regarding ideas for kids. I almost turned it off because, honestly, the ones they were sharing were, well, just ones I would never use. But as I picked up the remote, the woman said something about kids who have problems staying in bed. I can't remember the exact example she gave, but it was enough to give me the idea of having a light in my daughter's room that I could control that would tell her when it was ok to get up in the mornings.
I went to the store and bought some standard night lights, plugged one of them into my Christmas light on/off remote controlled switch (with the remote itself placed in our bedroom), and then put it in my daughters room nicely being held by one of her favorite bears at the time...making it even more exciting! I told her, "This is your brand new 'Good Morning Light!' Isnt' it cool? Now every morning you will know when it is ok to get up." She was so excited. I explained that she was not to call out and that she could look at her books or play quietly in bed until the light went on. I also explained that there were consequences if she called out. Those have changed over time, but the most effective was that she couldn't watch her favorite show on TV after breakfast. And once she was potty trained, she knew she could get up and use the bathroom without asking, but she had to be quiet and go right back to bed.
We have been using the light for almost three years, and it still works like a charm. It has even worked on our youngest daughter who is now three and a half. When she was younger, we just turned on the light before we got her up to help her understand what it was. And now she does it all on her own.
Once they both learn how to tell time (and the oldest daughter is almost there), we can stop using it. But this tool has been one of the most important ones in our house for years. I highly recommend it to all families who have kids who insist on getting up with the sun.
Thanks to this light, we can all sleep in until at least 7:00, at least those of us who want to.