How can I stop my kids getting up so early on weekends?

I think that this is an age-old question asked by many exhausted parents, especially those whose kids are natural early birds. Sleep experts advise that it can be disruptive to our kids (and our) natural sleep patterns when we have different bedtimes or waking times over weekends and this can result in poorer quality sleep all round.

If your little ones are early risers then my suggestion would be to rather encourage them to allow you to sleep in by providing them with activities that they can do in your room, their bedrooms, or a safe space such as a playroom or pyjama lounge. If you are more interested in a slow start to the day than actual sleep time, then I would highly recommend snuggle time where your kids come and join you for some snuggling in bed while you all wake up. You may even find that your little ones go back to sleep for a while after some cuddles. You can also consider getting some blackout blinds or drapes to keep their rooms dark for longer.

If you are not averse to allowing some screen time to give you a slower weekend start, then consider adding some of their favourite shows onto a tablet and encourage them to stay in bed while they watch their shows. You can build a small blanket fort in their rooms where they can entertain themselves with activity books or puzzles for a while. Just remember to make sure that there are no choking hazards nearby for younger kids.

My daughters have the same problem with their kids. It is frustrating as they would love that extra hour of sleep on the weekends,

Three things may help, depending on the age of the kids. Unfortunately, if you have an infant, you are doomed until they get a little older.

Try setting a clear rule for the kids that they can not leave their room until a certain time. Give them a clock and teach them the time that they can leave their room. Then leave drinks and snacks in their room, so they do not complain of hunger or thirst. Of course this time has to be reasonable as they can not stay in their room for hours.

Another option is to have each parent take an early morning kid duty turn on the weekends. This will work with kids of all ages.

Lastly, if your kids are a bit older or have an older sibling to watch over a younger child, allow them to get up but give them instructions on their parameters. Have snacks and drinks low enough to be available and teach them to turn the TV on low and quietly watch a movie (or other quiet activities). This plan should bide you about 90 minutes of extra sleep except if the plan dissolves into a fight or other loud kid developments.

I hope that you work something out so that you get to catch up a bit on much-needed sleep.

I can relate! We have two boys who either love to sleep in on school days or are up way too early on weekends...not ideal! We do let them have morning screen time on the weekends. They are pretty independent and go downstairs and watch tv silently while we get a few moments of extra rest. We also have a cabinet that is easy for them to access with snacks/breakfast foods that they can get themselves. Though I'd be lying if I came downstairs some days and didn't see a bag of Goldfish in the morning!

We also have a Glo light (tied to Amazon Alexa) that we used to use when they were little. They were not supposed to leave their room until the light turned yellow. I've also read tips about keeping snacks or a drink handy in their room so they can have something right when they wake up.

If you aren't into the screen time, when we don't want them to watch tv in the morning, I'll dig up an old activity book or puzzle (something that they haven't seen in a while) and put it on the table for them to do when they come downstairs. They like seeing something "new" or something they haven't done in a while.

Good luck!

I also had this happen with my oldest daughter. She was so conditioned to getting up before dawn for school each weekday, that her body did it naturally on the weekends. I tried letting her stay up later, to see if she would sleep in, but it seemed to bother her circadian rhythms, and when she woke up, still early, she was grumpy.

If your kids are old enough to do for themselves, here are a couple of things I did, which you could try.

Have a healthy snack and drink, preferably in a spill-proof cup, ready for each of them. They are likely hungry when they wake up, another part of the body's conditioning. So providing them with ready to eat food may help.

Make sure they know, even the younger ones, that as long as you are still in your room, they mist be quiet. Have a discussion with them about what they are allowed to do, and what's off limits.

You may want to get a white noise machine for your bedroom, to drown out whatever sounds they make. This really helped me!

My friends often share that it is difficult to get their kids up in time during the week, but for me it has never been the case. My kids, from an early age adapted their morning routine with mine so getting up early has never been a struggle.
For me it is the weekend that comes with a challenge. After a long and tiring week I always want to have a couple of extra hours of good sleep on weekends BUT my kids were used to get up at their routine morning time.
I have made a couple of adaptations to our nighttime routine for weekends to make this a little better.
1. We plan family dinner or outings on weekend nights. We have a good family time, come home late and children end up sleeping late. Usually, they also get up late after that.
2. We allow kids to stay up for a few extra hours on weekends, this also helps in taking a couple of extra hours of sleep in the morning.
We all have an inner timer and it gets adjusted to our daily routine. Even without an alarm, we tend to get up on a specific time that we are attuned to. I only do a calculated experimentation with the night time routine of the children because although it feels good to have some extra sleep on weekends but getting used to late morning time can be more disturbing for the daily school and work schedule.