Crazy mornings

[megan120711]

My 2 and 4 year old share a room and every morning they are up SUPER EARLY. I’m talking 4:15am sometimes I’ll hear them messing around in their room. Lately though, they’ve been getting out of bed and going downstairs and watching tv (my 4 year old can identify the Netflix button on the remote). This morning I came down and the fridge was wide open, the pantry was raided and they were munching away on snacks. I realize this is dangerous. We do have a lock on the fridge but we must have forgotten and I can’t guarantee they won’t get into anything else - it’s very Lord of the Flies here in the morning. I’m not sure what to do? Should I lock them in their room together for the night? That feels freaky too. Help!

 

[jamestw]

@megan120711 My older three share a room with a quadruple bunk. Their door has a crocheted doorknob cover on the inside so that the 2 year old can't escape in the middle of the night. I bought it off Etsy as our bedroom knobs are oval shaped and there are no baby-proofing options for those apart from replacing them. It makes gripping the handle harder for younger kids. I also have a baby monitor in their room and I hear everything. I wouldn't advise allowing this to continue as it's crazy dangerous - they could turn on the stove, get hurt with anything laying around, open the front door and escape, swallow a remote battery, choke on a grape they got from the fridge, etc.

 

[megan120711]

@jamestw I agree. Very dangerous. It feels weird but I guess I’ll have to lock them in.

 

[dynamis777]

@megan120711 We do this as well (with a much younger toddler though) and I’ve actually seen lots of arguments FOR locking them in the room, mainly in case of a fire you’d want to know where to find them. It does feel weird to me at times but when you think about jf, its very similar to putting a kid in a crib that they can’t escape.

 

[megan120711]

@dynamis777 Great way to look at it!

 

[ajewlinhiscrown]

@megan120711 So as an alternative to "lock them in" could you put a baby gate up in addition to their door? So they can open the door if they need to call out in an emergency but the baby gate keeps them inside...? I realise they'd possibly get out by climbing etc but just a thought.

During a transition period of learning to stay in room until a certain time, could you reward them for staying in the room? Sticker chart style maybe?

The instagram account "busytoddler" does what they call "the offering" and sneaks a bowl of dry cheerios into the room while the kid is sleeping so they have a snack in the morning to placate them until it's time to leave the room..just another suggestion

 

[megan120711]

@ajewlinhiscrown I like this cheerios idea! I tried the baby gate and it got climbed by my 2 year old.

 

[ajewlinhiscrown]

@megan120711 I'm planning to have my kids who will be 4 and 2 yo share a room, when they turn 4 and 2, so I'll have to ping you in a few months to see how it's gone

 

[somename]

@megan120711 We have a "hatch" nightlight. It changed our lives. It turns colors when they can get up. It is kind of spendy but worth every penny for us.

My kid went from staying up until 11 pm (I put her to bed at 8) and then waking up at 5:30 to sleeping from about 9 to 7.

She also really loves it.

 

[megan120711]

@somename How old?

 

[pedroecamachoch]

@megan120711 Got a cheap version of the same for 2 yo, it's great.

 

[somename]

@megan120711 She is 3.

 

[ktfw]

@megan120711 I would definitely lock them in, that's what I do. I've been trying to teach almost 4 yr old to stay in bed quietly before light turns yellow at 6am. I also put a box of toys and they can turn light on in the morning which buys me 30+ min of quietly playing in room before wake up time

 

[marke2]

@ktfw Related... I teach my kids when they're young what a 7 looks like on a digital clock and that they can come wake me when the first number is a 7.

Then I had a very cute 3-year-old wake me up a 3:17am for breakfast because she mixed up which way to read it.

 

[ezworldwide]

@megan120711 Door chimes worked really well for us.

 

[megan120711]

@ezworldwide This is a good idea

 

[crustyfrog]

@megan120711 Seconding door chimes. We also put a baby gate up, mostly to contain our two year old. Our four year old can take it down if he needs to get out (bathroom or other reasons) but is pretty good about leaving it up.

 

[atlas2023]

@megan120711 I wouldn’t feel safe locking them in (ie fire risk).

But definitely think that them being up and playing at 4am is unacceptable. And tbh, just containing them to the room doesn’t solve that problem.

Do they have any way to tell the time? If not, that’s the first thing I’d sort out. There’s different options on the market (we use a groclock), they have to stay in bed until the allotted morning time.

Do you have a monitor on them? I can’t understand how you don’t know when they’re up?
If your monitor isn’t picking up their noises, you need a new/better one (sound/camera/motion). When they’re up (in room or outside of room). Go and re-establish rules about staying in bed at nighttime (we find putting on nighttime music/audio books helps with them being content just lying in the bed). You could do door bells/chimes as a back up. But main line defence should be you getting up to deal with them.
IMO, if you have to separate them and have them sleeping in separate rooms (kids hyping each other to get up) while you establish that children stay in bed at nighttime, I’d do that, as I think that itself is the biggest issue.

 

[megan120711]

@atlas2023 By fire risk are you concerned that we would not be able to access the room quickly if there was a fire?

Their room is RIGHT beside ours and they have to pass our door to go downstairs and…they just quietly do it so I guess that’s how we don’t notice. Door chimes could work for sure and we do have a groclock- the kids just don’t care about it but maybe I need to spend a few tough mornings enforcing that.

 

[mpeak2115]

@megan120711 You definitely need to. We use a hatch light for our 4 year old and 2 year old who share a room. They totally amp each other up. So I get your pain. Many nights have we put them back to bed 5+ times. You just have to enforce the rules, especially for safety. Definitely get some kind of alarm for when their door gets opened.