Day: June 4, 2018

Toddler temper tantrums are a thing of legend as all parents of 2-year-old boys know. And not getting up in the morning is one of the most challenging of their behavioral quirks as they interfere with your morning routine and can make you late for work. Dealing with these issues requires a lot of patience, clever motivation, and perhaps even a rearrangement of your going to bed routine. 

3 Tips on How to Get a Toddler Out of Bed in the Morning

1.     Find the root of the problem

The majority of issues with getting your child out of bed are caused either by their emotional outbursts or by the boy being genuinely too tired to rise. Your primary task is to determine if your child gets enough sleep.

According to NHS, toddlers should get 11 and a half hours of sleep at night and a daytime nap of an hour and a half. However, WebMD and many other sources claim that toddlers require up to 14 hours of sleep a day. At this age one 1-2 hour nap is the standard, so do some simple calculations to understand whether your kid is getting the sleep they need.

Don’t forget to consider issues like night terrors or other problems that can prevent the child from sleeping soundly. If your son doesn’t have such problems and is in good health, the problem is most likely caused by behavioral issues, most often it’s an attention seeking thing.

2.     Be calm and don’t waver

Learning not to react in anger to child’s tantrums and take a breath is one of the basic parenting tips for a 2-year-old boy. This skill will be most important when dealing with a child who doesn’t want to wake up in the morning.

What you need to do is to stay calm and follow your morning routine paying no attention to the pleas of ‘5 more minutes!’ and the like. Simply take the child out of the crib and proceed to the bathroom.

3.     Motivate the kid to get out of bed

Consider offering some incentives that will help you get a toddler out of bed faster. You can combine this with an educational lesson on using the clock. Have an electric clock within your child’s line of sight and explain that they will get a treat if they are at a breakfast table by the time certain numbers appear. For example, you can use watching an episode of their favorite cartoon as a treat and explain that if he isn’t up when you say, he won’t have the time to watch the cartoon.

It’s very important to use treats as a short-time measure and last resort only. While motivating your kid is good, getting them into a habit of getting treats is not good. That’s why you should use the healthiest and ‘non-treaty’ treats you can think of, like a walk in the park, educational show, etc. You should also slowly withdraw this kind of motivation so your kid gets used to getting up on their own.

Related Parenting:
Positive Discipline Techniques Every Parent Should Know
At What Age Can I Place My Child Into Daycare?
9 Things Your Kids Should Be Doing Instead Of Homework