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Getting out of bed in the morning sucks; getting your teens out of bed in the morning sucks worse.

Posted on February 23, 2010. Filed under: grad school, parenting | Tags: frustration, getting out of bed in the morning sucks, getting your teens out of bed in the morning sucks worse, girls, help, mother, parenting, teenagers, teens, tips |

Dear all parents of teenagers out there in blog-land,

I think I can say without over-exaggeration that mornings are the worst time of day in my house lately. My teens will NOT get out of bed prior to ten minutes before we have to leave in order to get to school on time. And if they do, they move so slowly that we’re still late! I’ve tried everything that I can think of (and that google searches suggest) and I’m still getting nowhere.

-I’ve quit excusing their tardies so they have to suffer the consequences at school. However, eventually that too rolls back on the parent.
- I start waking them up earlier.
- I wake them up later.
- I buy alarm clocks.
- I put music on in the morning.
- I keep it quiet in the morning.
- I make them go to bed at a reasonable hour. I’m about to make them go to bed at an unreasonably early hour.
- I threaten to remove their phones, not let them see their friends, not let them live.
- I follow through with the above (well, they’re still living).
- I yell loud enough that I’m sure the neighbors get up early enough to be out of their house by the time my kids are supposed to wake up.
- I set their alarm and leave the house, only to return right when they need to get in the car.
- I text them from the living room.

I’m seriously at my wits’ end. If I hadn’t gone directly to the gym and run a couple of miles (at a rather quick pace too) after dropping them off, I would not be okay now. It isn’t good for any of us to start our day like that. We need peace in the morning, life is WAY too stressful as is.

And please don’t say “natural consequences” like they just miss school – that isn’t an option. They’d be partying it up at home while I’m at work stressing over the fact that they’re at home partying it up. Trust me, not a good suggestion for our house.

This isn’t exactly what I had in mind for this blog, but I guess there’s nothing more real about life as a grad student mother of teens than the nastiness of mornings. I know teen morning hell isn’t confined to grad student mamas so speak up please!!

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