The Pit Parenting Thread

[DeacsATS]

I think this was discussed before but has anyone had any success with one of those toddler clocks that changes colors when they're "allowed" to get out of bed? Our 21mo old is in the middle of a relapse and is waking up multiple times a night but is def smart enough to understand something like "it's still sleep time until that clock is green". seems a little too good to be true. do they work?

We have one for our 3.5 year old. Got it when we took the front off of her old crib and made it a sort of day bed (she's in an actual bed now). It works almost too well. We have it set for 7:05am everyday... And everyday at 7:05, you can hear her jump out of bed, open her door, and run into our room.

"My clock turned green!"

Not sure how it would have worked if we introduced it now instead of early on, but it has been great.

Can only think of one time (last week) when she came in before it turned green... She had a bad dream and got in my sleeping face at 4:30am. I was actually happy she did that because I had been worrying that she thought she was absolutely forbidden from leaving her room before the clock turned green.

I leave for work ~6:45am in the morning and most days I think she is already awake at that point and I feel bad for her, but she's still a little too young to just get up on her own to grab some milk and watch TV.

And that is a bunch of random and probably unhelpful commentary on the OK to Wake! clock.

 

[leftcoastdeac]

I think this was discussed before but has anyone had any success with one of those toddler clocks that changes colors when they're "allowed" to get out of bed? Our 21mo old is in the middle of a relapse and is waking up multiple times a night but is def smart enough to understand something like "it's still sleep time until that clock is green". seems a little too good to be true. do they work?

I think ladydeac mentioned she uses one.

 

[DeacsATS]

I think this was discussed before but has anyone had any success with one of those toddler clocks that changes colors when they're "allowed" to get out of bed? Our 21mo old is in the middle of a relapse and is waking up multiple times a night but is def smart enough to understand something like "it's still sleep time until that clock is green". seems a little too good to be true. do they work?

Attempt #2 at actually saying something that could be construed as helpful.

We also have a 20 month old and have bought her the clock, but we don't use it because she is still in a crib and I am not sure she'd get the point. I mean, she can't get out of her crib yet anyway. And if she's up and annoyed, she's going to let us know regardless of whether her clock is green.

 

[lbE08]

I think this was discussed before but has anyone had any success with one of those toddler clocks that changes colors when they're "allowed" to get out of bed? Our 21mo old is in the middle of a relapse and is waking up multiple times a night but is def smart enough to understand something like "it's still sleep time until that clock is green". seems a little too good to be true. do they work?

we're thinking about getting one for the kids' room... but they're 7 and 10. All I know is that if anyone comes knocking on the door at 6:30am on a Saturday asking if they're 'allowed to get up and play minecraft' one more time, it won't be pretty (although it's nice that they still ask). This time of year we can say things like "don't come knocking until there is lightness outside your window" since that doesn't happen until at least 7am, but that won't work for summer b/c the sun comes up at freaking 5:00am.

anyway, that's my anecdote that admittedly doesn't really answer your question. I've heard good things about the clocks from those who have them.

 

[ImTheCaptain]

Attempt #2 at actually saying something that could be construed as helpful.

We also have a 20 month old and have bought her the clock, but we don't use it because she is still in a crib and I am not sure she'd get the point. I mean, she can't get out of her crib yet anyway. And if she's up and annoyed, she's going to let us know regardless of whether her clock is green.

well, ours in the crib but we need to get her to understand that it's not necessarily time to "get out of bed/wake up (yell and call out for us instead of trying to go back to sleep)", because she wakes up, yells out and we go over there and suddenly she just wants to be tucked in again. she's about ready to climb out of the crib so we'll probably have to transition to her kid-bed in the next few months

 

[DeacsATS]

well, ours in the crib but we need to get her to understand that it's not necessarily time to "get out of bed/wake up (yell and call out for us instead of trying to go back to sleep)", because she wakes up, yells out and we go over there and suddenly she just wants to be tucked in again. she's about ready to climb out of the crib so we'll probably have to transition to her kid-bed in the next few months

Yeah, that's tough. Luckily, we never had that issue with our first and haven't gotten to that point with our second. My wife would lose her shit if either kid got up at like 5/6am and started making a bunch of noise... So I suspect it would only happen once. I mean, I basically get ready in the dark in the morning because I am afraid of waking her up. I'm like a fucking ninja in the bathroom.

 

[LadyDeac03]

I think this was discussed before but has anyone had any success with one of those toddler clocks that changes colors when they're "allowed" to get out of bed? Our 21mo old is in the middle of a relapse and is waking up multiple times a night but is def smart enough to understand something like "it's still sleep time until that clock is green". seems a little too good to be true. do they work?

I think ladydeac mentioned she uses one.

Yep, we got one for our older kid at the same time we transitioned her from a kid to toddler bed (basically with the thought that now that she can get out, we need to let her know when it's ok). So that was around 2? 2.5? (I can't remember). She's 4.5 now and still has one in her room, but she sleeps "late" these days in the sense that we usually have to wake her up for school. It was helpful to take with us to grandparents house though where things are a little more unfamiliar and if she wakes up when it's still dark out, she can tell if it's ok to get up.

All that said, for a looooong time she wouldn't get out of bed on her own. Even when she could. Once the light turned green she would just yell for us to get her up. Which was fun. No little faces sneaking up to the bed in the middle of the night.

Not sure when we'll get a clock for #2 (16 months). He's still in a crib, and can't get out. But there could be a case to be made for putting it in there now so he's used to it and starting to talk about the color change? Haven't given it a lot of thought yet.

Also, we got one with a real clock face, and a button to press to hear the time. It's supposed to help with learning time later? No idea.

 

[06deacon]

We have one but haven't used it yet. She's almost three now. Probably will introduce the concept once she's more fully potty trained. When she gets up earlyish now it's because she has to potty.

 

[Grabs Turds Bare]

The 3 kids questions are big ones- that seems like such a leap. Outnumbered and all of that.

For us, #3 is/has been less about "ugh, another baby to care for," and more about the idea that the other two are growing up and we could be doing more exciting things with them if we didn't have a 1 year old strapped to us. So, it isn't the day-to-day care that's frustrating, we're good with that. What can be a drain is the expansion of the duration of the "starting a family" phase, as leftcoast said above.

 

[DeacsATS]

For us, #3 is/has been less about "ugh, another baby to care for," and more about the idea that the other two are growing up and we could be doing more exciting things with them if we didn't have a 1 year old strapped to us. So, it isn't the day-to-day care that's frustrating, we're good with that. What can be a drain is the expansion of the duration of the "starting a family" phase, as leftcoast said above.

Very good point... And that was my main reason for being on the fence for so long. It basically pushes everything out another 2-3 years. But ultimately, it was a reason to do it ASAP, rather than wait longer to see if we were 100% on having another kid.

Also, I turn 40 in August, and that has always been my arbitrary cutoff for having any more kids. Seems like we'll miss it by a week or two. Not bad. Wife turns 34 next month and she didn't want to be pregnant at 35. Everybody wins!

 

[lbE08]

Very good point... And that was my main reason for being on the fence for so long. It basically pushes everything out another 2-3 years. But ultimately, it was a reason to do it ASAP, rather than wait longer to see if we were 100% on having another kid.

Also, I turn 40 in August, and that has always been my arbitrary cutoff for having any more kids. Seems like we'll miss it by a week or two. Not bad. Wife turns 34 next month and she didn't want to be pregnant at 35. Everybody wins!

how much do you consider the 'it could be twins!' factor when deciding whether or not you want to have "just one more" ?

 

[DeacsATS]

how much do you consider the 'it could be twins!' factor when deciding whether or not you want to have "just one more" ?

Twins would be fine with me. My wife, on the other hand, has no bigger fear in life than finding out she is carrying multiple babies.

Neither of us have twins in our family history, though I think that only really comes into play on the woman's side of things.

 

[Say Hey Deac]

I just made a short prayer to Satan that you would have quintuplets.

 

[awakeandready]

I bought one of the OK to Wake clocks but haven’t used it yet. He generally sleeps until 7:00 or later anyway and on weekends it’s not a big deal to let him watch TV in our bed while we keep sleeping.

 

[SmooveDeac]

Are those time clocks adjustable? The one nice thing about our child being a night owl is that he sleeps in every day - would be great if we could get him up at 8 instead of 7.

 

[LadyDeac03]

how much do you consider the 'it could be twins!' factor when deciding whether or not you want to have "just one more" ?

Yeah, that's definitely a scary possibility. We also had a good friend who had a third kid last year with Downs Syndrome and very serious heart issues (at least one surgery so far). So as we get older, things like that (both of which are higher chances in older moms) are considerations.

 

[ImTheCaptain]

Are those time clocks adjustable? The one nice thing about our child being a night owl is that he sleeps in every day - would be great if we could get him up at 8 instead of 7.

it's basically an alarm clock, so you can set the tone/light(s) to come on whenever you want

 

[lbE08]

Yeah, that's definitely a scary possibility. We also had a good friend who had a third kid last year with Downs Syndrome and very serious heart issues (at least one surgery so far). So as we get older, things like that (both of which are higher chances in older moms) are considerations.

this is one of my greatest motivators for wanting to make babies now. I recognize completely there are always risks and complications happen regardless of age, family history, etc.... but where the parents' age is a known contributing factor, I'd like to mitigate as much as possible.

 

[DeacsATS]

Yeah, that's definitely a scary possibility. We also had a good friend who had a third kid last year with Downs Syndrome and very serious heart issues (at least one surgery so far). So as we get older, things like that (both of which are higher chances in older moms) are considerations.

Our next door neighbor tried for a third for a few years. Just had the baby a few months ago and it was born without eyes. They had no idea until birth.

Shit like that is scary and awful. My wife is worried we are rolling the dice once too often, but I don’t think that’s a reason not to do it. Definitely a reason to do it sooner than later, though.

 

[awakeandready]

BORN WITHOUT EYES holy shit.