What should I do if my baby is grumpy when waking up? Why do children get grumpy when waking up?

Every day before I wake my child up, I see an angelic face. The next second, after I wake my child up, the face instantly turns into a howling cry or an unhappy groan. So what should I do if my baby is grumpy when I wake up? Why do children get grumpy when they wake up?

Make sure your child gets enough sleep

In fact, if adults are grumpy in the morning, it is probably due to lack of sleep. The same is true for children. Babies to two years old basically need 12 hours of sleep at night. Children aged 3 to 5 need about 13 hours. Children aged 5 to 12 need about 10 to 11 hours.

So first of all, we need to make sure that the child gets enough sleep at night. If the child takes a long nap, he will sleep late at night. He will be very irritable when he wakes up in the morning, and then he will start a cycle of taking a long nap again.

Morning ritual before bed

Let them go to bed 30 minutes earlier than usual to prepare for sleep. Turn off the TV or mobile phone early, let them wear comfortable pajamas, and then read some stories to relax them. This bedtime ritual is recommended by too many experts. Let them have this good habit, and both you and your children will benefit! The same is true in the morning. It is best to have a standard ritual for preparing for school every morning. Children don’t have to think too much or face too many choices. They can just do it directly, which will not evoke their bad emotions. My eldest daughter likes me to explain to her in advance the development process of things, so I usually repeat it in the morning: Let’s brush our teeth first, then change clothes, eat breakfast, and then we can get in Dad’s car and get ready to go out! He is very familiar with the subsequent process, and will remind me by himself, and his emotions will be more stable.

Advance Preparation

If you are a working woman, it is best to get up an hour earlier than your children, take care of your own affairs first, and then wake your children up. It is best to prepare school supplies the night before. Otherwise, when you get up in the morning, there are too many things to prepare, and adults will become more irritable and will not have the patience to deal with children's emotions. Children's emotions mostly reflect the emotions of their parents. If adults are irritable in the morning, it is certainly difficult for children to be in a good mood!

Wake up naturally

As an adult, we always think that waking up naturally is the happiest thing! The same is true for children. If you wake them up suddenly, their bodies don’t have time to react, which can easily cause emotional problems.

Ten minutes before the child is due to wake up, draw the curtains or turn on the light, and open the door. Let the sounds of the environment slowly convey the message of waking up to the child, allowing them to wake up naturally.

Sometimes, because we are in a hurry, we wake our children up at the last minute and hope they get up immediately, which can easily trigger emotional problems in children.

Control your emotions

Let them know that it is not a good thing to lose temper in the morning, and they must learn to control themselves. Parents should encourage them to learn.

All the emotional problems you think your child has, you may actually have them yourself. For adults, controlling emotions is not an easy thing, but at least you should let your child understand that this is a bad behavior, and we should work hard to improve it gradually.

Before going to bed at night, use picture books with relevant themes to guide them to understand. And when they do well, provide some practical or verbal encouragement!

Exploiting games

Some experts would suggest that you can have some small competitions between children, such as having them compete to see who can get ready and sit at the table first? However, I was a little afraid that my unintentional actions would encourage competition and opposition between the two children.

So, if I want to use games as a method, I will try to let them compete with adults, so that they still find it fun and the two children will be less likely to compare with each other.