Yes, an alarm clock. A seemingly small thing and yet I would argue an incredibly significant item as a parent of #teens in regards to teaching responsibility and independence.

I will confess that this is something we are a little late coming to and still one that we aren’t consistent with. It is sometimes “easier” to just wake them up ourselves (especially if we are already up as my DH often is). As we all know, the process of helping our children become more independent is often more time-consuming and likely has some risk involved. There is more opportunity for failure. For this example there is a chance they may not wake up and be late to their practice/job/school in the morning. This is a hard thing for us as parents—to allow our children to fail, to suffer the natural consequences. It goes against our natural instincts. We are wired to protect them, to set them up for success, to do what we can to help them.

To be honest, my oldest has been doing this for awhile. 1st born and uber responsible. Seems to go together right? And luckily for her siblings, she will often help them out by making sure they are awake/on time/ready to go as well.

But, we have purchased alarm clocks for all their rooms (no phones in bedrooms so we go old school) and moving forward, everyone is on their own (but who am I kidding, I’ll be listening to hear that they’re up and about because as all moms know, we hear every sound that comes from their rooms!). 16.5yrs since I first gave birth and I still wake up with every bedspring squeak, cough/sneeze, door opening/closing & footstep in the hallway.

So, the training for adulthood will continue and we will continue to try to let them succeed or fail on their own. And, I will continue to reward their efforts and independence with praise, a trip for ice cream or s’mores on the fire pit (but that is another post😉).

I would love to hear stories about this topic from other parents of teens! Are you an alarm clock family or a mom/dad clock family?