My DS9 is giving me a hard time about his morning routine. [...] This seems like such a simple routine to achieve.
Not to a pessimist or anything, but:
BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!
OK. Seriously. For our household almost all our success hinges on one thing... getting to bed on time the night before.
If he's in bed & asleep by 9:15p or so, he will *always* wake up @ 6:30a all on his own. (In fact, I have come to rely on him for our alarm clock.) We discuss the "deal" at nighttime and (rarely) allow any morning negotiations or modifications.
His 6:30a rising allows a very comfortable 75 minutes to get out of the house. And provided he gets everything done, he's allowed to bang around on the computer until it's time to go. The key is to be 100% ready FIRST.
If I come downstairs and he's not ready & is on the CPU, I hit the power button & send him up to finish... and then the computer "carrot" is taken away for a few days.
I remember back to my own trials and tribulations with morning duties and am so tickled at how well he's done. It almost helps to make up for some of the knucklehead stuff he does at other times (almost).
Our second is starting K this year and has already been part of our "routine" for the last several months... and nearly every time our morning "falls apart" it can be traced back to not getting in bed on time the night before.
My two cents... a special gift for you :-)
