Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for September 25, 2009

Harsh. Of course, that means he can’t wake up Andy any earlier than the rest of the family, because an airhorn would go through the whole house.

An airhorn would go through the whole BLOCK! Still, I may consider that method for my 8-year-old …

Water was a handy dandy trick my dad occasionally used. Ice, cold water. GAH.

A carefully-aimed ice-pack is always good.

NOTHING worked on my daughter, and apparently still doesn’t, though she is now in college. Hope she actually graduates…

@darky…water is MY trick, works everytime. NOBODY wants to wake up soaking wet!

Maybe the airhorn can be toned down to only go in one person’s ears, if you hold it close enough to them…

“I’m not a morning person.” Earth to offspring, none of us are morning persons except our bosses.

How about letting Max wake up Holly……….

I used to pound on the bedroom door and loudly paraphrase a quote from John Wayne: C’mon, let’s go, yer burnin’ daylight!!

Worked every time.

This water throwing in the face happened to my mom when she was a child but it was done in meanness. Even her siblys did this to her. Her mother was not a good mom. When my mom talks its bad stories and childhood she is 84.

I always heard when a child is hard to get up place an a loud alarm clock they have to turn off, move the alarm away from the bed so they have to get out of bed to turn off the alarm.

My guess is that between Max and Lucie, they’re all up early at that house. And the sound of the kids shrieking when the airhorn sounds probably gets Andy to really scramble!

My 14 year old goes to bed on her own terms. In the morning I go in her room, turn off her white noise machine, turn on the light and her MP3 player and that’s it.

It really is hard for teens to go to sleep early. Hey, I’m still that way, I’ve just learned to survive on less sleep!

My parents let us stay up until 10 by the time we were Holly’s age, but homework was done right after supper with no TV (we didn’t even have one) or music, just the kids, books, and the living room floor or sofa.

My mom took off the covers, turned on the lights, and yelled. It worked.

Macushlalondra, so you’re against hitting a child in the face but not against making them permanently deaf?

Hasn’t Andy been 15 ever since he came to live there? Holly and Alex don’t seem to get much older either. Max has progressed a little - learned to walk, and now is talking but not very advanced.

My idiot brother needed to be introduced to Mr. Airhorn some time ago.

kab2rb–we tried to place the alarm away from my sister’s bed. It got her out of bed to turn off the alarm, but then she would fall asleep on the floor next to it! :) Mom usually used a water gun that she kept in the fridge. YOWZA! What a way to wake up!

My dad would yank the covers up and tell my shelty dog to get me up. A cold, wet nose on the back of the neck or bare leg is a very effective alarm clock…especially when it chases you around until you get up or fall out of bed. I’m pretty sure a fresh bowl of (ice) water was involved, too.

Ash, if the music they listen to hasn’t made them deaf already I don’t think an airhorn is going to.

My dad actually favored keeping marbles in the freezer. If you didn’t get up when you were supposed to he just lifted the covers and dumped them in with you. They were cold, they would follow you when you moved, and they didn’t make the sheets or mattress wet.

I would start playing a Van Halen album. The drum intro to “Hot For Teacher” could wake even the deepest sleeper.