After reading Parenting with Love and Logic™, Tim’s mom instituted a new bedtime policy. She told Tim that picking a sleep time was his decision. He was expected to be in his room at 8:00 each evening, but he could decide when to go to sleep. In addition to this, everyone in the family was to have “feet on the floor” at 6:00 a.m. No exceptions.
Tim slept through his alarm the next morning, only to discover that the family was leaving the house without him. A rather unpleasant babysitter took over and charged him for her services.
Needless to say, he was ready the next morning. This continued through the last four weeks of school. All during summer vacation, much to his liking, he got to sleep longer.
Now that school was soon to open, Tim came to his mom with an idea. “Mom, I’m going to run some experiments. I’m going to set my alarm for 6:00 a.m. Will you get me out of bed no matter how much I complain?”
“Now why would you want me to do that, Tim?”
“I’m running some experiments. Each night I’m going to go to bed a little later until I figure out how late I can go to sleep and still wake up in time. Since it’s my decision, I better learn how to make it a good one.”