I can't believe I am posting this- but I cannot got our 13 year old up and out of bed! It really was not long ago that I wish for him to sleep longer. He goes to bed at 9pm. Goes to sleep shortly there after cuz he has to be up and out the door at 7am. It's been a struggle this summer getting him up but 6:45-this means no tooth brushing or breakfast. In the past few days he has rolled out of bed when his van shows up at 7!

Any good ideas to motivate him to get up?

How about one of those hand held compressed air horns? You could also try snatching all of the blankets off of his bed.

I know kids can be sound sleepers, but mine hate it when the covers are pulled off of the bed... once that happens, they are no longer in that nice, warm, sleep inducing place anymore. One trick that works for us also, let the very excited dogs in the house to go get them up.

Throw a pack of Black Cats in his trash can. If they start a trash fire, all the better reason to get out of bed chop chop.

Make him drink an entire quart of water right before bed.

Another one I heard is to keep a large bag of marbles in the freezer. When the alarm goes off, go in and dumb the marbles in bed with him.

Yes, perhaps I *should* change my name to evilninjamom. ; )

Air Horn, Frozen Marbles, Fireworks...y'all are my types of parents. You could be super evil and just start a chainsaw in his room. That'd wake him right up. *VVVVVrrrmmmmMMMm* "Hope you don't like these video games." "I'M UP! I'M UP!"

I have lots of issues waking Vampire the Nocturnal Four Year Old up, and I've just taken to dumping the dog on him and letting the dog annoy him awake. The problem is when he sneaks back to bed. 7am is going to be super fun in a few weeks. Sigh.

Caffeine? When I was around that age, my mom started bringing me a cup of tea in the morning. Made all the difference in the world.

Or a really obnoxious alarm clock. I had one for a while that got louder and changed pitches and beeping patterns, so you couldn't get used to it and sleep through it. I think it was called the Banshee.

Good luck!

There's always Clocky.

ThinkGeek also has a wide array of alarm clocks, including a flying one.

We always had pets going up. Mom would plop down the pets in our rooms and shut the doors.

My sister is the only one that repeatedly got pee'd on. My brother and I learned quickly...

Can he get a nap in during the day? Some teens need 12 or more hours of sleep - they're really not just lazy. :)

I would tell him in the morning that if he can't get up by 6:30 that tells you he needs more sleep and he'll have to start going to be earlier at night. Wake him u once and remind him that if he doesn't get up the bedtime will get earlier and earlier. If that doesn't work, cold marbles sound deliciously sadistic!

Mike- The air horn sounds like a great suggestion. I'll let you know how that goes.

Ninjamom-I really like the idea of the frozen marble. That is at the top of my list.

Julia- We tried caffeine. We even brought it to him in bed. It did not help.

Mamwho- He does nap on the way to and from school. The bus route is about an hour long. Sometimes he even naps on the couch if I don't nag him to go out and play with his friends. I worry about depression with him if he is sleeping too much during the day.

Thanks everyone for your helpful advice! I'll let you know how they work.

Sasy, is he due for some growing?

There's a silly clock that bleeps loudly when the alarm goes off, but then it literally drives around the room until you catch it and turn it off. Meconium showed it once, but I don't know what its name is.

We had 6 kids in the house -- 4 of us in high school all at once. Getting us up and out became an art. My father would threaten us with a wet washcloth to the face. I don't remember ever actually have him place the darn thing on my face, but the idea of it jarred me right out of sleep.

The other thing he would do was come to the door and sing in a really off-key voice something really, really corny. His favorite was the song from the Yucca Dew shampoo commercial. I'm sure I'm dating myself with knowledge of that product. But dang, it worked. Anything to make him stop.

Sailor's mom is evil, she used ice cubes to wake him up.

My mom just perfected the wake up voice. It has just the right about of sheer panic in it to make you think the house is on fire.

Kat, that's really, really funny. I can imagine my dad doing that, and yeah, i'd be up in an instant. obviously the tune would be different, something like maybe the aeroplane jelly song. or the happy little vegemites tune. stick in your head for days, they do, still running the same jingles 50+ years on, cos they work SO well.

my stepmother used to slam kitchen cupboards for half an hour every morning, then wash the dishes loudly and with attitude, then slam more cupboards, then charge down the hallway flinging our bedroom doors open and screaming our names. she was sort of like a drill sergeant. she still does this now, i've heard, at least the cupboards part. freaking sociopath.

My dad would come in my room, fling open the door, throw my covers on the floor, leave my bedroom door open and go downstairs and proceed to make a lot of noise in the kitchen.

I hated that.

But I'd say, find a song he thinks is really annoying and play it on a loop really loudly.

DGB, maybe your dad and my stepmother attended the same seminar...

Well, if you're looking for songs to bellow at the top of your lungs, you can't go wrong with Meow Mix. Maybe you can get one of those mom megaphones.

Also, I think the idea of a parent coming in and singing badly is really sort of sweet. My Aunt would do the "Okay, wake up." *minutes later* "Wake UP!" *later* "If you don't get up NOW, you're never going to find a parking place at school and you're going to be late! NOW NOW NOW!!!!"