My 9 Year Old Son Wakes up at 7am to Do Pushups
I don’t know if I should be proud or alarmed.
We are creatures of habit in my house. When the pandemic first started, I became lax with our schedules. There was no point in getting up early and getting to bed early with all of us being home doing school and work virtually. Over time, we gravitated back to our schedules.
A year later, we have a new pandemic schedule. We continue to get up before the children to have our morning coffee in peace. We watch podcasts and usually end up pausing once or twice to discuss what we hear.
The children are in a hybrid schedule with alternating weeks in person. During the in-person weeks, they get up at 7am to have time for breakfast before leaving for school at 8am. During the virtual weeks, I let the children sleep in. I usually wake them up at 8am so they have time before starting virtual learning at 8:45. But recently, my son has set an alarm to wake up at 7am even on virtual weeks.
I was surprised when I heard an alarm going off in his room this morning at 7am. I looked at my husband in shock. Did he really set his echo dot to wake him up at 7am? My husband nodded proudly.
Being that it wasn’t Christmas, I wondered what prompted him to get up early. My son loves sleeping in. He is proud of the sign in his room that says “Don’t Wake the Bear”.
So when my son came downstairs to greet the dogs this morning, I asked why he set an alarm. Apparently, he wanted extra time before school. He used this time to eat breakfast, watch You Tube and do his morning workout, which consisted of 50 pushups.
I was impressed. While I get up early to enjoy alone time with my husband, my son got up early to do pushups! It reminded me of a joke I read on reddit. The premise is that the guy was scared of his son because he was turning into a mini David Goggins.
After my son did his pushups, my husband went in his room to ask him who was going to carry the boats!
Over the years, we’ve made it a point to teach the children they need to work hard to be successful. They’ve seen us struggle with this concept ourselves. My husband left a stable job to pursue a career as a software developer. He’s been out of work since the pandemic started. I’ve recently been pushing myself to write, learn and experience as much as possible. We are constantly watching podcasts and videos in self improvement. We are trying new techniques and talking about them.
Recently we’ve been focused on the Wim Hof method. My husband started it with meditation and cold showers. This lead to everyone in the house trying cold showers. Even my 6 year old daughter!
We challenge ourselves to grow. We are focused on improving ourselves and our lives. I guess that has rubbed off on my son. I’m not sure if his 7am alarm will continue but I do know I’m proud of him. I’m proud that he’s slowly understanding you get what you want by working for it. If there is anything I can teach my children in this life it will be to work hard.
With all the You Tubers children watch, I worry they think money comes easy. Kids want what they see. We live in an average size house in a decent neighborhood. We are middle class. My son constantly talks about nice cars and mansions and I often worry his definition of success will be purely financial. But today, I saw a different side of him.
I saw a side of him that wants to challenge himself. A kid who usually grumbles when he wakes up in the morning shot out of bed ready to take on the day.
Between virtual schooling, video games and being stuck at home, children have it tough these days. I’m thankful we’ve been able to continue hiking so the kids get some time outdoors. During these hikes, we usually speak to the kids about their challenges and reinforce the message that they must challenge themselves to grow. It seems this message hasn’t fallen on deaf ears.
It may all be wishful thinking. My son may go back to sleeping in and grumbling tomorrow morning. But I’m thankful for his behavior today. I’m thankful to see a side of him I didn’t know existed. And I’m excited to see what other challenges he’ll take on.
