The Saturday Review - The Gro-Clock

Now this Gro-Clock review is a tricky for me. I have to say that when I saw it in a mag recently that I truly wanted it to be the answer to our five and a half year old early rising problem that is FunnyGirl.

I have a very strong affinity with the guys at Grobag as I (yes little old me) was the PR who successfully launched their sleeping bag to the global masses.

When they came to me they had already had two unsuccessful PR's and they said to me...

"I don't think that you can get press on a baby sleeping bag."

That night I went home armed with the said Grobag. ModelGirl was our mini bambino of the time, she slept OK, woke early, went to bed late. Liked too much boobie action in the middle of the night (a bit like her dad).

I had no hopes - no dreams. Simply zipped her up and off she went.

That night there was no last feed at 11pm and I had the first full nights sleep that I had had since she was born.

I woke, startled and ran into her room fearing tragedy. I stopped listened. Not too hard mind you she was snoring her head off. I looked at the clock - it was 10am. She has been asleep for 13 and a half hours......

So to cut a long story short... How many people do you think that I told about that? From that night on ModelGirl went down to sleep at the same time as DinoBoy (or TotallySonny as he is now know) at around 6.30pm and didn't stir till at least 8 - or 9am the following day.

Whizz forward. ModelGirl is now seven, not far off eight. Funny girl will be turning six before the year is out. She is a morning person. No one else in this house is.....

This causes lots of grumpiness and unhappiness (mostly mine I have to say). It wouldn't be so bad if FunnyGirl didn't have a habit of falling asleep at inopportune moments like...school assembly...in her pizza... at her schools church service....

You get the picture. It drives us all crazy that she makes us get up before 6am and then she sleeps for England at her leisure.

There will be some of you out there saying, well don't let her have a sleep.

Yes... OK, you try and stop her. She has been known to fall asleep mid conversation or even once in a restaurant when I simply turned to the other side of me to pick up a napkin from the floor. I turned back to cut her food...... Gone.

So. You get the picture....... We neeeeeeeeed FunnyGirl to stay in bed. Just for one day, just till it's normal O'Clock. Six would be good. Seven would be nirvana.

I saw the Gro-Clock in a mag and so I called the Gro MD (name dropping if you like) and asked him to send me one. He kindly obliged.

It arrived the next day. "Look" I said to FunnyGirl, "How exciting a special clock for you - that is going to tell you when it's time for you to get up in the morning."

"But I know when to get up mum." she said

"When's that?" I tentatively asked

"Cuddle time!".....

Ahh yes, I knew that well. It was cuddle past darkness in the not time to get up past scale.

But now I had a plan....

Set the time wrong I pleaded to hubby, but he being the more honest (not in PR one of our partnership) said NO. "She's not stupid."

And he was right. So we set the clock. At night time it shows the moon and you set it to whatever time you want it to show the sun. Plenty of opportunities to make them sleep in till lunch time if you so choose but not on hubby's watch!

Off we went to bed.

Day 1 - Funny girl stormed in at 5 something... we had had a later than usual night wrongly thinking that we may actually get to stay in bed till 6... Wishful thinking.

She was so excited that she woke early to wait for the moon picture to change to the sun and after at least an hour of waiting she had to rush in to tell us that her stupid new clock didn't work.

You can't pull the wool over her eyes!

Day 2. By this point I was starting to feel like the wolf in the three little pigs, continually out smarted by those pesky little blighters.

Again, she pounced on us earlier than usual. Fine I thought. This calls for a plan.

So I said to her.... "Tomorrow morning I will meet you at 5am at farmer Giles field where we will pick apples..."....eeeekkkkk Ok so I read too many Ladybird books. She wasn't going to be that easy to out smart and as it happened we kind of settled on a mid ground.

We agreed to a wake up time of 6.30am. That if she wakes before then - that she has to play in her room.

A couple of weeks have passed and the one thing that having the Gro-Clock has taught me is that FunnyGirl had no idea of what time it really was when she woke up.

So to come in to our room to be met by two grumpy parents, really wasn't her fault.

Wake up time - is just like bed time and play time. It's set by boundaries and whilst most five year olds could probably tell you what time they go to bed - how many of them could tell you what time they're supposed to get up?

Gro-Clock taught me a lesson. It taught me that I shouldn't expect my wonderful daughter to live by rules that I don't tell her even exist?

All that aside - it is a pretty cool nursery clock - and I like it.

Gro-Clock RRP £39.99 is MummyTips Must Buy for any young child. I just wish that I had tried it sooner - I may have had a few extra hours sleep in my life! Well done Rob and Ouv, another fab product.