There are some parenting ideas you hear about and immediately think: Absolutely not. That will never work on my kid.

For me, that was the 'ok to wake' clock.

During a brutal stretch of early mornings, nap transitions and general sleep chaos, I finally gave it a go, fully expecting it to fail.

Instead, it worked. And quickly.

In this episode, I talk about introducing the green light, accidentally terrifying my child, laying the praise on thick and the moment I realised she was standing in her cot, patiently waiting for it to turn green.

There’s also a cautionary tale about fiddling with apps at 5:45am and the deep satisfaction of watching your kid feel proud of themselves for figuring something out.

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Wangal people, of the Eora Nation.

I pay my respects to Elders past and present.

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Host: Rachel Corbett

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Hello there.

Now, there are some things in parenting that you think there's no way that this thing is gonna work.

Conceptually.

It just doesn't make sense in your head because you know your kid, you've been around your kid a whole lot, and you're like, I understand it works for other kids, but I can't imagine it working for mine.

And then you use it and you're like, holy, it worked.

And that has been my experience with the okay to wake clock.

What a game changer.

I talked a little bit a couple of episodes ago about how I moved into the zone of watching movies, sometimes two in a day, from no television to so much television, thanks to a period of nap transition hell.

You'll also recall there was an episode that reflected on when you want to walk out of your life, which was also inspired by this period of sleep hell.

Anyway, another thing, apart from watching movies in the morning and thinking about my life choices that sprung out of that time was a feeling that I really needed to try this okay to wake clock business.

Now, if you don't know, an okay to wake clock is just like a clock that goes.

It's usually red overnight at bedtime.

It turns red at bedtime.

So kids are like, oh, it's bedtime, the clock's red, and then it turns green in the morning when it's okay to wake.

And the idea is that you want kids to stay in their bedroom or stay in their bed until the point at which it's like, oh, it's actually morning time.

Because ultimately you.

Your kid has no grasp of morning time, you know, and at daylight savings time, lights streaming through the windows at five something or other.

And so they're like, well, what do you mean, it looks like morning to me.

So I was really struggling with this with my kid when she was waking up really early, and I was trying to adjust it and work out, is this the naps?

Is this.

She's overtired, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But I would keep going in every morning and say, it's not morning yet.

And there was no indication, apart from a bit of light coming in the window, that she had to be like, well, how the hell am I supposed to tell that's morning?

You know, you a hole.

And I was like, if I hear my name called out one more time before there's a six at the front of the time, then I'm going to lose my tiny mind.

So I thought, I'm going to give this thing a try.

I had had a conversation with a sleep consultant Maybe six months prior to using it.

And I implemented it when she was sort of two and nine months.

I guess she might have a two and ten months maybe, but.

But I had had a conversation maybe six months earlier than that where the sleep consultant had said, she's probably a bit too early for it.

Like, there is a point at which they don't quite get the concept yet, so there's not really much point in doing it.

Although I do think if you want to get on top of things early, there's nothing that I've done and started before she was aware of it that hasn't actually paid dividends later because they get so used to it and they know it's a part of the routine.

It's like even reading books, you know when they're a blob and you're sitting there reading this book, you're like, you can't even see the page.

You never know what's going on here.

But it becomes such a part of their routine that all of that work before they even know, sort of makes it work a bit better when you do decide to finally kind of implement it.

So I do think there'd be some value in at least having a visual thing there that you're like, oh, this is on now.

And then the green light comes on.

And even if they don't get it, they still see it.

And it's not like you're having to introduce something brand new to the system.

Because I always think that's the hard bit is once they get to a certain age, you're like, now you're aware, you're conscious, you're really used to your room and things being a certain way.

And now I have to introduce change.

So there's going to be a bit of friction there.

And sure enough, the first time that I tried it, she cried because she's like, why is there a green light in my room?

This is terrifying what's happening.

So I again spoke to the sleep consultant when I was going through this period of nap transition, as I always do, call other professionals, can't recommend it highly enough.

And I flagged this idea of, you know, the okay to wake clock.

And she was like, yes, I think it's a good time for you to trial it, because ultimately you're trying to say to your kid, it's not morning yet and we don't get up until it's morning.

So I couldn't be bothered spending money on a whole nother thing.

My white noise has a green light on it.

Fantastic.

And Then I found out that you can access the white noise machine from an app.

I had no idea.

I'm literally sneaking into a room when I have to wake her up and turning the thing off with my finger.

No, I don't need to be doing that.

I could be standing outside with a capitee in my hand and just press it off.

So I find this all out at the same time.

I'm like, brilliant.

I'm going to introduce the green light.

I thought, I will start with her nap because it's quite a big thing to start it in the morning, but at least on a nap, it's in the middle of the day.

It just seemed like less of a big thing than having her wake up and be like, holy crap, why is my light green?

So, sure enough, I tried it on the first nap and she did have a meltdown because her white noise machine has turned green.

It's gone moldy over the nap.

And so of course she's like, well, what's happened?

This is a disaster.

And so she had quite the mental breakdown.

But I walked in there and I said, oh, my gosh, you slept till the green light came on.

Really lighted on thick.

Like, overrigged.

The pudding, you know, lent heavily into the congratulations.

Making her feel good about herself.

Oh, aren't you proud of yourself?

Really went hard on it all.

And she was quite taken aback, like, oh, all this praise for just waking up and having a meltdown at a green light.

So we move on with our lives and we talk about it all afternoon.

I'm talking to her about it all afternoon.

She's telling me how the green light came on, and I'm thinking, okay, right.

The concept is starting to kind of ground itself within her.

She's sort of understanding.

As soon as she's starting to process things, I'm like, okay, now we're getting somewhere.

I was like, I reckon we're probably going to be a week of this and then we'll be through the other side.

Oh, no.

Couple of days, we were golden.

The next morning, this was through the period where she was only getting up at like 4 or 5ish, something.

I think she made it all the way to.

It might have been like 5:55.

And I could see her start to wriggle.

And I was like, we need a win here.

We need a win because we've got to start showing the positive reinforcement.

So I quickly turned the green light on, and then she's up the green light.

She remembered the green light.

Obviously it was a new concept.

Yesterday.

But she's seen it again.

She's like, mommy, the green light, the green light.

I came in.

Oh, my goodness.

You slept all the way to morning time again.

Laid it on thick.

I think this is an essential part of the process.

You got to really make them feel validated about the whole thing.

And from that point on, we were golden.

That nap that day, I usually have to wake her up from a nap.

So I just put it on and then she woke up from the nap.

We did the whole routine again.

And then the next morning, I wake up at 6 o' clock for the first time in I cannot tell you how long.

My alarm went off.

I woke up, I thought something terrible had gone on.

I was like, she can't still be asleep.

Oh my gosh, she's made it past 6 o'.

Clock.

This has not happened in so long.

There hasn't been a peep out of her.

I run outside to the monitor.

I look at the monitor.

She is standing up in her cot with her hands on the edge of the cot and her chin on her hands, looking at the white noise machine, waiting for it to turn green.

Oh, my God.

I was like, I actually can't believe that this is working.

And it is working so quickly.

And now we're a green light family, baby, every single day.

And anytime we go out with people.

Oh, does she not love to tell everybody that we sleep until the green light comes on?

Favorite thing in her conversation.

Grab bag.

Loves to tell everybody about it.

So proud of herself.

Just like, so cool and also awesome to see her see herself achieve this and be like, I love this.

I love this feeling.

I'm going to try and do it more.

I will say trap for young players.

There was a moment when I was fiddling around with the app because I wasn't really sure of how everything worked.

And I thought, I'll just have a bit of a play around with all the settings.

I wonder if you could preset something so it turns on at a different time.

My advice would not be to do that when you've actually got a sleeping child that's about to wake up.

Because it was 5:45 one morning.

I think I'd woken up a bit earlier and I wanted to make sure that I was on the green light train.

It was still very early days and I'm standing at her door kind of working out, oh, I wonder if I could set this and blah, blah, blah.

And I thought, oh, maybe I'll turn this off and see what happens.

Don't do that.

It Turned the entire bloody white noise off.

And up she shoots at 5:45.

And now I'm like scrambling to try and find the green light because I thought she shot up.

And then she looked at the green light, she was like, oh, it's not on yet.

And she went back and laid down.

I thought, oh, thank God, I've gotten out of it.

Oh, but no, she was up in two seconds and up she and I standing out the door.

You know when you do those things and you just, like, everything was going so well and then you stuffed it up, you idiot.

Just any app playing around, do it when the child is awake and there are no consequences to be had.

Because I was just like, I could have gotten 15 extra minutes apiece, but instead she's calling out to me because for some reason the white noise randomly turned off at 5:45.

And that never happens, but that is because your mother is an idiot.

And she's playing with this thing outside the door, trying to work out how she can.

Oh, how can I optimize this system at 5:45 in the morning?

Because I got nothing better to do with my life.

So anyway, don't do that.

But if you're at the age where you think they might be able to understand the concept of an okay to wake clock or some kind of green light situation that goes on, truly, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

An absolute game changer.

I'm now in the realm where we've been doing it for a while, and I can see she's woken up, she's looked the green lights on.

So she's like, I don't need to get up.

And I just leave it now at 6, 6:15, I see how far I can push it.

Eventually she gets to the point where she's like, oh, I'm Jack at this.

I'm standing up.

So she gets her little lemur and she stands up in her cot and she waits.

And at that point I'm like, okay, fair play.

It's 20 past.

I'm just sitting out here watching below deck.

So I think I could probably turn the green light on now, give you break.

But it's so good.

If you have a great experience with it, please let me know.

I would love to hear about it because, yes, I have my chef's kisses for it all over it.

Thank you so much for listening.

If you enjoy the show, please, I would love it if you shared it with somebody who would also enjoy it.

And I will see you next week.