As a child I remember I would be woken up my father on all working days. I was expected to be up by 6 AM to be ready to go to school in time. And I also remember that every morning it used to be a bargaining session with me asking for a few minutes more to sleep and my dad would allow me an additional 2 minutes but I would stretch it to five invariably.

There were also days when my dad would leave me to sleep those two minutes and he would in the meanwhile get busy with some other chores. By the time he would remember that I am still not out of bed it would be way too late and the next think I would feel was that nasty YANK!!!! and I am out of bed. OUCH!!

Now I am much older and a father of two boys in my own right. I am now in the same position that my dad was years ago. If any, the school bus timings are earlier and that means no room for slippage. But kids will always be kids and no matter how hard and strict I am with them trying to get them to go into bed at night at 9.30 PM sharp, it invariably slips to 9.45 or 10 PM thereby depriving them of that 15 to 30 mins of sleep.

Nothing has changed otherwise. Each morning I am reminded of me as I try to wake up the little monsters and they stretch out and sleepily say "10 more minutes Acha" and then bargain it down to 5 minutes and then down to 2 minutes.  (Quite a change there huh cos I remember I used to stretch it).

Well there are days when I too get involved with something in those two minutes - the milk on the stove about to boil over or answering the door bell that goes off just then and stuff like that. 
Trying to get them out of bed the minute I wake them up leads them to being cranky and not in the best  mood.

Off late I have tried to switch over to what I call the 100 Kiss approach and believe me it works like magic in two minutes and they are up smiling, laughing and happy. After I ask them to wake up, I warn them I am gonna give them a hundred kisses. Then I go on to kiss them so as to Tickle them awake starting with gentle pecks and progressively making them more and more ticklish.

By the time I am through with it, they would be begging me to stop  and would be more than happy to jump out of bed than endure one more. What is more....they wake up laughing and I have seen they are happier children for the rest of the day. Quite Unwittingly I think I have also hit upon a way to tell the child YOU CARE. When else in our busy lives do we get time during the day to stop and give a Hundred Kisses to you loving kids?

I am convinced about one thing for sure - without a hundred kisses I can so very well remember how my father woke me up...imagine what a Hundred Kisses can do? (Does that sound a bit like the Seagrams Hundred Pipers Whiskey advt?) Whichever way call it good parenting or call it better management tactics as you please

P.S  It has been found to work on my wife too So does that mean its Back to School for her??