Teenagers like to sleep late and if you have a defiant teen, it may become a daily chore to get him out of bed. Let’s take for example, a child who has to be to school at eight o’clock in the morning. You go to his room and wake him up at seven. Then you go back a couple of minutes later and wake him up again, and then again, and again.

You do whatever you can to get him out of bed. You may even have to drag him out of bed. Now your teen may curse at you, or maybe he does not even curse, but you just cannot get him out of bed.

What do you do?

First of all, let’s examine this situation a little more deeply. A child of any age who goes to school must get to school on time. Whose problem is that? Is it your problem or your teen’s problem to get to school on time?

If you are the one taking responsibility to make sure your teen gets up in time for school, then you have made it your problem. The truth is you have already been to school and you know that getting to school on time is not your problem, it is your teen’s problem.

It is his obligation to make sure he gets to school on time and it is up to him to face the consequences when he is late for school. He is the one that will get a detention, he is the one that will get expelled, he is the one that will miss classes, and he is the one that has to spend his time catching up.

When you examine it that way, being late for school is his problem, not your problem. You do not want to take responsibilities for problems that are not yours. You want to teach your teenager to become a responsible person and the only way to do that is by giving him responsibility.

It is your teenager’s job to be on time for school. What do you do exactly?

This is what you should do. If your teenager has to get up at seven o’clock to be at school by eight, then go to his room and wake him up once. If he does not get up, then he will sleep late. Let’s say he gets up at ten o’clock in the morning – if he is late for school, then he must face the consequences of being late.

He is going to be unhappy with you but he is going to learn that it is his responsibility to get up on time because you are not covering for him. That is what you have to teach him. You have to teach him responsibility. When he is an adult, his wife is not going to get him up for work, his boss is not going to get him up for work, he is going to be responsible to get up himself.

You have to teach your teenager to take responsibility now while he is still young and the consequences are small, so that when he is older, and has real responsibilities, he will take responsibility for himself. That is your job as a parent.

You cannot take responsibility for your child or your teenager. He has obligations that he must fulfill for himself and it is your job as a parent to make sure that he learns to take these responsibilities.

At a later time we will discuss what to do if your child really does not want to go to school and he is sleeping in because of that reason. But if your child is interested in going to school and just wants to sleep late and makes it your responsibility to wake him up, you have to give the responsibility back to him.