I haven’t slept for 6 years! Ok, well I have slept, but haven’t had a full night sleep since my son was born! Since the day he was born he was a power napper. My friends said “don’t worry about cleaning and catching up….. when he sleeps, you sleep,” but who gets a good sleep among 20 minute power naps? Fast forward 6 years and, although he goes to bed at a good time, he wakes up every night, and tries to climb into bed with mommy and daddy.
Now, before kids I wouldn’t have understood this. I’m the parent, you tell him to go back to bed and that’s that! But for some reason, exhaustion sets in, and this just isn’t as easy in the of the middle of the night as I thought it would be. The ease of letting him climb into bed became routine, and the ease of me never sleeping again became a norm. Exhaustion had set in until just recently when my husband and I took a kid-free vacation for a week, and I once again remembered how wonderful it was to sleep all night, how rested I felt and what a different person I am when I am rested! So, an action plan had to be put into place!
We have had the GroClock at home for a bit of time, but in all honesty I have been afraid to use it. I was quite convinced that my son was not the kiddo that would go for a clock with a sunshine to tell him when to wake up. He usually thinks things through a little more thoroughly and isn’t “tricked” persay into doing things he doesn’t want to do. But, desperate times…
Three weeks in and it actually works; I have now slept for 3 weeks straight, which I am so incredibly grateful for! Each night we talk about getting up when the clock turns into a sunshine. We have made it achievable as he is naturally a morning person anyway. We have the sun set to come on at 6:30, and he excitedly comes into our room when he realizes he has stayed in his bed all night until the sun “shows his face” on his clock!
I had my doubts to be honest, I didn’t think this product would work with my son, and I was hesitant to try it out in case I was that one person that it didn’t work for, but yahoooo, and a hip hip hooray for a good night’s sleep! Customers have always told me it worked well but I am so thankful now to be able to say from personal experience, with a very smart, strong minded child that the GroClock works amazingly!
But don’t just take my word for it – we sent an email to a bunch of our customers that have purchased the GroClock … here is what they had to say!
Melissa from Toronto, ON
We love our GroClock so much that when it shorted out in a Cuban electrical socket we ran out and bought a new one as soon as we got home! Its an integral part of our bedtime routine and really help us get through a tough stage with our son when we transitioned him to a bed from a crib. He used to get out of bed at all hours of the night and also resist going to bed, but now when he sees the star he knows its “nigh nigh” and that he has to wait for the sun to come up to get out of bed!
Started using it at 20 months. Easy to use. Saw results in two nights.
LR from Halifax, NS
I LOVE the Gro Clock!! I bought it for my son who was nearly 3 at the time because he was waking between 5:00 and 5:30 am EVERY DAY, as well as waking his baby brother at that time. It has changed our lives. It didn’t take long at all for him to get the concept of the clock, although it did take a little bribery to get him to care about that concept as much as we did. He would get a little treat if he didn’t get out of bed in the morning until he saw the sun on the clock. We started the wake up time early so he would be sure to see the sun the first few days when he woke up so he’d be excited about it, then we gradually moved the wake up time later by 5 min increments. We now sleep until 6:30 every day, and we never hear a peep out of him until he sees the sun on his clock! And it was only a few weeks before we got to that point. I only wish I bought this clock sooner. I would recommend it to anyone who has an early riser. The only thing I don’t like about the clock is that on a couple of occasions the sun didn’t come on in the morning even though it was set appropriately. Maybe just a problem with ours, I don’t know, but generally it works great. Also functions as a night light if you want and you can set the level of light from low to high. Great, great product.
Nicole in Sherbrooke, QC
I first bought the GroClock in Europe when I found my then 2 year old daughter sitting in the living room at 3am telling me, ‘I’m hungry, Mommy. Can I have some Cheerios?’ I knew something had to be done!! Kids (like every one of us) wake up a bit throughout the night, but as adults we know it’s not morning yet and we go back to sleep. Kids just aren’t able to tell when it’s morning, and once they wake up, they’re ready to get going. The clock was an instant success!
When my son moved to a bed at 2 years of age, I bought him one too. He’s naturally an early riser, so it’s been very helpful to keep him in bed until a reasonable hour. The one thing I’d suggest though is not to set the sun to come up too long after your child naturally wakes up or they get fed up waiting for the sun!!
We just moved back to Canada 2 months ago, so I was delighted to see that Snuggle Bugz was now selling the GroClock – I ordered 2 for my children for x-mas! Every night as part of our bedtime routine I say, ‘So what will you do if you wake up and the sun’s not up?’ and they say, ‘Roll over and go right back to sleep!’ They are now 4 and 6 years old, they love their clocks…and so do we!
Find the groClock at SnuggleBugz.ca
Sarah from Hamilton, ON
I bought this clock for my son (2.75 yrs old) who was giving us an earlier wakeup than I wanted. I loved the idea behind it and couldn’t wait to try it. We used it for 5 days and did not have great experience. He would now wake up throughout the night, and because he normally slept in a dark room the glow from the clock would catch his attention and instead of falling back asleep he would call out “Oh, now there are 6 stars left!!!” “Oh, now there are 4 stars left!!!”. The groclock turned into more trouble than it was worth. We would rather have a solid night sleep with an early wake up than constant night wakings.
Carly from Toronto, ON
I received the GroClock as a gift for my daughter’s 2nd birthday. My best friend had heard me moaning about how exhausted I was, since my daughter had suddenly developed the habit of waking up at 5am every day.
Skeptical, I plugged in the clock and read all the instructions. I set the GroClock’s “wake up” time for 7:30am, and that night I showed it to my daughter. I explained to her that when she saw the blue star, it was time to sleep, and when she saw the yellow sun, it was time to wake up and Mommy would come and get her. I repeated this several times: Blue: Sleep. Yellow: Come get you.
The VERY next morning, I woke up feeling oddly refreshed. I looked at my clock and was shocked to see it was 7:20am. I stilled, listening, and sure enough, I could hear my daughter quietly talking and singing to herself in her room, but she wasn’t yelling for me starting at 5am as she had been for weeks. And then it happened. 7:30 hit, and I heard her yell out, “MOMMY IT’S YELLOW COME GET YOU!”
Ever since then, she has slept in later and consistently stayed quiet until the magic 7:30 mark. And right on the nose, as soon as the clock gently changes colour at 7:30 from a blue star to a yellow sun, she yells out for Mommy and Daddy, “YELLOW COME GET YOU!”
This works for naptime, too, though we haven’t taken advantage of the nap time setting. All we have to do is set the clock to blue and she takes it as a sign to settle down. It’s really quite a miracle device.
JM from Ottawa, ON
My mom bought this clock for my 2 year old daughter and she loves it. She gets excited about going to bed cause she gets to see the sun change to the star. It is a bit above her comprehension level still but we started to talk about how she isn’t going to come and get me up until the sun is up on the clock (“sun on clock mommy!”). She still does come to me too early but is very excited when the sun does finally come up. I think she will be ready for it by the time she is 2.5 but we’ll see.
I find it very easy to use. The only draw back I have is that you have to set it every night and I would love to only have to change it if I don’t want it to come on and perhaps have a 2 alarm option so that it can be the same for naps. (The clock does have a 2 alarm option built in, one for nights and one for naps.)
Find the groClock at SnuggleBugz.ca
Letitia from Mississauga, ON
We purchased the GroClock for our 2 1/2 year old son, hoping that it would inspire him to stop his nightly visits to our bedroom, and stay in his own bed. Though he loves watching the sunset, and gets very excited in the morning for the sun to rise, it has not helped him to actually stay in his room until the clock indicates it is wake up time. We still have to take him back to his bed each night. The sun and stars changes make it very easy for him to understand the time of day, though I don’t see this clock as something to keep in his room long term. Because it only has a digital time, and very small at that, we will change it to another clock when we want him to learn to actually tell time. My husband had some difficulty remembering how to have the sunset each night. It would be helpful if the clock had a pre-set time for it so go down, so that it didn’t have to be fiddled with every night. The button lock is helpful as my son quickly figured out how to change the picture to the stars, so being able to lock the buttons is a necessity. I would recommend this clock to a friend, but as with any tool it is only as good as the user. Therefore, don’t buy it if you think it alone will keep your child in bed. It can be helpful to teach them to stay in bed, but it will still require the parent to do their part. It is not a magic bullet, but could be a helpful tool.
Emma from Port Elgin, ON
We purchased the Gro Clock in December for our 3 and a half year old. We didn’t purchase it because she is always in and out of her room and in ours, but she was asking about nighttime and daytime and we thought this would be an ideal clock. It has proven to be worth its weight in Gold! I bought it on sale from Snuggle Bugz, but we would certainly pay the $60 odd dollars – worth every penny!! Our daughter will NOT come out of her room unless her grow clock is Yellow with the Sun. She’s loves to count down the stars when its story time and she has really started sleeping more soundly. It is also perfect for my husband and I, he works away during the week and we set her clock for 8 am on Sat and Sun mornings, and still she doesn’t come into our room until it’s ‘morning time mummy’. I would recommend this product over and over and over, and I’m not being biased because I’m born and bred from England either!!
Valerie from Edmonton, AB
We have a 3.5 year old boy who since day one has gone in and out of phases of waking up at 5:00am ready to start his day. I finally broke down and bought this clock, and it has taken a bit of learning but I’m happy to say that it is definitely worth the money! This morning he was up at 5:50 and most days he won’t go back to sleep for us (which is too bad), but he will turn on his light and read books in his room until the sun comes up on his clock at 6:45 (a time that we have set as a tolerable time to face the day). It took a while for him to acknowledge the clock, and some days he refuses to abide by it altogether, but for the most part it has been a great addition to our routine. I can’t say this with certainty, but I have a hunch that starting with the clock at an even earlier age would be better. I would say as soon as you move your child to a “big girl/boy bed”, get that clock going!
Julie from Windsor, ON
I bought this product with the thought in mind to teach my 2 and a half year old about time. My secondary goal is to get him to stay in bed till 7 AM (he woke up between 6 and 6:30).
It’s been around 6 months since we’ve been using the product. My son sleeps until 7:00 AM now, and I actually had to set back the time to 7 because he’d sleep until 7:30 – something he’d never done before. We still use the clock, and now he occasionally wakes up before ‘the sun comes up’, but all in all, I think it really helped him with both having a sense of time passing, and to sleep longer. We only read the book once, and I can’t say that we really needed the book. It was just nice for my boy to see pictures of the clock and make mental connections.
Sarah from Milton, ON
We bought the GroClock for our daughter when she was two and we are still using it two years later and loving it! We bought it because she was constantly getting up at 6am, ready to start her day. After showing her that she needed to stay in bed until the sunshine appeared she soon got used to it and now consistently stays in bed until at least 7am. For us, the perfect age to start the clock was two and a half because she understood how it worked, but I think this clock will grow with us. You can use it as a normal alarm clock as she gets older and we are now able to lock the settings so she can’t change it on her own by pressing the buttons. Although there are separate settings for nighttime and nap time, we find we mainly just use it at night, though depending on the child I’m sure it would be great for both!
Our daughter has grown so used to the sunshine and stars “night-light” on her clock that she now likes to see the clock wherever she is sleeping, whether we’re at the cottage or when she’s at her grandparent’s house. This has been one of our best purchases during the toddler years and we will definitely be investing in another one for our next toddler!
Find the groClock at SnuggleBugz.ca
LP from Winnipeg, MB
We love our GroClock! My son is 2.5yrs and was getting quite good at delaying his bedtime routine. His grandfather had friends who recommended the GroClock so he purchased one for us. The “Sleepy Farm” story that came with the clock was an instant favourite and he now reads along with me at bedtime, making all the animal sounds…. He still gets very excited that he has the same clock as Percy Pig. It did not take long for him to understand that the stars mean it is time to sleep and he goes to bed much more readily now. I have suggested to many of my friends that they check out the GroClock and I plan to make it my new standard baby shower gift.
Shiloh from Falmouth, NS
Great product, we purchases them for our 2 and 3 year old boys. They love them. They are easy to operate and program. Worth the money.
Erica from Vancouver, BC
This is an excellent product – a real sanity-saver. Our son had been getting up between 4:30 AM and 5:30 AM since he was about 9 months old when I finally thought we should try and see if a ‘clock’ like this would help (he was a bit over two years old at this point). He was instantly fascinated both by the clock and the story that comes with it. However, once he figured out that we were trying to set up rules about when he could get up (i.e. “We won’t come and get you until the sun on the clock comes up”, we had about one week of struggles around sleep generally: protests about going to bed for naps and night-time (which was unusual for him). After that first week though, it has been totally smooth sailing. I can even hear him wake up ‘early’ sometimes (before the sun is showing on the clock), say something quietly then go back to sleep. The two times the clock either hasn’t been set properly or wasn’t turned on, he slept until about 7:45 AM! So now we’ve got the clock set to 7:15 AM on weekends, which feels like a miracle considering what we started with! We didn’t use the nap vs. nighttime setting but instead use the two times to distinguish between workdays (when we have to get up earlier) and weekends. Our son quite likes the clock and talks about it a lot.
Things to note:
- I think it’s important to keep the clock out of reach of your child. Our friends tried it and their same-age daughter (in a toddler bed; our son was in a crib) figured out how to work the buttons to make the sun come on whenever she wanted, which kind of defeats the purpose…
- It’s quite bright. Our son likes a nice dark room and we have the clock turned down to its lowest light level and it *still* seems pretty bright. We don’t point it directly at the crib since I think it’s actually bright enough to wake him up when it flips to the sun.
- The buttons and set-up can be a little confusing. We figured it out pretty quickly but my parents are still a bit daunted (which is how the clock came to be not set properly a couple of times).
Overall:
- This is essentially a sleep-training aid so if you are comfortable with sleep training, it will help you immeasurably.
- We think it’s the best thing we ever bought for our son and it’s no exaggeration to say that it improved our lives substantially!
Find the groClock at SnuggleBugz.ca
Jennifer from Woodbridge, ON
My son had been waking in the middle of the night, struggling to go to sleep at night and typically waking at 5am for months. After trying everything I could to get him to sleep in and to fall asleep easily at night I found the GroClock. My son was not quite 23 months so I was a bit nervous if he would understand it, especially since he’s not very verbal. He took to it right away. I set the “alarm” for 6am the first night and all I had to do is remind him when he woke early that night that he had to wait until the sun woke up before he could get out of bed. After that one night he never woke up crying again at 5am to get up. I slowly bumped the time up until 7am and he now goes to bed without complaint at 8pm and wakes at 7am. It’s been a total lifesaver! I never expected it to be so easy. I love that it has a naptime setting as well as the nighttime setting. It helps keep things consistent, and my son loves the story. The only drawback is the nightlight. It’s very bright and we found that it woke him at night. He sleeps in a very dark room and it was too much of a glow for him. You can turn the backlight setting down to “0″ which turns it off. The backlight comes back on when the sun comes up, but you can’t change the brightness setting for the sun, so I find it actually wakes him up. This isn’t usually a problem since he’s typically awake around 7am anyway, but it does prevent him from ever being able to “sleep in”. I would still buy the clock though a hundred times over for the overall result it’s given us with our son. I have recommended it to everyone I know with a child around age 2 or older. It’s been the best piece of baby equipment I’ve owned!
**CONTEST CLOSED**
Contest, contest, contest! Would you like a chance to win a groClock? Visit us in store the week of March 19, 2012 for information on how to win a groClock. We will be giving away one groClock in Milton and Burlington.
Can’t make it to a store, well we are also giving one away right here! Comment below and let us know why you like the groClock or why you need a groClock! We will choose a lucky winner to receive a new groClock… contest closes Sunday March 25, 2012, at 11:59pm EST, and winners will be announced the following day Monday March 26, 2012.
Contest Requirements:
- winner must be a resident of Canada
- only comments will be considered eligible entries
- only one comment per individual
- once the winner has been drawn I will make every effort to contact them. If I can not contact them with in 2 weeks of the contest a new winner will be drawn. Please check back to see if you are the winner as we will announce it here on the blog!
***Update: Congratulations to the following winners of the three groClocks!
Burlington Store: Shannon Sutherland
Milton Store: Jennifer Bryer
Blog Online: gibberish (Julie G.)
