I wake my (Firefly-loving) teenage daughters with "Good morning, ladies, it's time to rise and be shiny!" My singing is held as a threat for those who don't get moving - "oh, what a beautiful morning" being my weapon of choice.

Aw, thanks, Laura! I am mildly functional now, and am waiting a reasonable time before I drive to the Target and get my script.

I was a surly waker (still am) and my parents progressed past little songs to doing things like rubbing dog-chewed rawhide on my bare feet, and slowly dripping a cup of cold water on my face to get me up. No, that was all Dad.

I had a roommate in college thought it was cute to try to come in and wake me up and rub my hair and sing little songs and stuff.

She was rapidly and profanely disabused of that notion.

Oh, my mom would also sing "Good morning! Good morning! You've slept the whole night through! Good morning! Good morning to you!" Which I HATE. Haaaaaaate.

Oh, that's my dad's good ole standby! He just recently stopped singing it to us when we're all home, as there was an incident with something being thrown at him.

Erin, my surly morning sistah! Somehow I ended up with a total morning person. DW is humming and whistling and shit at 6 in the morning! I find it sweet, as long as it's not directed at me. Grump!

My mother would wake me up by singing "Ohhhhhhh what a beautiful MORNin'! Oh, what a beautiful daaaaaaaaay! I've got a beautiful FEELing! Ev'rything's goin' my way!" Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Oh.

Oh no.

I don't do cheery or sudden, loud wakeups.

When my mother was stuck in her Great Depression of My Entire Adolescence, she'd wake me up by banging open my door and snapping, "You planning on sleeping the entire day away?"

At 6AM.

Since she had depression-related insomnia she deeply resented anyone who could actually, you know, sleep.

Speaking of insomnia, sorry about the bad night, Erin. That rots.

This is so interesting.

I can't remember one single morning of my childhood. Not one.

I'm wracking my brain. Seriously. It's like I've suddenly gone amnesiac. I remember the bus stop and getting there. But nothing before that. Huh. This question has never been asked before.

Oh, uh. Move along. Nothing to see here...

bizarre

My dad would snap on the lights and bark "Get up!" in his master sergeant's voice. It was a horribly unpleasant way to get woken up. From deep sleep to sitting upright, adrenaline coursing in my veins with no transition.

Contrastingly, my college girlfriend, Suz, would come down to my dorm room and gently waggle my foot back and forth so we could go to our Shakespeare class. Most pleasant.

Insomnia! That's it!!

I don't remember mornings because there weren't many. Just extensions of the night.

I didn't learn how to sleep until my late 30s. No lie. I'd go for 3 weeks at a time getting 2 hours of sleep a night.

But once I learned? Oh baby. Ima sleepin' demon. I occassionally still have a sleepless night and I do have the odd anxiety waking, but in general, I'm well slept.

Funny how it is difficult to remember what that was like. Thank you GOD. It's hard to remember what that was like.

I loathe it when someone tells me to smile. You can only imagine how much I love being told to wake up.

I've always been gentle waking up the boys because I hate to be awakened. Singing is a last resort after previous attempts. Threatening being tossed in the pool comes next, but they are bigger than me now and don't take me seriously.