V-Flyer

This is probably a daft question but please humour me!

Looking at Caribbean time differences, junior will be knackered (and cranky ! ) from 3-4pm for at least a couple of days and even worse, waking at 3am.

Can anyone who has travelled with small children give me an idea of how quickly they adapt their sleep routines on hols please? Will I have any chance of a lie-in?

Thanks

I did this a few years ago, and well, do not fall asleep when you land even though your body tells you to. try and get them to nap on the plane. Start to use the local time as cues for behaviour, have light meals when you arrive, get them to settle in their room, unpack bags. get them to get out the things they want to wear on the next day. and you can revise their bedtime down a little because they will be whacked, but slowly take it up and you should be on an even keel soon.

How old is the ankle-biter in question? Our angelic (yeah, right) daughter Tizer was probably at her worst when she was about 2 or 3. It could take her a good week into the holiday to stop getting us up at 5am! Since then we've found that giving her a large rum at bedtime helps a great deal... (I jest, of course).

On the day of arrival, try and keep junior up as long as you can (at least, without attracting the attention of the local child-protection agencies). It'll help keep him/her in bed a bit later the following morning, and save too many really early rises thereafter.

We found going East easier to cope with than West with the kids, basically they slept throughout the night on board, mum & dad were like zombies

The return fitted in well with sleep patterns as well so as much sleep during the flight was what we found best.

Iain

He's only 2 bless him but he's not good when he's tired.

He does still have a nap in the day so we might be ok if we can push that later too!

Thanks for the help.

wornoutmum wrote:He's only 2 bless him but he's not good when he's tired.

He does still have a nap in the day so we might be ok if we can push that later too!

Thanks for the help.

If anything like mini nh, at 2-3, the trick was to try and stop her sleeping too long (especially on car journeys to-from airport). Never had too much of an issue on arrival, the trick was to keep "naps" as short as poss. Its never popular, but seems to help fit in.. Again- strong spirits and Chloroform also work wonders..( ) ). As Iain say's west bound always appears easier.

wornoutmum wrote:He's only 2 bless him but he's not good when he's tired.

He does still have a nap in the day so we might be ok if we can push that later too!

Ooh, 2 can be tough. They have very firmly set body clocks at that age. I know that when Tizer was two, she and Mrs V became quite well known on Payne's Bay for their regular sunrise-beach-walks. Still, beautiful time of the day in that part of the world (so I'm told), so it's not all bad...

simple:

I have travelled to the caribbean a few times with my two kids.

If you can get them to have a short nap on the flight outbound then your laughing!!

When you arrive at resort you have to drag them out for as long as possible - otherwise you will be walking the beach at 3am!!!!!

Enjoy your holiday

If they have trouble sleeping there, then maybe a bit of the local rum punch will do the trick!

Thanks All.

As much as I like the rum punch idea ^) having experienced a complete toddler meltdown 4 nights on the bounce now, I have to confess to losing my nerve and not booking the holiday.

Now looking for something nice heading East......