If your kids wake up at the crack of dawn when visiting...

[Anonymous]

No extended family travel for a while. You’re at different stages. Accept it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your family sounds pretty selfish. My siblings get up early, make coffee and enjoy time with their nieces/nephews! Often we are pushed back to bed to relax and parents/siblings cover the kids.

This! What's the point of visiting these people if they don't want to interact with your young children, OP?

Staying home is your best option, but if you feel you MUST go, then get your own Airbnb or something. This doesn't sound like any fun. Plus, saying your "baby was really bad over Thanksgiving" is kind of a rough indictment for a 1-year-old.

Yeah, I’m not a fan of your parents and siblings. Anyone who is related to a 4,7 and 1 year old and thinks they’re going to be quiet or not even make noise while playing in the snow is not someone you want to visit! I can’t think of anything more joyful than hearing tiny kids playing in fresh snow first thing in the morning over the holidays.

Before my DH and I had kids, we used to visit my friends who had a baby who eventually became a toddler and then a little girl. One of the best parts of those visits would be her creeping into our room past her parents’ room at the crack of dawn and crawling into our bed to play. Yes, we were tired, but I’ll always remember those special mornings. OP, your kids aren’t the problem! And babies cannot be “bad”. That’s not a thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids are 4, 3, and 1. They usually wake up at 7am when we're home, but when we travel they start waking at 6-6:30. Baby was really bad over Thanksgiving and was up at 5:30. At home, we let them talk, whine and play in their cribs until 7:30.

What do you do when you're at other people's homes? I try plying my kids with food and staying in a different section of the house, but it's hard. They're LOUD. Inlaws house has an awful floorplan where all the bedrooms are together on one side and the TV backs up to the bedrooms (so we can't use it). Or we have stayed in big AirBnBs (with my entire family) and it's the same issue. The rest of the family, particularly our siblings, want to sleep until 10am and then eat a big breakfast. My kids won't sit for breakfast either because they've already eaten hours ago. There's usually snow outside, so I can't go outside walking with the kids without making a huge racket and they don't want to run errands or play outside without breakfast.

The lack of sleep I get and the annoyance of trying to keep kids quiet all morning really ruins trips for me. Am I missing something? Hotels sound even worse with all of us in the same room and nothing to do until things open.

We watch something on a labtop. But when our youngest was one, he wouldn’t stay quiet for two hours even with screens. So we would just change diapers and leave the house - walk around parking lots, explore coffee shops, etc. One parent would go each day and the other would sleep in. We sometimes had to drive 30-40 minutes to find something open but we had nothing but time to kill.

We would return at eight am and have the run of the public areas of the house. That’s all the sleeping in you get on a family trip with young kids - sorry hungover uncles!

[Anonymous]

You are vacationing. Up at 4 am to enjoy your time off!

[Anonymous]

If I ever have grandkids I will get up with them and let the parents sleep. I'm a natural early riser and so was my grandpa. He and I used to make pancakes together, it was the best.

[Anonymous]

OP here- It's a struggle to leave the house in the morning. Do you keep a suitcase near the door and change in the family room? Changing 3 kids plus myself into clothes, hats, coats, shoes and diapers is really loud. The baby especially sings and is noisy, which would wake the whole house. Being able to watch TV in the mornings would help, but not really since the baby doesn't watch it.

And sorry about saying the baby was bad. Baby isn't bad, just had a bad time sleeping.

This is a really rural area. They don't have hotel suites, just gross Motel 8 style hotels.

I was just curious how everyone handles this. My kids can't be the only ones up at dawn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here- It's a struggle to leave the house in the morning. Do you keep a suitcase near the door and change in the family room? Changing 3 kids plus myself into clothes, hats, coats, shoes and diapers is really loud. The baby especially sings and is noisy, which would wake the whole house. Being able to watch TV in the mornings would help, but not really since the baby doesn't watch it.

And sorry about saying the baby was bad. Baby isn't bad, just had a bad time sleeping.

This is a really rural area. They don't have hotel suites, just gross Motel 8 style hotels.

I was just curious how everyone handles this. My kids can't be the only ones up at dawn.

A baby whose “noise” is singing to itself in the morning?! How can these people not be charmed?! Come over, OP. I’ll get up with your kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your family sounds pretty selfish. My siblings get up early, make coffee and enjoy time with their nieces/nephews! Often we are pushed back to bed to relax and parents/siblings cover the kids.

Yeah the extended family sounds like a dud. I mean yeah the kids may wake up early and it makes some noise. The older ppl can just get up or try to go back to sleep. I mean, get over it seriously. It's a few days and then they can back to their regular schedules.

If keeping an adult's sleep schedule is their priority,.I would not be interested in spending time with them at this stage.

Wow. Entitled much? I don’t have a problem with kids getting up early (OP hasn’t mentioned complaints) but no f’ing way am I getting up early on vacation to “enjoy” my nieces and nephews. Been there, done that with my own kids thankyouverymuch. I will be happy to enjoy them later at a more reasonable time. I won’t complain, though, I will cover my head with my pillow and go back to sleep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your family sounds pretty selfish. My siblings get up early, make coffee and enjoy time with their nieces/nephews! Often we are pushed back to bed to relax and parents/siblings cover the kids.

Yeah the extended family sounds like a dud. I mean yeah the kids may wake up early and it makes some noise. The older ppl can just get up or try to go back to sleep. I mean, get over it seriously. It's a few days and then they can back to their regular schedules.

If keeping an adult's sleep schedule is their priority,.I would not be interested in spending time with them at this stage.

Wow. Entitled much? I don’t have a problem with kids getting up early (OP hasn’t mentioned complaints) but no f’ing way am I getting up early on vacation to “enjoy” my nieces and nephews. Been there, done that with my own kids thankyouverymuch. I will be happy to enjoy them later at a more reasonable time. I won’t complain, though, I will cover my head with my pillow and go back to sleep.

I am talking primarily to the post above the post I quoted.

[Anonymous]

Sleeping in until 10? I'd just try to keep them quiet with iPads and snacks until 8:30.

[Anonymous]

OP, is anybody actually complaining about your kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, is anybody actually complaining about your kids?

OP here- I'm the one complaining the most about this. It just really stresses me out to constantly be telling my kids "shhh!" and trying to entertain them quietly. I feed them fruit and cold things, whereas we'd all prefer the holiday breakfasts like monkey bread, scrambled eggs, pancakes that I could make if I could cook (the kids would be so loud if I were cooking).

Yes everyone comments on the kids, even when I think they were quiet. And yeah, I'd like to sleep until 7 like I normally can. But the baby would be singing in the crib and wake the entire house up and I can't let that happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here- It's a struggle to leave the house in the morning. Do you keep a suitcase near the door and change in the family room? Changing 3 kids plus myself into clothes, hats, coats, shoes and diapers is really loud. The baby especially sings and is noisy, which would wake the whole house. Being able to watch TV in the mornings would help, but not really since the baby doesn't watch it.

And sorry about saying the baby was bad. Baby isn't bad, just had a bad time sleeping.

This is a really rural area. They don't have hotel suites, just gross Motel 8 style hotels.

I was just curious how everyone handles this. My kids can't be the only ones up at dawn.

I'm one of the get out of the house proponents. I think you just accept the loud for the 15-30 minutes it takes to get out of the house. The kids will have fun at a diner (much more exciting than cold breakfast at home) or make sure you have eat-outdoors breakfast available like muffins or croissants if you can't face going to a diner and just want to let them run around in the yard. If people are giving you a hard time with even a brief spat of noise with three little kids you need to take a break from sharing housing with family on vacation.

Also, my deepest sympathies to you. Travel with multiple kids is super exhausting, especially when they sleep even less than usual. Do you have a partner with you who you could trade off morning duty with? Then each of you could have a chance sleep until 8 or 9 after the kids are out which will make it easier to deal with the subsequent (far too early) morning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here- It's a struggle to leave the house in the morning. Do you keep a suitcase near the door and change in the family room? Changing 3 kids plus myself into clothes, hats, coats, shoes and diapers is really loud. The baby especially sings and is noisy, which would wake the whole house. Being able to watch TV in the mornings would help, but not really since the baby doesn't watch it.

And sorry about saying the baby was bad. Baby isn't bad, just had a bad time sleeping.

This is a really rural area. They don't have hotel suites, just gross Motel 8 style hotels.

I was just curious how everyone handles this. My kids can't be the only ones up at dawn.

If it’s really rural and they’re complaining about your kids, stay home. It’s your holiday, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your family sounds pretty selfish. My siblings get up early, make coffee and enjoy time with their nieces/nephews! Often we are pushed back to bed to relax and parents/siblings cover the kids.

This! What's the point of visiting these people if they don't want to interact with your young children, OP?

Staying home is your best option, but if you feel you MUST go, then get your own Airbnb or something. This doesn't sound like any fun. Plus, saying your "baby was really bad over Thanksgiving" is kind of a rough indictment for a 1-year-old.

I have my own kids, but no one wants to play with your baby and toddlers at 5:30 am.