Question for those who need a separate room for your baby/child when you travel

[Anonymous]

We have 3 kids. We had no problems sharing a room with the older 2 while on vacation but for some reason, if DS3 (1 y.o.) is in the same room as us, he is up THE ENTIRE NIGHT. We were just with family and he did not sleep at all - not in the pack n play, not in our beds, not nursing, nothing. And he normally sleeps through the night with no problem. On the 2nd night, we finally moved the pnp to the playroom and he slept his longest stretch (2.5 hrs).

So while we used to be totally flexible and could all sleep in a closet together, I wont go on vacation with him unless he has his own space.

[Anonymous]

While it's great that you come from a family of sound sleepers, people (and that includes children) have different noise tolerance levels when it comes to sleeping. My first child- slept like a rock. Second wakes up if he hears a cricket chirp outside, which sets off an ugly chain of events when you're sharing a room and bed (wakes up other kid, then wakes us up). And that makes for a not fun vacation. Your post actually sounds like you are a little jealous of those of us that can travel and get an extra room/suite.

[Anonymous]

Exactly as the pp said. Since we have a baby we can all go to bed at his bedtime (6:00 pm) and take naps otherwise he will never go to sleep if we are awake. Not sure why it is hard for OP to understand that babies who are used to sleeping in their own rooms do much better.if they are able to sleep in their own space on vacation. Plus, as PP mentioned being able to enjoy alone time with your spouse and have sex is nice too! Personally, I want my baby to get a good night of uninterrupted sleep and I don't want to go to bed when it's daylight outside.

[Anonymous]

We almost never stayed in a hotel as a child. When we did (maybe 3 times ever) we had two rooms - I shared with my mom and brother shared with my dad.

Now, whenever we can, we get two rooms, but it's not required. DD #1 snores. DS wets the bed. DD#3 grinds her teeth. DH and I like to have some 'adult' time and actually get some sleep if we can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Often I see on here posters mentioning that they "need" a suite or a separate room for their baby in their hotel. There is no way they can share a room with their child while on vacation for a few days. I have to admit, it makes me roll my eyes a bit. We are a family of 6 and have no problem sharing rooms with our kids (sometimes even all 6 of us in one room, if it has 2 Queen beds plus a pull out sofa!) Our travel budget is pretty limited and I just can't see spending tons of money for separate sleeping accommodations when it's only a few nights.

It was like that for me growing up too--I grew up with 2 brothers and 2 parents and EVERY time we went to a hotel, we got a room with 2 double beds and a rollaway cot.

So my question for those of you who consider it very important to have a separate room to sleep in from your child--was it like that for you growing up? On family vacations, did each family member have separate hotel rooms/large suites with multiple bedrooms? If not, and you vacationed more like me (whole family stuffing in one room)--is it just that you have a much larger vacation budget than your parents did? Are you more "high maintenance" than your parents were?

Curious, OP, how do you manage early toddler bedtimes? Does everyone go to sleep at 8 pm?

My kids are older now (youngest is 8) but when they were younger they would usually fall asleep on the drive home from whatever we did that day. We'd carry them in asleep and they were pretty sound sleepers so Dh and I could still quietly watch tv or whatever and they wouldn't wake up.

Congrats, you have (and seem to always have had) good sleepers. For those of us who don't, vacations sharing one room aren't enjoyable bc no one sleeps and then everyone is miserable.

[Anonymous]

When DD was a baby, she would NOT sleep in the same room as us. It was a disaster. We used to always get suites, or rooms that had a little nook that we could tuck her PNP in so we can sneak onto the bed. It was a disaster everytime we tried to sleep in the same room as us. And that led to no sleep for anyone.

She grew out of that at 2, and now she can sleep in the same room as us because she understands more. And now it's downright like a sleepover! She LOVES it. Now that we are expecting again, we will try the one room thing again. But we will pay attention to her personality, and if a suite is right for her as well, we will deal with it. Hopefully she sleeps fine in a room with us. But if no one is getting rest, and vacations are more stressful sharing, we would do the suite thing again until the next one understands.

My parents didn't have money to travel when we were younger, so we didn't really go many places until we were older and my parents were better settled. Definitely not when we were babies though. So not sure what they would have done if we were babies that kept wanting to nurse every 5 minutes when they were sleeping in the same room as mom.

[Anonymous]

I seriously dislike sharing a "plain" room with our 3 yo. If it has a space that we can close off in some way, that's fine. like an Exec Suite type situation. But the early toddler bedtime issue, as well as keeping him in his own bed makes me not feel rested when we're all piled in (which we've done when necessary). With another on the way, I will be even more likely to want a suite arrangement because I do not want the baby and toddler to disturb each other.

[Anonymous]

My kids go to bed at 6:30 or 7, and they won't sleep unless it's dark. I also don't want to worry about lights/toilets flushing waking them up so that they are miserable the next day.
A suite, or two connecting rooms just gives us more room to spread out without being on top of each other.
We didn't vacation that much when I was younger, but when we did, it was either 1 hotel room or a 1 bedroom apartment.
Yes, I'm more high maintenance than my parents, and I have a bigger budget.

[Anonymous]

I don't think there were as many suite hotel options when we were kids. We stayed at embassy suites a few times when I was a kid and we all loved it, compared to the five of us sharing a room. If there had been other affordable options like there are now, I bet we would've stayed there.

[Anonymous]

My DH's family will all share a room NOW. It honestly weirds me out -- his two parents, a 21 yo daughter, DH and our son, all in one space. The room might have 2 beds or bed+sofabed plus sleeping bag/cot for daughter.

I feel awkward enough sharing a rental condo type arrangement with them where we have our own bedroom, so refuse to go along when they're doing one of these single room arrangements.

His family camped and stayed in relatives' houses and such growing up, because his parents are cheap (not poor, just cheap). I don't think they often stayed in hotels that even had suite options. Mine didn't ever do that, so I think that's why they see it as normal and I see it as weird. I can only think back to a couple of occasions where my family didn't at least have a suite w/sofabed or rollaway for me.

So I think it's probably one of those "family norms" where you're used to it or not. DH and I don't have as large of a travel budget yet as my parents have for the last 15 years, but having a good size space will be on my priority list for trip planning. EG, I would sacrifice airline expense (less exotic destination) to get better accommodations (suite).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Often I see on here posters mentioning that they "need" a suite or a separate room for their baby in their hotel. There is no way they can share a room with their child while on vacation for a few days. I have to admit, it makes me roll my eyes a bit. We are a family of 6 and have no problem sharing rooms with our kids (sometimes even all 6 of us in one room, if it has 2 Queen beds plus a pull out sofa!) Our travel budget is pretty limited and I just can't see spending tons of money for separate sleeping accommodations when it's only a few nights.

It was like that for me growing up too--I grew up with 2 brothers and 2 parents and EVERY time we went to a hotel, we got a room with 2 double beds and a rollaway cot.

So my question for those of you who consider it very important to have a separate room to sleep in from your child--was it like that for you growing up? On family vacations, did each family member have separate hotel rooms/large suites with multiple bedrooms? If not, and you vacationed more like me (whole family stuffing in one room)--is it just that you have a much larger vacation budget than your parents did? Are you more "high maintenance" than your parents were?

Curious, OP, how do you manage early toddler bedtimes? Does everyone go to sleep at 8 pm?

My kids are older now (youngest is 8) but when they were younger they would usually fall asleep on the drive home from whatever we did that day. We'd carry them in asleep and they were pretty sound sleepers so Dh and I could still quietly watch tv or whatever and they wouldn't wake up.

Well, I just have to roll my eyes a bit that you don't seem to recognize how fortunate you are to have such good sleepers, and that not all families are quite so blessed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Often I see on here posters mentioning that they "need" a suite or a separate room for their baby in their hotel. There is no way they can share a room with their child while on vacation for a few days. I have to admit, it makes me roll my eyes a bit. We are a family of 6 and have no problem sharing rooms with our kids (sometimes even all 6 of us in one room, if it has 2 Queen beds plus a pull out sofa!) Our travel budget is pretty limited and I just can't see spending tons of money for separate sleeping accommodations when it's only a few nights.

It was like that for me growing up too--I grew up with 2 brothers and 2 parents and EVERY time we went to a hotel, we got a room with 2 double beds and a rollaway cot.

So my question for those of you who consider it very important to have a separate room to sleep in from your child--was it like that for you growing up? On family vacations, did each family member have separate hotel rooms/large suites with multiple bedrooms? If not, and you vacationed more like me (whole family stuffing in one room)--is it just that you have a much larger vacation budget than your parents did? Are you more "high maintenance" than your parents were?

I am rolling my eyes at you. 6 people in one room sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We usually sleep in the same room-we just like to have separate space do that we aren't constrained by the kids' bedtimes and nap times (our kids are young). We've certainly done standard hotel rooms with no problem, but the cost of a suite is often not much more and makes for a more enjoyable experience. We make good money (not crazy money, but we're comfortable) and don't do extravagant vacations so a minor hotel upgrade isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

Growing up-we camped a lot, visited family a lot (overseas), and I don't remember too many hotel rooms. My parents are definitely fans of the budget hotel though. I'm sure they'd consider some of the hotels we stay in to be too expensive. My inlaws were broke, so vacations were minimal and mostly camping at the beach. I don't think we're higher maintenance-I still love camping and don't need luxury hotels.

This matches my preferences and experience almost exactly. We prefer the suite so we can spend the evening sharing a glass of wine and some nice conversation after the kids go to bed, but don't mind sleeping in the same room as them at all. But the vast majority of our 'vacations' are to visit family and we stay at their homes where this isn't an issue.

+1 on wanting to have a separate space to relax during naps and after bedtime with a young child. No problems at all sharing the bedroom, but I've had the experience of sitting in a dark room every night after 7pm and it definitely wasn't very relaxing.

Another +1 We usually try to get a suite or even two adjoining rooms now that the kids are bigger. When the kids were very little they slept in the "living room" part in their pack-n-play or the sofa bed so DH and I could hang out in the bedroom. Now they are 9 and 10, we usually put them to bed in the bedroom and we use the living room. If we are only in a hotel for 1 nite, we'll just get one regular room and prob let the kids stay up a bit later. Early bedtimes for the kids are important to us, but one kid also gets up at the crack of down, so if we want to enjoy our time the extra space is worth it. If we're going to be someplace for more than 2-3 nites, I typically look for a rental house/apartment because that's usually a more affordable way to get more space plus being able to cut down on restaurant meals.

When I was growing up, in a family with three kids, we took a number of long trips with lots of nights at motels. It was always 1 room with 2 double beds plus a roll-out.

[Anonymous]

I can't believe OP had 4 kids who would stay asleep on transfer from car to hotel room, and who would not wake up while she relaxed and watched TV.

[Anonymous]

Both of our families had 3 kids each. DH's family didn't go on many vacations when they were younger except for camping. My family all shared one room.

We've only gone to a hotel 4 times since our eldest was born (she's currently 2.5). First time we had to stay in a hotel b/c my brother lives in Manhattan and they have absolutely no room. We stayed in jersey at an embassy suites. We stayed in the living room and put DD in the bedroom. There was too much noise in the hallway b/c of the open architecture. 2nd and 3rd time we did the reverse. The reason is pretty much the same as everyone else who posted previously. Our daughter used to go to bed at 7 to 7:30 pm and we could not go to bed that early.

Most recently we were invited to a family gathering and shared a room w/ our DD. She slept in the pack and play as she normally does but since it was a multi-room condo, we were able to be out of the bedroom until we were ready to sleep.

It'll be interesting now that we have a 2nd baby. Most likely won't be traveling too much.