s/o Hey Visitors: be quiet at night so my kids can sleep

[Anonymous]

Adults: we have small kids who are trying to sleep at their normal bedtime. When you are visiting, please be mindful of this. Tiptoe around, be very quiet when opening/closing the bathroom door, and please, whisper so my kids can get some sleep. You should also expect that my kids will wake up at their normal 6am time.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps you should tell the adults in your house, instead of us?

[Anonymous]

If your kids are such light sleepers that they cannot sleep while adults speak in a normal indoor volume and walk normally in the house, you shouldn't be hosting visitors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Adults: we have small kids who are trying to sleep at their normal bedtime. When you are visiting, please be mindful of this. Tiptoe around, be very quiet when opening/closing the bathroom door, and please, whisper so my kids can get some sleep. You should also expect that my kids will wake up at their normal 6am time.

Troll, right? Do people actually tiptoe and whisper every night because otherwise their kids can't sleep?

[Anonymous]

OP you need to bring a noise machine for your kids so that normal noises won't wake them. And 6am is very early!

[Anonymous]

Pretty sure this is an offshoot of the 'hey visitors, put your kids to bed' thread.
Well done OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty sure this is an offshoot of the 'hey visitors, put your kids to bed' thread.
Well done OP

you got it.

But, I have had visitors who don't have small kids who do make *a lot* of noise late at night, walking heavy footed with hard sole shoes on the wooden floor, banging the bathroom door. My kids wake up at 6:30am/7am normally, and then the adults complain that they wake up too early.

Having visitors impact *everyone*. That is the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP you need to bring a noise machine for your kids so that normal noises won't wake them. And 6am is very early!

Yes, 6am is very early! How do you suggest we get them to sleep later? My DD wakes up at 5:30am every day. She does not even know when we have visitors (she's 16 months) so I can't ask her to keep it down so they can sleep. I do warn visitors ahead of time that she gets up early, and I keep spare ear plugs in the guest room for them to use if they'd like.

But there is no forcing a child to "sleep in" just because you have visitors.

[Anonymous]

Wait, in this situation, wouldn't you just ask them to pipe down? I would, no biggie.

That's a lot easier than asking houseguests to put their kids to bed, however.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP you need to bring a noise machine for your kids so that normal noises won't wake them. And 6am is very early!

Count yourself lucky, 6am is sleeping in for us.

[Anonymous]

My kids were used to going to bed with some sort of noise in the house - t.v., dishwasher, telephone conversation. Expecting complete silence and for adults to whisper is a lot, IMO.

That said, my kids were of the "up before dawn" variety, too. I did my best to keep the noise level down. But complete silence...no. You can't really expect a 2 year old to whisper and tip toe around. Haha.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty sure this is an offshoot of the 'hey visitors, put your kids to bed' thread.
Well done OP

you got it.

But, I have had visitors who don't have small kids who do make *a lot* of noise late at night, walking heavy footed with hard sole shoes on the wooden floor, banging the bathroom door. My kids wake up at 6:30am/7am normally, and then the adults complain that they wake up too early.

Having visitors impact *everyone*. That is the point.

Yes!

I have small kids and host a lot. And I travel with them. And they are in bed by 8/8:30, and I believe in adult time, and that doesn't always work, and sometimes adults are hugely disruptive, and sometimes hosting/being a guest is challenging, and travel can present all sorts of complications, and holidays often disrupt schedules, etc... There are people with whom I can bring the whole family to stay, and people which require a hotel room when I or they visit. That's just the way it is.

If you love someone enough to invite them to stay at your house, and they love you enough to want to stay with you, then you all bend to be as accommodating and considerate of each other as possible.

If that is difficult for anyone then hotels are a wonderful option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids were used to going to bed with some sort of noise in the house - t.v., dishwasher, telephone conversation. Expecting complete silence and for adults to whisper is a lot, IMO.

That said, my kids were of the "up before dawn" variety, too. I did my best to keep the noise level down. But complete silence...no. You can't really expect a 2 year old to whisper and tip toe around. Haha.

Your kids were able to fall asleep despite the noise, not because you trained them to be used to the noise. Many families start out putting their children down and making general evening noises and then have to switch things up because their children don't fall asleep. My kids fall asleep fine with noise now, but when they were babies they did not, to no fault of mine.

I have occasionally asked guests to be quiet for 10-15 minutes while the kids are falling asleep, but once they're asleep it's fine to make noise. I do feel like a pita asking, but it's better for everyone if they are on the quiet side for 15 minutes and the kids will be out of our way for the rest of the night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Adults: we have small kids who are trying to sleep at their normal bedtime. When you are visiting, please be mindful of this. Tiptoe around, be very quiet when opening/closing the bathroom door, and please, whisper so my kids can get some sleep. You should also expect that my kids will wake up at their normal 6am time.

Troll, right? Do people actually tiptoe and whisper every night because otherwise their kids can't sleep?

We have friends who did, and probably still do.

[Anonymous]

I was with you until the tiptoeing and whispering.

I get let's have a lull while the kids are being put to bed, but after that, I mean it's kind of back to normal-ish.

As for the 6 am wakeup - you can only warn visitors, and then I think the polite thing to do is - for a bit - take your kid for a morning walk, or go buy a paper, or hit up ihop or the grocery or something if the kid is very loud in the morning.