How to handle three generations staying at parents house

[Anonymous]

This past summer, I gave birth to our first child, and my SIL (brother's wife) gave birth to their first child a few weeks before that. My parents live about 7 hours from us, and 4 hours from Brother/SIL. We also have another brother who lives 5 hours from our parents with his fiancee, but they don't have any kids.

While we aren't having any big gatherings anytime soon due to COVID, I've been thinking how us all staying at my parents house will work. My parents have a four bedroom house, so when ever we visit, we stay with our spouses in our childhood bedrooms (with the exception of my brother who doesn't have kids, as his fiancee's parents live 10 mins away, so she stays with her parents). Each room is a bit small for fitting two adults, but it's manageable. Similarly, there's only one "guest" bathroom, so five people are having to fight over said bathroom. Again, not great, but manageable. However, once the two grandkids are thrown into the mix, I could see it being problematic. There's no way a pack and play would fit in either of the bedrooms, plus thinking about all the other additional stuff that is needed to travel with a child. Additionally, the bathroom situation could prove to be stressful, especially once the grand kids become potty trained. Also thinking down the road, what happens when/if someone has more kids? Neither us nor our sibilings has a house big enough to confortable host all of us. While we haven't discussed with our parents exactly how this will work, I could see them saying something like "oh, it'll be fine, if everyone is together, that's all that matters!"

Fortunately, since we're at least a few months away from having to tackle this problem, I'm curious to see how others have handled similar situations.

[Anonymous]

Hotel

You are old enough. Hotel

[Anonymous]

This is why people stay at hotels.

[Anonymous]

+3 on the hotel

[Anonymous]

Hotel.

Can grandparents get rid of furniture to make room for a PNP? They really only need a bed and night stands. We have a tiny house and we can fit a PNP with a queen in our bedroom but not much room.

[Anonymous]

Ditto hotel. My ILs house was very small so we've always stayed at a hotel.

My parents house can accommodate one of the two out-of-town kids+grandkids so we've either staggered visits, one sibling stays in a hotel, or lately we've moved to renting a big house in the area so everyone -- including my sister+nephews who live in the same area as my parents -- can hang out together for a week.

[Anonymous]

Hotel. They can stomp their feet, but you're the parent now and you get to call shots on what arrangement works best for your family.

[Anonymous]

Brother stays with fiancé at her parents house
Baby stays with each couple- figure out a way.
When older cousins sleep in same room (brother who stays with me laws bedroom) and couples stay where they are.

Or go to hotel- although that has its own issues with staggered bedtimes and wake up times .

[Anonymous]

Littlest baby stays with grandparents. Others get a hotel suite. This is what hotels are for and it will make your visit go 1000x more smoothly.

[Anonymous]

Now that our kids are older,the cousins stay with the grandparents and the adults stay in a hotel. It's heavenly!

[Anonymous]

You stay in a hotel. You have your own family. Adults don’t share bathrooms with other adults not in their family if they can afford it.

[Anonymous]

Get an Airbnb that is more kid friendly and have a cousin par-tay.

[Anonymous]

You're a married adult. You stay in a hotel. Once your kid(s) is toilet trained they can sleep over at the grandparents.

[Anonymous]

I know this is not possible for everyone, but my parents finished their basement, adding a bedroom plus living space and a large bathroom, once grandkids started coming.

[Anonymous]

It's lovely that everyone wants to be together but sometimes you have to accept the reality that the available physical space simply doesn't allow it.