Schedules and vacation

[Armywife1stDr2nd]

Let me start by saying I am a very scheduled type A kind of a person. DS is on a pretty tight eating and sleeping schedule every single day. We are planning a trip to CA in the spring and I am just wondering what other parents who are really scheduled with their children do during vacation?

This trip is to see DHs family. We are not close and they have never even met DS. His family is in the LA, San Diego area as well as some parts north of LA. He wants to try to see several of them on this trip. This would require a lot of driving, DS sleeping in the car and maybe several hotels. I know we can find a happy medium but I am concerned about what will happen to DSs schedule with all the movement and the time change (We are in NY). Any suggestions, advice?

[StantonHyde]

Do your best to keep him on your local time. That means more morning/day visits with family vs. late nights but it can work.

[LMPC]

Yep, we also try to keep DD on local time when traveling. When we visit DH's family in Ireland and the UK it is actually fun, because we do kind of a 10am-10pm routine. Not exactly local time, but much easier when we get home. Also fun to hang out with DD in the evenings/nights, which is something that we don't typically get to do.

Other than that, we typically throw all other routines out the window and just return to our normal routine when we get home. For us, it makes for less stressful vacations and not that much hassle when we get home.

[eh613c]

I agree with PPs. Try as much as you can stay on your local time and keep the routine as close to the schedule as possible. If not it's going to take a couple of weeks to get back to the normal schedule.

[cckwmh]

we are also on the east coast and took DD to a family member's wedding in Vegas at around 16 months. we stayed as much as possible on her home schedule. as a result, she and I did not do everything that DH and his family did. I was fine with that, everyone was pretty understanding. We were up early, really early, and went for walks.

I did fly at night with the hopes that she would sleep, and she slept the entire time there and back. she was asleep in her car seat before we boarded in both instances and woke up briefly when we took her out to install the car seat and went right back to sleep.

as long as DHs family is aware that you will be trying to keep the schedule it should be ok - let everyone know what your expectations/limitations are.

[niccig]

as long as DHs family is aware that you will be trying to keep the schedule it should be ok - let everyone know what your expectations/limitations are.

Just be prepared for some blow back from family members that refuse to let a child's schedule dictate to them..lovely words from my mother. I've talked about this with several friends and we all have a family member that believes kids should be dragged around to whatever the adults want to do and no adjustments made. One friend's ILs didn't want to stop for lunch saying "can't he wait and eat later." Their son, the dad said, "No, he's not a cat."

These are probably extreme examples, but my understanding is that our parents did what they wanted and kids went along and didn't dare fuss, so they don't understand when we say "sorry, I can't go then as DS is napping, but you can all go ahead and I'll stay here."

[Armywife1stDr2nd]

I am a little worried that they will not be understanding about DSs schedule. In fact even my parents are a little "old school" and are of the school that your schedule should dictate your kids day and not the other way around. The suggestion to allow DH to go alone is great and I didn't even think about that. Also our hotel is only about a mile away from DHs home so I hope that any of his teenage sisters that want to come over and hang with the baby (even if he is sleeping) can just walk over.

I think we have decided to go with the night flights both ways so we are hoping that DS will sleep through.