Yesterday, my husband asked me if I wanted to take the girls to Orlando for the weekend. We live so close and have annual passes to the theme parks, so this is a frequent question in my house. My first inclination was to say, “Yes!”, but then I thought about it…Could I really handle a weekend in Orlando? I mean, we have a blast at the theme parks and getting away as a family can be fun, but getting the girls to sleep away from home is difficult to say the least.
When it was just the three of us (Erajh, Greenleigh, and myself) we were able to stay in one room without a problem. We would get a large room and a crib for Greenleigh. We put the crib as far from our bed as possible, turn off the lights, and sleep as long as she’d let us. And God forbid she saw us walk to the bathroom at 6am, because she would think the day had started without her and refuse to go back to sleep. At least it helped us hit the theme parks early.
But now that there are four of us, the hotels are infinitely more difficult. Hazeline, aka “The Rooster”, doesn’t like to sleep much past dawn. She will go back to sleep, but only after she’s cried for a bottle long enough to wake Greenleigh up. Greenleigh has become a late riser (as evidenced by her waving her finger at me and telling me not to wake her up anymore when I was putting her to bed the other night), causing her to be extremely grouchy for the remainder of the day when woken up before she is ready. You know, just perfect when you want to take your kids to a theme park for the entire day.
And then I got the crazy idea that maybe my nearly 3 year old needs a room of her own. Maybe it just makes sense to get Greenleigh own space and have The Rooster sleep with us so Greenleigh won’t be disturbed? An adjoining room of course, but a room of her own nonetheless. When I priced that option I decided that if I was going to spend that amount of money, it better be me that’s getting the good night sleep, not my 3 year old. So much for two rooms.
Even if I did get an adjoining room, that might not solve the problem for Greenleigh. To Greenleigh, everything in a hotel room is so novel and fun. The ice bucket becomes a hat, the coffee table becomes a stage where she can sing and dance, and the bath mat becomes the perfect cape her baby doll. She’s so excited about all these “new” things she often can’t quiet down for bedtime. She’s just too wound up. Nevermind the fact that she just saw these same items in a very similar looking room a couple months ago when we stayed at this exact same hotel.
And so it is – the battle over bedtime. I mean, you don’t want it to be a battle, and you really try for it to not happen like that, but it is a battle. And by the end of a weekend that’s supposed to be magical, I’m frustrated and exhausted.
Friends have told me that the best way to handle it is to keep everything the same as when you are at home. Don’t give the kids a chance to question it. But it isn’t the same as at home. There’s no way to ignore that. Instead, I’ve just been going with it, breaking from routine when we are away from home. I love schedules and predictability, but this isn’t a case where it works for us.
So after a long day at the amusement parks you will find all 4 of us cuddled up in our king size bed (a luxury, considering we only have a queen size at home) relaxing. We turn on a little SproutTV and let the girls unwind. Thank goodness for 24 hour kids’ television! The Pajanimals sing and entertain the girls as we get them into their jammies and ready for bed. I do salvage the basics from our normal routine at home (bath, brush teeth, jammies), but for the most part, I let the kids enjoy being “on vacation” and that has worked for us and definitely makes it less of a battle.
How do you handle bedtime battles with your preschooler (at home or away from home)? Reply below and you will be entered to win one of four SproutTV prize packages that include a Pajanimals DVD and The Sleepeasy Solution book.
The Pajanimals, available only on 24-hour preschool television channel Sprout, features four fuzzy friends who wind down for bedtime in a cozy and reassuring way. The show helps you tackle common bedtime issues like getting out of bed, bad dreams and scary monsters. Check out Sprout’s bedtime tips! Also, by replying below four of my lucky readers will win a prize package – including a Pajanimals DVD and The Sleepeasy Solution book, proven by Hollywood’s celebrity parents and written by the sleep experts at Sleepy Planet.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Sprout. The opinions and text are all mine. Official Sweepstakes Rules.
