Would this be too much for your young kids ?

[toomuchfu]

I'm aware they're all different etc etc.

But I am just talking to my mum and how things were when I was little and what we would get up to on holiday and how we would behave vs how it is with my kids..

So I will outline a couple of days as an example

1. Get up after around 9 hours sleep ( kids are 2 and 4 ). Go to the beach until around 1 pm. From around 10 am. Then have a sit down lunch until around 2pm. Go home, 2 year old naps for a couple of hours and 4 year old goes in the pool. Go out to dinner at 8 or 9ish. Sit down dinner for at least an hour. Then go to a fun fair and let them go on trampoline, ferris wheel etc.. then home and in bed at around 11 pm.

1. Another day, get up after 9ish hours of sleep. Play at home and have lunch at 1, set off on 1.5 hour car journey. Kids nap in the car. Arrive at destination, go to friends house for 45 minutes . Wake kids to go into house. Then stop at hotel for 30 minutes, then go to buy some food at supermarket, then go to buy kids clothes at shop,then onto another stop and then a two hour meal. After meal at around 10 pm, go to an another place for a drink with kids. Then go home and kids in bed by midnight.

1. Kids up after 9 hours sleep. Off into the car to have breakfast at cafe, then quick play at playground and onto 30 minute journey ti have lunch at relatives house for two hours. The straight back to the car and journey home for 1.5 hours. Then just home time and bed.

I didn't cover bath time and story time but it's also I there.

Don't you think that this is A LOT for kids this age? Especially a 2 year old? And you'd naturally expect there to be some tears and tantrums with this kind of schedule ? My mum says my parents did even more with us and we just slotted in and didn't complain......

Not sure I quite understand, surely no one thinks putting children to bed at midnight is okay?

I would only do bed that late for very special occasions personally

Mine and my GC would manage that, but we seem to be high energy. We wouldn't particularly want to be on that schedule, though. Children got smacked legs, it's why we behaved. But in your examples I don't see why the bedtimes can't be earlier and I wouldn't agree to it.

To be fair this sounds like great fun!

It wouldn’t work for my dd. It definitely can work because I have seen small European children do that kind of thing on holiday and cope ok with it. But that might be more of a way of life than a holiday thing depending on where they live etc.

I’ve recently returned from holiday and this hasn’t been far off our schedule for our two 6yr olds. With this much activity, they will very frequently fall asleep in the middle of the day or around 4pm. I doubt your mum is thinking of when you were this young!

That’s super late!
we are away now and it’s awake at 7, breakfast at 830… pool/beach for 10/11.. lunch around 1 then back to pool or beach then back to room for 530.. dinner for 7 and back to room by 930/10. My son is nearly 6 and I want him asleep by 1030 latest!

Well we are European to be fair. It was a holiday thing only.

My kids have coped OK I would say, but there have been tears. They're so little, I don't think it's surprising is all I'm saying.

Just got back from holiday with an almost 4 year old and a 1 year old. They wouldn’t have coped with that schedule at all. We were in a villa so private pool but after the first day (20 minute walk to resort centre then beach) we scaled right back and spent most of the time in the villa working around pretty much their normal routine. It was a lot less stressful that way. Latest bedtime was 9pm and I was fully aware how unhappy they were with that. It was a one off.

That's what holidays were like with my dd when she was little, but we travelled a lot with her so she was used to it! She just happily slotted in with our schedule so we were quite lucky I think. She was an easy going child so I appreciate this wouldn't work for everyone!

She's a happy, healthy 16yo now so it doesn't seem to have done her any harm.

My kids behaviour would be awful if i did that. They'd be exhausted and they are older than yours are.

My kids behaviour would be awful if i did that. They'd be exhausted and they are older than yours are.

My kids would not cope with that AT ALL. We would have had meltdowns galore with that amount of activity and that little sleep. To my mind it's insane!!!!

I think that’s a lot for their ages. Ok occasionally but I know there would definitely have been tears/tantrums from my kids if we tried to do full on days like that everyday.

At their ages, I’d expect they’d need 11-12 hours of sleep plus a nap for a the little one.

The day activities look great. For me it's the lack of sleep and late nights that would cause problems.

Mine wouldn’t have coped with such late nights and short nights’ sleep at that age. It’s fine to expect them to slot in to an extent but of course they’re going to get tired and grumpy and I if you push them too far it’s gonna be a bad time for all.

Do less with them then. Sounds exhausting to me.

My DS would have been OK with day 1, but would have been self combusting by day 3. He was (is) ND and a basic routine was (is) important. As was his bed, and at that age he slept for 11 hours normally but could often do 12 or 13 hours after a busy day.

I had to factor in regular "do nothing days" otherwise he would be a hyper nightmare.

The late nights would have been awful for mine as would 9 hours sleep, my 9 year old wouldn’t cope with that schedule either.

It doesn't sound a lot to me at all. Loads of downtime and naps, I don't understand. Personally my kids don't cope with hours at home, it causes built up energy and fighting.

That doesn't sound like enough sleep. By at least a couple of hours a day.

Missing a couple of hours sleep a day isn't going to kill anyone, like lots of things they used to do in the past that we don't do now.

And since it didn't kill anyone, lots of parents grandparents or others will say "oh it was fine we used to smoke in the house around our kids, deprive them of sleep, play loud music when they slept, make them sleep in brightly lit rooms, never wear seatbelts, give Guinness to five year olds" blah blah blah "and they turned out fine!" as if the fact they're ok means it didn't cause any harm.

It's the stupidest argument I've ever heard, lacking even the most basic understanding of how the world works and yet the most common one I hear.

Don't be drawn in by this rubbish. Just because it didn't kill you it doesn't by a long way mean you wouldn't have been better off if they had let you have more sleep. They simply have no retrospective way to test this other than to look for gross gross signs of negligence like did you die as a result. Sigh.

I have dialed it right back. It's just too much. Especially for the little one. Just funny how they'd do even more with us and apparently no tears..

Times were different then OP. Children had to fit in with what the adults did, were less pandered to and tears were for being hurt, very upset or something important. Whinging wasn’t tolerated and if it started it got the hard stare, not cuddles. The word NO was used much more.