Holiday hell with 5 year old!

[Doublecheeseburgerandfries]

We are staying for 7 nights in a static caravan, 5 year old DS isn’t a great sleeper at the best of times, but last night he didn’t go to sleep until 9:30pm and was awake this morning at 5am! He wouldn’t go back to sleep, he’s now incredibly overtired already and very grouchy. He hasn’t napped since he was 3 years old, so I don’t see him doing that now either.
I’m dreading the rest of this week now! 😢

I think this is fairly normal for the excitement of it all to be honest! I remember one particularly horrible caravan holiday we had when ds was 4 when he went to bed every night at 11 (we did try to get him to bed earlier) and woke up every day at 4am…!

Black bin bags taped to the window?
Mines a few years older but what od do is power through it today put him to bed around 10pm then cross your fingers that the bags work

Go for a drive - might fall asleep in the car. If not push through and you’ll get an early night tonight !

He may not nap but you can still build in down time - curled up for an hour with the curtains shut reading some books/watching a film.

I'm just back from a caravan hol with a 5 year old and it got a bit better across the week but she was pretty tired the whole holiday. It's just par for the course I think, we weren't too ambitious and spent most of the daytime in the pool & evenings at the on site entertainment.

How many adults? If possible take it in turns to have naps. If not then bribery and quiet time.

My parents enforced “siesta” on vacations and then kept us up really late! Siesta was supposed to be a time we napped, or read books or played quietly. No screens. It’s worth a try because then in a few years’ time he’ll know the drill

Well I'd have just snuggled up and watched some kids tv/dvd with them. That's what I did when mine were little, and what I did with my grandkids when they were little. Calling it hell when they slept 8 hrs is hyperbole imo.

Oh OP it’s all about perspective. You’re on a lovely family holiday and your child is obviously excited by it. Routine changes on holiday. Try to see if he’ll nap with you in the caravan, go for a drive and attempt a car nap or if all else fails then early night tonight.

Can you try and just knacker him out. Beach etc.

Honestly, just let it go. Relax. He's five, it's really no big deal. Your holiday will only be ruined if you make it that way.

He's probably just very excited and I appreciate this is in no way helpful but I would swap with your right now - having had my teenage DS16 at home for last 6 weeks I miss those days when everything g was so exciting and new for them, I think we let DS stay up later at that age when away but he was still up at 7 dressed for the pool

I don't really see the problem here or see how that's unusual? He's still little enough to be waking early, even with the late night.

Going on a holiday as a parent means you're parenting an excited child in a different setting. f anything, regardless of age, any sleep routine goes out the window.

If you're busy and doing lots of fun things things he'll likely crash and either nap or sleep earlier/later in a couple of days.

Try and chill and go with the flow. If you're super tired get him set up with a game/toys/tablet/phone by himself while you rest for an hour.

I had a week in a caravan recently with my six year old and her five year old cousin. They shared a room and the first night they went to sleep at 11pm and got up at 5.30am the next morning….. they were pretty savage that day as you might expect. It did improve after that as they were both so tired they went down more easily but to be honest, we didn’t stress about it (much 😂) and it was mostly fine. All part of the “fun”.

Sounds par for the course with the excitement of a holiday. Was it very hot in the caravan?

We always did a nice long walk - talking about what we can see, count the flowers, spot the insects - whatever will catch his interest - after dinner. Then back to get washed and then play card or board games for an hour aiming for bed about 9. Wind down time in bed where he can look at a book or listen to an audiobook then accept that they're going to be up fairly early! It's just part of being little and excited about holidays.

We built in a siesta type relax after lunch if they got really grouchy - an hour of down time where they're laid on their bed doing something relatively calm.

This sounds like my daughter (6). She is always hyper on holiday. Excitement of a different bed is just too much! Going to sleep at 11pm and up at 7am is not unusual 😬
The first day in particular is always a bit like this as routine is out and it's a unfamiliar surroundings. Sure your DS will settle down in a couple of days. Keep him active with activities or walks during the day.
Hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday.

When we went away on holiday when my children were small, we built a pre bedtime quiet hour into our routine. Bath and pyjamas then lights lowered. We did stories in very quiet voices and played very soft classical music from our phones. This gave them time to wind down from excitement of the day. They were generally asleep before the hour was up

But not always😂😂😂. We just continued with dim lights and hushed voices and sometimes we fell asleep before them

Holidays with young children are awful and expensive. But we keep doing them because they really enjoy them. That's love!

Do not "try and knacker him out" you will make the overtiredness worse and he'll just go hyper and you'll perpetuate it and have another 5am wake tomorrow.

Keep it calm, don't overdo it and get him to bed early. Like no later than 7pm. Blankets or towels on windows to keep it dark and don't be sitting making a racket so he gets fomo and wants to stay up

Does the site have late night swimming? So pool open until 7/8/9pm?

I always would do an activity with ds in the morning. Back for lunch and we'd chill out. Then dinner and a late swim followed by a snack.

Swimming knackers you out!

Well it did - he's now a swimmer and so we still get up at 4am 🫣😂

Bless him, he’s only 5, he’s obviously super excited about the holiday/change of scene. You wait until he’s a grumpy teenager and tells you he wouldn’t be caught dead holidaying with you. As someone else said, it’s a holiday, so break your routine and have naps at weird times if it helps. Personally I’d favour the knacker him out routine and see if you can get him to bed at a decent hour after a day in the pool/on the beach.

Was it your first night? We are just back from a week in a caravan and much the same thing happened with our four year old on the first night - she wouldn't go to sleep and then had all the rest of us (she has two older brothers) up at 5am!

The rest of the week she went back to normal though so don't panic, and she did fall asleep in the car on the way to a day out even though she hasn't napped for ages. I think it was first day excitement to be honest, so hopefully yours will settle down too.

Oh yes, and we do a lot of caravan holidays and ALWAYS take black out blinds. Get some if you don't already!