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I am curious as to how parents handle little ones who require naps. If you cannot check in to a vacation rental until 4 p.m., and check out is 11 a.m. - how do you accommodate your baby’s needs?
Do you go to a quiet park if possible? Do you keep your child up at night so they sleep in late in the morning?
I’ve only had one person (surprisingly) ask for a midday check in and afternoon check out to accomodate napping. But my question is not whether you allow early/late check in to accommodate guests…but rather how you handle traveling with baby.
Does your baby need a nap at the same time every day, multiple naps, etc??
Oh, the condo owners in our unit want to forbid any noise between 2 and 5 pm. It is ridiculous. This is some new level of entitlement with new parents in their 30’s. If they want all that, they can choose to book for the two extra nights. Or their kid can nap in the car like normal people.
I actually have access to a baby these days. Naps are not regular, though one often wishes that they could be. They just happen when the baby gets tired. Having a baby is hard. You are always exhausted. It is not your AirBNB’s host’s problem.
However, you might be nice and offer them two half days for a charge if you don’t have back to back reservations.
So kids nap in cars, and many babies don’t have regular nap schedules??
What do they mean by forbidding any noise? Loud music playing? So the owners are new parents and they want the rest of the building to be quiet? Why don’t they purchase two white noise machines to knock the kid out?
More complicated than that… only two units. They want no vacuuming, minor construction, lawn mowing, music, absolute quiet. And they have two white noise machines already.
Yes. Babies sleep in their infant carriers in the car. In fact, many parents drive kids around just to get them to sleep at all.
No regular schedule until about age 13 months, give or take.
Interesting. So I take it once the baby is asleep, it is pretty much knocked out then? I was just thinking of people honking horns, etc…unless they are on a quiet country road.
Thats crazy with condo owners - I just can’t imagine a vacuum in another unit waking up someone who has two white noise machines going already.
One of the few things my parents did right was to have me nap anywhere and everywhere. They never put me someplace dark and quiet. My mother would put me on the couch next to where my father was practicing playing the string bass. As a result I have no problem sleeping anywhere and any time as an adult. When I question my friends who have insomnia I almost always find that their parents made sure that they always had a dark and quiet place to sleep.
Yup… If I were in a car on a road trip with my baby twins headed to your place, they’d both be asleep for nearly the entire journey!
Often with the excitement of travel, nap time gets skipped. That means they will crash early that evening.
Much to my chagrin, both of mine decided at about age 1 year they would NOT nap in the afternoon. And as twins they could gang up on me! I would put them in their rooms anyway and they would both climb our of their cribs and wait by the baby gate at the door calling for me. Ahh the memories.
First thing my mom taught me as a new mom was nap time should have normal noise levels. You don’t want to confuse day and night. Normal light in the room, normal noise levels, etc. I have 4 kids. I’m not super-mom by ANY means. My life revolves around my kids as necessity arises as I love my kids, etc, but I am not going to quiet the whole house or let my life be ruled by naps or I would lose my mind.
I have friends that their lives are ruled by the nap schedule. They won’t stay anywhere past 7:30PM. They put notes on the front door about no ringing the bell, etc. Yes, at certain stages in my life I’ve had short periods where I had to do all of these things, but it was for weeks at a time, not years.
And the biggest thing that drives me bonkers is that there’s no personal responsibility! If you want quiet, odd check-in/out, etc, then you pay the price. Don’t expect others to bend over backwards and change their lives/schedules because you’ve raised your kids to be so sensitive to anything abnormal as mowing the lawn in the afternoon or naps being in the car or 30 minutes late occasionally. I would lose my mind if my kids truly ruled my life like I see so many parents dealing with. No wonder people only have 1 kid, because they’re too scared to have more because of how difficult they’ve made it on themselves!
Now of course there are rare circumstances that affect those things, allergies, health, certain life-stages, etc. But there are too many normal kids that are being set up for failure in life because the whole world revolves around them.
I would put them in their rooms anyway and they would both climb our of their cribs and wait by the baby gate at the door calling for me. Ahh the memories.