Taking breaks with a toddler

[la79al]

Our first family trip we took breaks most days but we stayed off site and vowed never again (to breaks and staying offsite). Next trip we did not do breaks. This time we will have a just about 2 year old. She will nap in the stroller but from what I hear, a mid day break is still suggested with toddlers. So if we are headed back to the room for a break, how in the world do I keep the child from falling asleep on the bus, then being wide awake when we get back to the room and making the break useless? Trying to leave the park before she is tired won't work, because she will simply crash as soon as there is nothing to look at.

[LilAnn]

When we went, DD was 22 months and it was August....super hot and humid. We stayed on property and usually we all needed a break from the heat by 10:30/11. Usually we would try to stick to her home schedule of napping around 1pm and would head back to the resort after lunch. One of us would stay with her while she slept in the room and the other one, usually DH would join the rest of the family at the pool (we went with his sister's family and they had older kids - 9 and 11). There was usually so much going on and so much to see that she didn't always fall asleep before we got back. When she did sleep in the stroller or on the bus, one of us would just carry her from the bus to the bed and she usually stayed asleep. We just played it by ear day to day and took our chances on her sleeping in the room. It actually worked pretty well. Have fun!

[Buckeye Princess]

You know your little one. We will be going with a 1 year old and don't plan to take mid day breaks. She is a very easy going girl and has gone for marathon days in the past at family events, etc. She'll sleep just about anywhere and through anything. If it turns out that it doesn't work once there we will adjust plans, but I'm going to go against the grain and skip the break. We are doing the deluxe dining though and sitting down 3 times a day most days so I guess that is a break.

[EcbLovesMickey]

We like to take a break and go into the baby centers. They have playrooms and changing areas. They are a nice change of pace, especially on a hot day

[badblackpug]

We don't do breaks either. The baby (8 months old last year and 21 months this year) just falls asleep in the stroller. She is a good sleeper so it was never an issue. My next youngest is 8, so the bigger kids aren't up for an afternoon nap.

[MommytoaSweetie]

We go in the winter so it's not (usually) super hot and we haven't figured out a way to keep kids from falling asleep on the buses, so we just do naps in the strollers. We'll see for this next trip how DD2 handles this - on day trips she's been the same but you never know.

[Hannathy]

That is one of the reasons we never did breaks-at least not the leave the parks kind. Plus it is waaaay too exhausting for the adults to schlep all the way out of a park to the busses, to the room and then doing it all over again for what an hour? Nope our kids just slept in the stroller and when they were a bit older we would just go on a long ride, see a show, or get a snack for a break. You can also ride the monorail for awhile, cool, restful and little ones love it.

[DisneyClown]

Even if your little one doesn't sleep during the break, you may still find the break is a welcome from the crowds and heat. Most people who take a break from the parks, are taking a few hours, then heading back in early evening...this is assuming you're there for rope drop. You could plan your days with a break, and if you find you don't need it, all the better!

[tzolkin]

Before our first trip, I assumed that the nap/break would be useless. I thought we would waste time, no one would sleep, etc but we really found it to be the most important part of the trip for us. My kids would not sleep in a stroller and DH and I also really needed to get out of the parks, so stroller napping was not an option for us.

We usually take a mid-day break for several hours. Most days we do an AM EMH park and then head out by around 11:00. Only once have any of my three kids fallen asleep on the bus (we just put him in the stroller when we got off and he continued to sleep). When we get to the room, we close the curtains, turn off the lights, and everyone gets into bed.

My kids have never seemed tired, but they always fall asleep within a few minutes. They were all of an age that they did not take naps at home when we took our first trip, but everyone really enjoyed that daily nap (including DH and I). We all really needed to get away from the crowds and the heat for a few hours. We never had a meltdown (toddler or adult ) and I believe that was because we got so much sleep and never stayed in any park for more than a few hours at a time. We usually all slept until about 4:30, ate, and then headed to another park for a few hours.

[Captain_Hook]

We are not touring "commandos." We have the luxury of being able to do Disney often (my parents are DVC ), so this might not work for everyone.

It can be difficult the first few times you go with a little one -- every stage is different for them which makes every trip different.

Here is what we do:

We take our time. We try to get to the parks early, but we don't rush around like crazy in the morning (unless we have am adr). We do the parks until DS starts getting tired/whiny. Depending on where we are will determine what happens next -- this past trip (DS was 22mos), we spent alot of time at the squirting fountains. It gave him a welcome break from the stroller and he was able to have a great time. It tired him out and we would tend to head back to the room after. (Usually after lunch time) Sometimes he would fall asleep in his car seat and sometimes not. We would give him some down time in the room and see if he would nap there. If not, we would head to the pool. Some days we would go back to the parks and some days we just stayed at the resort.

We just really played it be ear. I figure I've been to WDW almost every year since I was 2 -- there really isn't anything that would devestate me to miss. Most will be there the next time we go. For example, DS has been 4 times since he was born (5 if you count in utero) and he will be 2 next month. We still have not done Toy Story Mania. I really want to, but the lines are crazy and it isn't worth it.

These early trips, while enjoyable for us, are mainly for him. I don't want him to be miserable (and make everyone else miserable) just so we can stay in the parks.

Obviously, this won't work for everyone -- particularly those who don't get to go frequently.

[brockash]

Honestly, for us, taking a mid day break is usually really more of a PIA than anything. If I were staying at one of the resorts on the monorail, then I'd do them on most days. (We spend most of our time at MK.) For us, it's just a pain to pack everything up in the middle of the day deal with the stroller on the bus, then unpack to a point at the resort, and then trying to get everyone awake again, really isn't fun at all. It's also pretty time consuming to us. By the time you walk out of the park to the bus stop and finally to your room, it could easily take almost an hr. one way. Really, I find it's much easier, especially for my still stroller bound kiddo, to just let her sleep in the park when she wants to, and my older one almost always does fine going the whole day. If we had lots of money and could just wheel our stroller with our stuff on the monorail and be at our resort, we'd probably do more mid-day breaks, but if not having that advantage, I really don't think it's worth it, at least for us.

[PaddingtonBear]

You could try talking to her or playing with her on the bus to keep her awake. Its not hard. I have a two year old and managed.

[LilGMom]

We never went back to the room with our boys when they were toddlers. Fortunately both of my boys can sleep anywhere and would fall asleep in the backpack carrier or the stroller. We'd find a place (often a little off the beaten path) to relax for 30+ minutes and then start moving again. Sometimes we'd stayed in one place longer, it just depended on if our DS was still sleeping or not.

We tried going back to the room once with our oldest. He slept in the stroller, slept in the car, slept on the way to the room but as soon as we hit the room he popped those eyes open and naptime was over. We learned our lesson real quick on that.

[Disneychix]

DS was 20 months on his first trip. We let him sleep in the stroller as much as possible but we do tend to take 'breaks' ourselves so a few days he did nap in the room. He was (is) a pretty good sleeper and likes to take naps so we didn't have a problem.

We went again at 26 months and he would take little cat naps in the stroller. We tried to go back to the resort and rest a few times even if it meant just changing clothes or freshening up. We did use the pool mid-day too. We found evenings much more pleasant if DS got a good nap in rather than just 20 mins in the stroller.

[Blurrysmom]

Originally Posted by Captain_Hook

I don't want him to be miserable (and make everyone else miserable) just so we can stay in the parks.

I can't agree with you more. We are taking our son for the first time and he will be 20 months. And he really likes his bed. And if he is tired, he will be cranky and loud and everyone within a 100 yard radius will know it. He will eventually pass out from sheer exhaustion, but by that point he's ruined for the day and I'm usually in tears (or desperately in need of an adult beverage!!). Ergo, we will be taking breaks and hoping for the best. And I imagine he may fall asleep before reaching the room, but, I also have been several times and will not die if we don't go back to the park sometimes and don't see everything on our punchlist. But I do think it will be a challenge.