Where Does Your Toddler Sleep On Vacation? {Not A Pack N Play or Bed}

  • Susie Parker
Is your toddler a bit to handle on vacations? Do they refuse to sleep in the pack-n-play or bed? This one truck worked with my toddler and I know it will help with yours, too! Click through to learn my secret on how I got my toddler to sleep on vacations! Preschool tips | preschooler sleep | toddler tips | toddler sleep tips | family vacations | parenting #sleepbabylove #sleeptips #sleep #parenting #preschooler #toddler #familyvacations

I’m over at Your Modern Family providing my tips on where does your toddler sleep on vacation when the pack n play or bed just won’t work.  This trick worked great with my 2.5 year old after a couple of tough tries in the pack n play.  The suggestion is geared towards a toddler in the 2.5 – 3 year old range.

What do you do when your kids won’t sleep on vacation?   Try this little vacation tip!

sleep vacation 2

Packing for a vacation is exhausting enough – deciding where your kids should sleep should not be as exhausting.   However, when you have a toddler and they are normally happy to sleep in their crib at home – what can you do?

Here are your options:

  • Pack n play
  • Rent a crib
  • Mattress on the floor
  • Sleep in your bed (the answer that I’m not suggesting)
  • The most fun…  bring a tent!

My go-to-answer is for your child would be to sleep in a Pack ‘n Play,  but now I’m not so sure. Let me say this that if your child loves the portable crib – DO NOT change a thing.   You’ve got it made!  However, if your child refuses the pack ‘n play, you can try something new.

Our last vacation resulted in having neither kids sleeping at 10:30pm – both were up, because our toddler was having a very hard time falling asleep in her Pack ‘n Play, so we knew that we had to change this up a bit.

When we decided that the best answer, for our family, was to bring our castle tent, we found some very happy kids!
tent 1

We just packed up the tent in the perfect portable bag that it comes in:
tent2

 

And don’t worry, they also make a castle tent for boys:

tent2

 

Helpful tips:

  • Put it beside your bed, on the floor, to keep an eye on what is happening.
  • Talk to your kids about the sleep rules how and why they need to stay in the tent at night.
  • Lay a comforter down on the floor, to make it comfortable.
  • Bring a pillow from home (or a special blanket)
  • If they won’t fall asleep, lay with them for a few minutes and then sneak out when they are asleep.  If they wake up, they will just look up and see you in bed beside them. miatent-ymf

By the end, our daughter told us “I am lucky I sleep in a tent”. (OK, she may have heard it from us, but hey, she got it!) We set the expectations and she went with it.  So that my friends, is another tool to put in your sleep tool belt.

Susie Parker

Susie Parker is founder of Sleep Baby Love and a Certified Infant and Child Sleep Consultant through the Family Sleep Institute. When Susie's not ridding the world of sleepless families, she loves spending time with her two girls that have given her a ton of real world sleep experience head on.

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