Topic: The Thread About Kids and How To Raise Them

[Trump's tiny tiny hands]

Hello all, after some advice on jet lag for under 5's. We're hoping to go to canada to see a relative and have a holiday. Where they live they're 5 hours behind us. I've got a 3 year old and an infant. I'm very keen to go, but not sure I can face days on end of tantrums and god knows what at both ends of the holiday as they cope with jet lag. Any tips or advice appreciated. Of the mates I've spoken to so far, most seem to be leaning towards 'wait till they're a bit older'.....

I flew to the other side of the world with a 3 and a half year old and a 7 month old. They tend to do a lot better sleeping on the planes than grown ups. We did an adjustment to when the elder kid should fall asleep on the flights. She made it all the way to dinner in New Zealand before practically falling asleep in her lasagne. She slept a normal night through and was full of beans from there on in. Never noticed any mood difference in her the following few days.

Flight back was a different kettle of fish but that was more to do with the staggered nature of our flights - I had the eldest sleeping in my arms in Singapore airport for 2 hours. Wasn't particularly comfy or good for my sleep deprivation.

[rob1966]

Hello all, after some advice on jet lag for under 5's. We're hoping to go to canada to see a relative and have a holiday. Where they live they're 5 hours behind us. I've got a 3 year old and an infant. I'm very keen to go, but not sure I can face days on end of tantrums and god knows what at both ends of the holiday as they cope with jet lag. Any tips or advice appreciated. Of the mates I've spoken to so far, most seem to be leaning towards 'wait till they're a bit older'.....

Done Florida twice, honeymoon and family trip. As others have said, going is the easy bit, just keep them awake until 8-9 pm Canada time and the next day they should be fine. My two were older, 6 and 8, when we went to Florida in 2017 but they were full of energy on our first day because we kept them up.

Coming back was a bit fucked up anyway as we had a 24 hrs delay, we sat on the plane until half midnight, after boarding at 6pm, before they cancelled the flight. It was 3 am by the time they went to sleep and they were up at 8. On the flight, the youngest slept for a few hours, but the other refused to try and sleep. He fell asleep at 11 on our couch, we let him have about 2 or 3 hours, then woke him. Both were in bed by 8pm and slept solid. They were a bit tired the next day then back to normal after that.

Found out my wife was pregnant nearly a week ago. In all honesty, I spent the first day and a half thinking "I've ruined my life." I'm happy about it now, but definitely still daunted by the whole thing. Even at 34 I still feel like I'm not a grown-up and have no idea how I'm supposed to raise a kid.

Going to be following this thread closely.

Congrats

I was 41 when we had our first and I still didn't feel grown up. Even though they can be little shits, I love being a Dad, even now at 52 with an 8 and 10 yr old.