StarSeven7
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2017
You May be surprised at how late they can or will want to stay up on the cruise. On our first cruise we would keep going to the kids club to pick up our son so he could go to bed, each time he asked for 1 more hour - he ended up staying until close every night! They also have a little area in the kids club where they can lay down, relax and watch a movie (or even nap).
But if they do want to go back to the room and sleep, it’s completely dependent on your comfort level, parenting style AND what you know about your kids. I would have had no issues with my (then) 6 year old and 11 year old in the room alone together (as long as it was BOTH of them there, not just my 6 year old alone). For us, if we had to be back in our room every night by 9 we would have waited to cruise because that would not have been enjoyable for my husband and I and would not have been worth the money for us. Everyone is completely different, only you know what works for you.
My kids definitely CAN stay up later than 9pm, the problem is just that they don't sleep in at all. So after a few days of late nights and early wake ups, they start melting down! My DD9 is always bugging me to have a later bedtime (I'm currently making them go to bed at 8pm this summer) but she still gets up really early most mornings. I told her if she can stay in bed until 7am then she can have a later bedtime. But that hasn't happened yet! Hahaha!
Right now, my 9 and 6 year old are having the "you're breathing on me" fights, so there is no way I'd let the 9 year old be in charge of the 6 year old awake, let alone asleep. They both get scared when left alone, so if one woke and couldn't find us, ugh. My 11 year old routinely stayed out later than either me or DH last cruise, so perhaps on one of the nights we may ask him to be in the cabin while the other two sleep so we could do one late night activity. But usually, the swaying of the ship does me in and I'm the one looking to sleep early! They'll be 7, 10 and 13 on our next cruise in Nov 2020. I may revisit everything then if the 9 year old has matured a bit by then. Right now, the two younger ones together can't be trusted not to smack each other, lol.
Yeah, mine are definitely in that stage too!
Maybe we'll just try keeping them at the kids clubs a bit later and see how that goes, even with early mornings. I find it so hard to know when to give them a little independence! My DH thinks I'm super overprotective, but if I compare myself to all the other parents I know, I would say I'm in the middle (he's just suuuuuuper laid back and was raised without much parental supervision!) I have some friends who won't let their 8 or 9 year olds go into the bathroom by themselves at a restaurant or store and some who let their kids go to the park on their own and walk home from school having to cross a busier street. My DS6 is definitely not mature and I wouldn't consider leaving him on his own. But we do leave them sleeping in our trailer when we're camping and at one particular private campground that my DH's family rents out, we're far enough away from them that I wouldn't be able to hear them if they woke up. It kinda stressed me out when they were younger (our monitor didn't always work that far away) but I'm mostly ok with it now and ALL the other families there do this.
Thanks for the responses everyone!