Children - returning to school after flight?

[DLPDreams]

For those of your with young-ish children (pre teen).

Do you send your children straight back to school after returning from Orlando? Or do you try and fix dates so you are back a few days before return or go during middle of longer summer hols so they have plenty of time etc?

I ask because if we do manage to book local, direct flights, there is only one flight per week. This would mean us returning the day before the children return to school next September (we would arrive back about 06.00 and be home by about 07.00 if we don't have any delays with baggage etc). Return to school next day.

I am concerned this is going to be an issue for them with jetlag. They will only have 3 days at school that week (so not a full week). I know it takes on average 3-4 days to recover properly, so if we accounted for this we'd have to fly from, probably, Manchester and return back the Friday before, back in UK early hours Sat am then 3 hour drive back home.

We have a little while to decide, but flights for local airport are released in about 2.5-3 months, so we'll have to have worked it out by now. Other slight issue is part of our party wants to fly direct from local airport, isn't interested in flying from Manchester due to drive .

 

[ROBEAR84]

I was worried we were going to have this problem as originally we were going to go from Birmingham and would have got back at 6am on the monday morning. Thankfully as we're now going from LGW our flight is the day before. They're missing enough as it is!

However, one of our neighbours has been a few times and they usually get a few hours sleep and then the kids go in late am/lunchtime.

ETA: Saying that, I think they flew into Bristol (about 15 mins from our house!) so didn't have a drive on top of the flight. Gutted they've pulled Bristol for this year typical!

 

[wayneg]

For years we landed Sundays and back to school Monday, never a problem. I guess all children deal with it differently.
Every trip without exception we land back day before I start work at 3:30am, we do it 2,3 or 4 times a year so it was just something he had to deal with when he was at school.

 

[DLPDreams]

I was worried we were going to have this problem as originally we were going to go from Birmingham and would have got back at 6am on the monday morning. Thankfully as we're now going from LGW our flight is the day before. They're missing enough as it is!

However, one of our neighbours has been a few times and they usually get a few hours sleep and then the kids go in late am/lunchtime.

ETA: Saying that, I think they flew into Bristol (about 15 mins from our house!) so didn't have a drive on top of the flight. Gutted they've pulled Bristol for this year typical!

Thanks for that Ro. What are you doing now then? Do you get back on the Sunday now and the kids go back when?

I probably didn't make it clear, it will actually be their first day back at school after the summer holidays, so going into a new year etc. So we arrive back Tues @ 06.00, home and then school the next day. It isn't such an issue for my littlest, but my biggest will be entering year 6 and a) school doesn't like time off (and I'm not keen) so not an option to keep her off for a day and b) it is a big 'first' day for her in terms of finding her way around the school as it's all change in year 6 for them (bit hard to explain without going into too much detail, but I'd prefer her to be there on the first day with her friends).

I guess what I'm asking is, if you have sent your kids back to school the day after returning from WDW and how did they manage? I haven't asked many people but some have said that getting straight back into routine is sometimes good for re-establishing sleeping pattern? I have been to NYC about 9 years ago now (only US travel I have done but have done a fair bit of long haul in the East), I still remember the jetlag - it was awful . Think I went back into work the day after we landed too (pre kids). DH has done lots of US travel with work and isn't keen, I have to say.

I seem to take 2 steps forward and 1 back with this trip . It would be great to go from our local airport but as it's Monday flights we don't have much option on dates. If we return the week before on the Monday we'll miss the quietest week of our holiday due to US school return dates.... Or, it's from Manchester a few days earlier, but face a 3 hour (poss more as it's a bank holiday weekend) car journey back. And I suspect we'll lose half our travelling party doing that .

 

[joolz1910]

In 2012, we got back to Manchester at around 8am on a Tuesday morning. The kids went back to school the next day - they were 12, 8 and 5. Next year we will get back to Manchester on Monday 31st at around 8am. I am guessing that Tuesday 1st September will be an INSET day at their schools, so I will be straight back to work but they will probably go back on Wednesday 2nd September.

Fly from your local airport!

 

[ROBEAR84]

Yeah we get back 0600 on the Sunday so the kids will go in the following day (Monday).

My neighbours reason for sending the kids back straight away has always been like you said, getting straight back into it seems to be easier anyway.

I can see what you mean with regards to your eldest. If it was me, I'd probably go with the local flights, hope they sleep on the plane and leave it up to them whether they go in on time or not (hopefully she'll want to go with her friends anyway and the excitement will outweigh the jetlag!...maybe lol)

I expect I'll be the worst with Jetlag! I got jetlag flying to Belfast once!!

 

[chmurf]

kids cope with jet lag better than we expect them to do.

they'll be so excited with going back to school that they'll do pretty well.

We have tried different ways.
Our son's school has wednesdays off. So we tried to land on a Tuesday (even if it meant taking him out of school for a couple of days) so he could rest on wednesday before going back to school on thursday. He was 5 and he was absolutely shattered on thursday evening, actually we had to keep him at home on friday.
Then on our last trip, he was 6 and we landed the day before school resumed. Landed at 7am. Our train back home has non refundable tickets, and we pay 3 times less when we book in advance, so we booked for a late departure, our train was at 11:30am ... and was actually delayed by 45 minutes. So we were only home at 2:30pm (remember we landed at 7am)
our kid doesn't sleep on planes, he couldn't sleep at the airport/station (roissy), he couldn't sleep on the train because of a very loud lady who spent the best part of the hour long ride talking on her iphone (before being expelled towards the "lavatory zone" by a mob of angry passengers ...)

still, the next morning he was fit as a fiddle and ready for school

I guess you need to have them get back in the race as soon as possible. That's the only real way to shake off the jet lag.
It's the same when you get to Florida, if you rest on your first day, you'll never start ticking like a floridian clock.

 

[Sam1]

We landed in England at 7am and my son would've been fine to go back to school the next day. We didn't head straight home though, instead we headed to the airport hotel for a snooze. My son didn't cope well on the way back and he instantly fell asleep fully clothed when his head hit the pillow.

That day was a blur, but the next day when we headed back to France he would've been fine to go to school. The day he landed hit him hard, but he seemed back on French time by the next day. It took us a bit longer.

 

[Elise79]

With DD (5) I personally prefer to giver her 24 hours at home. As adults we have gone back the next day but I don't think its fair to her to send her straight back. 24 hours is all she needs though. We land at either LGW or MAN and have a 3 hour drive after. She doesn't sleep as well on the plane as she used as she seems to be an inbetween size where she can't curl up enough but her feet don't reach anything either.

She tends to have longer though as we go at the start of the summer holidays and before Xmas. This has the bonus of her actually laying in during the school holidays and over Xmas

 

[2Tiggies]

We always land back the day before school/work again. I find it actually helps. Never had a problem. Sure, we've been tired and some years better than others but we have it down to a fine art now, lol. From boarding in the USA we start behaving as per the time zone we are going to. So we don't eat dinner on the flight (because we wouldn't normally eat dinner at 2 am) and when we get home, nobody is allowed to sleep in the day. Lunch is eaten at lunch time and dinner very early, followed by a shower and in bed by 7. The only rough part is keeping awake the day we return

kids cope much better than we do!!

 

[flortlebap]

We also land a day before school and work. None of us experienced jet lag because we forced ourselves back into the normal sleeping pattern. However, I was pretty tired on the first day back because of lack of sleep on the flight so my concentration levels weren't great. Given the choice I'd leave it 48 hours but it's certainly doable!

 

[Cinderella2006]

We send our boys straight to school the next day. It is a struggle especially as my youngest isnt well but the sooner they get back into routine the better

 

[DLPDreams]

Wow, thanks for all the replies . Very helpful .

The consensus is that a lot of people land back one day, and their kids go back to school the next day.

With regard to school, I am most concerned about DD1 but tbh she's really good with tiredness and copes very well, so hopefully, fingers crossed, the excitement of seeing her friends and starting a 'new year' at school will outweigh the tiredness - at 10 I also think she'll be mature enough to recognise she is tired and make allowances, go to bed early at night to catch up etc.

DD2 really, really struggles with tiredness, even now, but it is another 18 months away so I'm hoping she will improve. But on the other hand, of my two, she can sleep anywhere if she is tired, and as she is smaller, is more likely (hopefully) to sleep on the flight home

I think the positive of a direct flight on the Dreamliner (bit more room so we can hopefully sleep) and being home within 15-20 mins of clearing airport outweighs the negative of only being a back a day before return. And the addition of having to get back into it and adjust sleep/awake times very quickly might help. Just got to work on DH thinking that way .

Fingers crossed for a decent (August decent ) price when flights are released .

 

[Rach78]

First trip to Orlando kids were 5 and 13. Got home at 3pm ish on a Monday and both kids went back to school next morning. They were fine, bit tired but just got on with it. Wasn't a problem.

 

[bex7583]

we got back about lunch time on the friday we were unpacking the car and my youngest girl saw her nursery friends walking by to start the half day session so she kicked up a fuss and i ended up taking her straight over , teacher said she had been fine. she went to bed early when she got in and slept right until lunch time the next day , the boys were asleep in the car and were carried in the house and never woke . they did all sleep very well on he plane overnight unlike me who was wide awake the whole flight

i think its just something you will have to work out at the time. they are all different some may be more tierd than others

 

[2Tiggies]

we got back about lunch time on the friday we were unpacking the car and my youngest girl saw her nursery friends walking by to start the half day session so she kicked up a fuss and i ended up taking her straight over , teacher said she had been fine. she went to bed early when she got in and slept right until lunch time the next day , the boys were asleep in the car and were carried in the house and never woke . they did all sleep very well on he plane overnight unlike me who was wide awake the whole flight

i think its just something you will have to work out at the time. they are all different some may be more tierd than others

See? It works out great

I agree, all children are different. I do still think they cope better than we do. And in the grand scheme of things, what's the worst that can happen? They are too tired so you keep them off school one more day? Most children, after a trip like this, cannot WAIT to see all their friends and relate their experience so they also tend to ignore the tiredness as a new form of hype and excitement take over at the prospect of connecting with their little social circle again

 

[Lolsmum]

I have children in year 2 and 3 this year. We fly to the US at least once a year, usually further than Orlando (either Midwest or the west coast generally). Most of the time we arrive back the day before school starts back up again so we get as much time in the US (visiting my family) as possible. This Christmas we came back on the Saturday morning and actually it was harder to get back into the routine than usual and jet lag seemed worse for us all. Our trick is to stay up until about 6 or so in the evening then crash. We wake up around the usual time and get right back on track. The kids are usually a bit tired for a few days but able to function. This year we didn't have to do that so we took naps at silly times and were completely exhausted when we had to get up on Monday morning for school. The jet lag was much worse than usual.

 

[disneyangel]

We arrived home on aTuesday morning in October after a connecting flight via Newark. our schools started back from their mid term break that day. My friend's daughter (9)slept on the plane and for a bit in the morning and headed into school for the afternoon. My DD (10) had that day off, slept for a few hours at home, she doesn't sleep on planes and went to school the next day with no issues. She did have a shorter week too -only 3 days.
On our previous trip we came home on a Sunday and she was back at school on the Monday.

 

[m1ckeymouse]

We flew back on Sunday morning and sent our son (8) to school the next day. Unfortunately this time around he didn't cope well at all and fell asleep during the afternoon at his desk (or so he says!)

We'll try and book to allow a full day back before sending him back to school next time.

 

[Julia Ann]

We land early (4.40am into manc and then drive to near Birmingham) Friday morning so it will be a day off school (DD5) then the weekend.....although i'm planning on going to work on the Friday ...I think I need a bit more than pixie dust to get through the day