I’ve kept no secrets about the fact Kiwi, our younger daughter, has never been a good sleeper. Unfortunately, she doesn’t take a break from her up-all-night/up-hella-early habits when we go on a family vacation. So whenever we head out of town, I send up a little prayer to the family travel gods: Please, make my kids sleep on vacation. It never worked.
Until—drum roll please—in a stroke of genius/fit of desperation, I discovered this brilliant, cheap family travel hack to make my kids sleep on vacation—for real!
Make your kids sleep on vacation for mere pennies
Now, dear friends, I’m passing along the wisdom. For just $2 you, too, can buy the supplies for a magic sleep-making invention.
So instead of praying or hoping or resigning yourself to the nightmare of being up all night with your kids, behold: my tin foil trick to make your kids sleep on vacation.
How to make your kids sleep on vacation
This parenting hack isn’t complicated. Here’s how I discovered it:
One day on vacation, after Kiwi got up well before dawn, I stopped by the Dollar Store after grabbing Starbucks. (OMG THANK YOU CAFFEINE!!!!!!!) And while wandering the aisles looking for sand toys, I had a creative epiphany. I dropped a few dollars at the counter and rushed home to try out my idea.
Here’s what I did to make my kids sleep on vacation:
I covered each bedroom window with tin foil.
Simple as that.
Yes, I know there is a little light peeking through the gaps of the tin foil. (Cut me some slack, I was functioning on like 4 hours of sleep.) Perfect is never the goal round my house—good enough is good enough—so I let it stand.
And my tin foil travel hack was good enough got both kids to sleep longer the next night—by about 2 hours.
The family travel hack that will save your vacation
One particular family vacation, in which I met my husband at the coast and where he competed in a weekend-long disc golf tournament (love ya, Hubs!), was the worst for my kids’ sleep. I nearly lost it, and I nearly swore off family vacations altogether.
That’s when I discovered my parenting hack to make my kids sleep on vacation.
This little trick basically made me willing to take my family out of our comfort zone and continue to see the world. Yep, that’s right, this $2 hack saved family vacations for us.
You see, moms, I get that family vacations aren’t easy. You have to plan. You have to research kid-friendly activities and AirBnBs. You have to weigh the pros and cons of missing your kid’s nap time and letting them see one more exhibit at the aquarium. And you do all this on way less sleep because your kids wake up when the sun peeks through the definitely-not-blackout curtains.
Being a mom isn’t always easy, and it definitely doesn’t get easier when you plan a family vacation. That’s why anything to make your job easier—including a parenting hack to make your kids sleep in—is gold in my books.
After all, when mama’s happy, everyone’s happy.
So the next time you take a family vacation, don’t resign yourself to early wake-ups and bedtime protests. Just buy a few rolls of tin foil, thank your lucky stars for this family travel hack—and revel in the fact your kids may just sleep in.
Do you have any tricks to make your kids sleep on vacation—or any other time? What’s your favorite family travel hack?
brilliant idea!!!! I love mama’s helping other mamas out! though i’m moving into ‘teenage years’, I’ll be sharing with this with my friends with little ones. Thanks so much!
So you have the opposite problem—teens who just want to sleep in all day! 😉 Thanks for reading and sharing!
I just need my kids to sleep at all -lol.
Ugh I hear you Mama. Sleep is so hard!
This is brilliant! We have a wedding to go to this fall and our kids will be 4-years-old and 1-year-old. I will be definitely trying this!
Oh fun! I sure hope it helps the littles sleep in! Also, our kids are almost the same ages – mine are 2 and 4. 🙂
Oh I love it! What a fantastic, brilliant parenting hack! I love the blackout shades that hotels have but airbnbs rarely have those, so this is such a great idea.
Yes! Hotels totally get it, but you’re right that home rentals rarely have this detail covered.
I had to make heavy curtains at home to get my son to sleep in, but I never thought of what to do on vacation except put up with early rising. Thanks for the tip.
We use blackout curtains at home, too, and was so relieved once we discovered this family hack. I sure hope it helps other families too!
That is the BEST trick I have heard to date!
Thank you!! I sure hope it helps other families get some much-deserved sleep.
I remember the days when you just need them to sleep a little longer! When my kids were little they wanted to watch a little TV before bed but never wanted it to go off. We put a little vacation timer in the outlet and connected the TV to it. When the TV would magically go off, they went to bed. It even worked at home.
That sounds magic!! What a great idea to make it turn off without Mom and Dad being the bad guys.
Crazy kids don’t appreciate sleep until so much later in life…! 😀
I know! Sleep is wasted on the young.
I never thought of this! Great idea for sure! But for my teenagers I’ll leave the foil off and for the young ones foil windows. This way we all get up at the same time. lol It’s worth a try! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Hahaha! Man, you have your work cut out for you with little ones plus teenagers. Solidarity, mama!
I’ll be sure to pack some aluminum foil for the next vacation! This is super genius. I’m not sure if I should be excited or just feel really dumb that I never thought of that lol!
Hooray!! I sure hope you get the same miraculous results we did!