If you have a 2 or 3 year old...

[Brie]

What are your plans for the 4th of July?  Are you going to attempt fireworks/staying up late?

C is getting a bit more flexible with bedtime lately but I don't know if he can hang past 9 for fireworks, or if it would even be worth it.  Plus, we have the baby to contend with.  I'm tempted to just stay home like any other day and let him celebrate the day before at school (they are having a water day/bike day/picnic celebration). 

Discuss.

[Deleted]

We still haven't done fireworks with the kids; DS is 4 this year and might be able to make it, but DD is only nearly 2 and she still really needs to be asleep by 8 at the latest.

And then it's super smoky here and not really safe to have kids outdoors for long periods, so all my plans for Canada Day are kind of shot.

[scribellesam]

DS1 has been exceptionally difficult recently, so I don't think we're doing anything. Both kids are generally cranky and unpredictable between nap and bedtime (4pm-7pm), which is when friends' parties are. I just don't care enough about the 4th to want to try and corral my lunatic 3yo on a houseboat for several hours.

His little bro seems a lot more chill; maybe next year I'll have well-behaved enough kids to leave the house occasionally.

[wilbs]

DS will be 2 next week and I'm wondering about this too. We are visiting DH's family this weekend and getting a ton of pressure to keep him up for fireworks that night, but if we push things past 8:15-8:30 it normally ends up being a disaster.

[glitzy07]

We're going to a party earlier in the afternoon, but don't intend to stay for fireworks. There's no way C would make it, and H has to work the next morning at 5am anyway.

[darnkatz]

We're staying home. H isn't going to be back from his trip until midnight on the fourth, so it would be a cold day in hell before I took my kids solo to fire works. Also, I'm not entirely sure they are allowing them this year because of the drought conditions we're in. WA just instituted a fire ban, but I'm not sure if that includes fire works. I probably wouldn't take her this year regardless because she is sensitive to noise.

[Deleted]

DS is 4 now, but last summer, we stayed up until the sunset, and did sparklers/small fireworks in the driveway and then sent the boys to sleep. The bedtime thing didn't really bother me, but our neighborhood gets kind of like a warzone during the 4th, so I'd rather the boys be inside once that starts.

[yellowbrkrd]

We are going to attempt it. The fireworks are very close to our house so we just ride our bikes a little closer to a friend's house. I figure we can always have one of us bring him in our friend's house if he freaks.

[momin2013]

DS is 2.5. The park next door to us had fireworks on Sunday night and I was more worried about them waking him up than trying to keep him up to watch them. It didn't even cross my mind to keep him up; maybe next year, we'll see.

[mpc]

I don't think we will try for fireworks. We are lazy. actually, I hadn't even considered it. Maybe we should... ?

[wavepool]

We can see them from our house, so he'll be in bed. He'd be a disaster if he stayed up.

[water*drop]

We're going out of town to be as far away from fireworks as possible. I think DD could easily handle the late night, but she's going through a phase where she's scared of every noise, so we don't want to risk it. Plus people in our neighborhood take full advantage of the nights they're allowed to set off fireworks (day before, day of, and day after a holiday), and we don't want her to be even more afraid of sleeping in her room.

[Deleted]

DD can rally when there's a party, so we'll be staying up. We're going to be at a big party at my family's lake house, with a band, so I'm sure DD will be having way too much fun to think about going to bed.

She stayed up late last year, and slept till noon the following day. Hoping for something similar again.

[karinothing]

We are going for the first time this year, but DS has no issue staying up late, especially if he is in a social setting.

[Marmee]

We are going to a BBQ & then out to the polo fields for fireworks. I probably will park up on the hill/road instead of down in the parking lot again this year, that way we can get out of there anytime.

[cinco]

My MIL will be in town so I think she will stay with DD2, while we watch with the older 2. She saw fireworks at the last baseball game we went to and loved them, but 10 is so late for her. We'd all be suffering the next day and we have DS's birthday party.

[turtlegirl]

We are going camping/glamping with DH's extended family and there aren't really fireworks in the area that we can see easily. So it'll mostly just be hanging with cousins and kids, lots of grilling, games, etc. And there is a big parade that runs through town just a few blocks away from the cabin, so we'll check that out Saturday morning.

There is a big fireworks show less than a mile from our house Thursday night and we debated taking the kids to see it. But it doesn't start until 930pm and we ultimately decided that keeping them up late before a long (4 hours) road trip the next morning wouldn't be that great of an idea.

[Deleted]

It'll be a game time decision, heavily dependent on how she naps that day. We'll be at the lake, with a crowd of people. We can watch the fireworks from our front lawn or our dock. So, I'm not sure...

[kams]

Dd1 is 4 now, but last year was the first year that staying up late(ish) for fireworks was nbd. When she was 2, it happened to be ok because we were vacationing on the East coast (2 hr time change), so she wasn't stretched too far beyond her real normal.

My group of friends all have kids under 5, so we are doing an early fireworks show (as in, still will be light out!), and making it an early night this year.

[brooklyn]

We're not taking J. We live on the river that the fireworks are over, and it's always a shit show and totally not baby friendly on our side of the river. I'm tempted to get a babysitter so we can go drink on our roof with all the kid free people in our building.

Next year, we'll be on the Manhattan side, and my mom's employer owns a building with a great view, so we'll go to the party there with J.

[undecidedowl]

We just shoot off some small fireworks at home. I probably won't try taking the kids to an actual show until DS2 can hang past dark, so at least a few years.

[Deleted]

No. Dd2 is definitely not going to be able to handle fireworks. In fact this will be Dd1's very first time seeing them. She turns 5 at the end of July. We didn't go last year because we were in LA and dd2 was too young, and we didn't have anyone to watch her. We will be with my parents this year so my mom is staying home with dd2 while the rest of us go.

[ssmjlm]

No. We can see them from the house so we don't go anywhere, but I wouldn't keep her up for it. She'll have had a long day at the beach and pool.

[ilikedonuts]

We going to be at my family's lake house and my uncle and cousins set off fireworks every year (FFC? they have a table out in the lake and they are pretty far away from everyone). My girls(20 months and 3.5) will stay up for them.

Sunday night we are going to a party to watch fireworks near our house.

Bedtimes don't really get stuck to at the lake in the summer, but my kids are super flexible.

[justjen]

We took L last year. She can totally hang.

The baby, however, has a strict "if I'm not in bed by 7:30 tops I will melt down" policy.

We'll be at the beach, though, so will probably just try to find some from the roof deck.

[cjeanette]

My kids have always enjoyed fireworks. They are night owls though. For E staying up past 9 has always been easy.

[redheadk]

We plan to see fireworks on the 3rd. They start at 9 but dd can hang.

[dcrunnergirl52]

We started going to fireworks the summer that DD and DS1 turned 3 and DS1 was just a few weeks old. All three of them did great, even with staying up late. DD and DS1 loved the fireworks. And, these were the fireworks on the National Mall in DC (the ILs live downtown) so they were loud and pretty long.

[cherry1111]

We're going to give it a shot. He often doesn't nap until 1 or 2 on the weekends so we'll shoot for a late nap and see what happens.

[DarcyLongfellow]

DD1 has only seen Fourth of July fireworks once in her 5 years. I *think* it was the year she was 2. But at the time my in laws had a condo right on the beach, a couple blocks up from where they do fireworks. So we spent the night there, and we put her to bed right afterwards. And she has always been really good about staying up late.

DD2 is not easy going about bed time, so we haven't done fireworks since she was born. We hang out at home and do sparklers and stuff.