On vacay - DS wants to go home :(

[hensmum]

Have any of you dealt with this with a toddler??

We are on the Cape this week, sharing a house with MIL, FIL, BIL and SIL. Hen has his own room, we brought things from home like we always do when we travel to keep his routines familiar. He is mostly having a great time. Loves playing with his relatives, and seems to enjoy the house. But he hasn't been getting enough sleep, and any time there's a lull, and he's a bit tired, he starts saying, so sadly, that be wants to go home It's breaking my heart! He keeps saying he wants to go home. We try to talk to him about all the fun things we're doing here - playing with family, visiting a farm, etc, but he keeps bringing it up.

I know it's a lot for him to be away and with all these people here, but we're not with them 'round the clock. I feel like we've been doing a good job of keeping our days Henry-friendly and allowing for down time.

Any thoughts, suggestions, commiserations??

[ct]

Yes - Mariah did this when we were at the cape this year. She was having a blast, but also kept saying she wanted to go back to our yellow house because she missed our cat (who she rarely ever even sees or cares about when we are at home, lol!).

I think its a normal toddler thing...this year she was old enough to understand that there was a home to go back to (unlike Kayla who is still very in-the-moment).

We just assured her that we would be going back home and that it would still look the same/be the same when we got there. We did a countdown on the calendar so she'd have a concrete visual and encouraged her to draw pictures of home and what she missed there.

FWIW, now that we've been home about a month, all she talks about is going back to the cape. cant win!

[2brides]

Carter used to do that all the time - and actually still does to a lesser degree. That child loves his house (scares me what will happen when we actually move!)

Sounds like you are doing all the right things and eventually he'll grow out of it.

[thiswillbe]

Oh, I know about that so sad voice! When we first moved into our new house, every night LM would say he wanted to go home. It *is* heartbreaking.

We diffused it successfully a few times by saying "you want to go home? what a great idea! we can't do that tonight, but on _______ [day of week] we can go home. would you like that?" Then if they brought it up again, we'd say "yes! remember? we decided we're going to go home _______! that will be fun, won't it?"

[thiswillbe]

One other thing you could try-- though I'd tread carefully, since it could totally backfire and up the longing to go home rather than quell it-- would be to ask him if he'd like to hear a story about home. Then you could tell him a little story about a typical day, talk about parts of home, etc. The kiddos are totally into stories right now (which is awesome but a little exhausting sometimes), and seem equally happy to hear about normal day-to-day stuff as they are hearing about fanciful things or big "event" things.

GL!

[never2amazing]

Sept 10, 2012 13:43:54 GMT -5 thiswillbe said:

Then you could tell him a little story about a typical day, talk about parts of home, etc. The kiddos are totally into stories right now (which is awesome but a little exhausting sometimes)

A "little" exhausting? You are too kind C...

[hensmum]

Thanks so much ladies! Always nice to hear from others who have been there!

Tried some of these suggestions and they are helping!