I think children can sleep in most places as long as they feel safe. Some parents seem to think that their children can only sleep in tightly controlled environments: Quiet, dark, comfy. But I think that is often a result of training. If the children never sleep in any other environments how can they feel suddenly safe there? Or if the parents or other people are stressed in the other environments, children will notice that something is off and not feel safe and not sleep. But a place with lots of friendly, happy people seems quite safe to me.
I found a photo of two of my kids sleeping "on stage." This table was right next to the stage at my sisters wedding and the music was not quiet for sure.
We did this growing up. We brought sleeping bags to dances and set them up somewhere safe. Under the hall's piano was a frequent choice if the band had brought a keyboard. No one would step on us there. Bedtime was at the end of break, which was later than normal bedtime. Lots of good memories of falling asleep to contra music and contra feet. I don't know that we would have fallen asleep at our normal bedtimes in that environment. My kids will, I hope, do the same in a few years.
Fantastic life skill to be able to sleep in a noise environment on a hard floor. Most Chinese can do it so easily, and I would frequently less kids anywhere up to 4-5 years old being carried sleeping down the road by guardians.
I think super valuable when it comes to adulthood and sharing a bed - one less potential source of difficulties if adaption to noisy environment when sleeping makes snoring a non-issue.
When I think of the ideal place for sleeping it's something like, peaceful, dark, and quiet. The chaotic bright loud stage of a contra dance is pretty far from this, and yet generations of kids have curled up behind their parents and fallen asleep:
It's a good idea to make them a nest they can crawl into when they're feeling sleepy:
A keyboard case can work well, especially a fuzzy one:
It's worth thinking about what this will be before you leave the house so you can bring something comfortable.
Pictured: much more bedding than required for this purpose, because this is the car packed for vacation. I don't have a good picture of the car packed for playing dances.
If you forget (or believe them when they insist they'll set up their bed when they're ready for it) they might go to sleep less comfortably:
Or less comfortably:
Or much less comfortably:
Headphones and a story tape can help:
You want to make sure they've used the bathroom and, ideally, brushed their teeth and put on whatever clothes they want to sleep in, since if everything goes well they'll be asleep until the next morning. When I'm lucky, which is about 75% of the time:
- They sleep until the end of the dance
- I strike my gear and pack the car
- I carry them to the car
- We drive home or to our hosts'
- I carry them to their bed
all without them waking up.
I asked them what they thought:I don't think I would have believed this worked if I hadn't seen it, but it's reasonably common so it must work for a lot of families.
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