Day flight or night flight?

Posted: Sun, Apr 25 2010, 7:18 am Post subject: day flight or night flight?

for all of you experienced mothers out there, what seems better for a two year old, a day or night flight from israel to america?

my thought is day so that when we get to america she will be so tired that she will be able to go to sleep at bed time or thereabout.

but maybe y'all have good reasoning for why a night time flight would be better.

please share.

Gold Member Joined: Sep 22 2009 Posts: 1745

IMO a day flight is better - there is no guarantee she will sleep well on a night flight and might just be overtired and kvetchy. On a day flight she will not be so tired and will be able to function better. Plus you will be a lot less tired after a full night sleep and have a lot more energy to entertain her. And when you arrive you can all go to sleep normally in a bed.

Posted: Sun, Apr 25 2010, 7:30 am Post subject:

We just flew for Pesach. We took a night flight to America and a day flight coming home.

I thought the night flight (1am) would be easier since I was hoping the kids would just sleep as normal but was I mistaken! They were nuts! They were completely over tired from being up past their bed time while waiting for boarding and it was downhill from there. By the time all the hullabaloo settled down and we were in the air, they were so overtired and over excited that they barely closed their eyes.

The flight coming home (7pm) was a pleasure. They were well behaved in the airport and through boarding, played with stickers and colored through dinner time, and slept at night. No one was cranky and no one cried. After dinner was served and normal bed time rolled around they were tired and fell right to sleep.
_________________
http://frummominisrael.blogspot.com/
http://frummominisraeldailydeals.blogspot.com/

Posted: Sun, Apr 25 2010, 7:31 am Post subject:

I took the day flight when the twins were a bit over 2 and Rivka was 16 months or so.

It was not easy, no one slept, they got bored, I had to entertain them the WHOLE TIME. When we got there they crashed in the car, had a "nap" and were up at the same (Isreali) time they would have been up at otherwise (ie, around 12am).

We flew back on the afternoon flight and it was much better. They were up until dinner, fell asleep after, we landed in Israel around 5pm and the kids stayed up for supper, we put them to bed a bit late, and they crashed and slept the whole night.

Just my experience.
_________________
Lucky Mom to 5
Nechama & Rena 21 Sh'vat, 5764; Rivka 5 Tamuz 5765; Avraham Tzvi 11 Adar I, 5768
"1 in 100" miracle baby Eliezer Yosef, 13 Menacham Av 5772 (TAPVR, now repaired B"H)

Posted: Sun, Apr 25 2010, 7:51 am Post subject:

Whichever one will keep them closer to their real schedules in the new time zone.
_________________
Emmanuel Tzvi: 26 Shevat 5766
Shai Michael: 8 Cheshvan 5768
Yitzchak Meir: 19 Iyar 5770
Dvir Aharon: 10 Tammuz 5772

Posted: Sun, Apr 25 2010, 8:11 am Post subject:

An evening flight is best, IME. A middle of the night flight is just crazy. I did that once with kids and never again. I find day flights difficult because the kids don't sleep; they don't even take their regular naps. On all evening flights taking off around 7 PM, they played, ate and then conked out.

Posted: Sun, Apr 25 2010, 8:14 am Post subject:

Posted: Sun, Apr 25 2010, 10:08 am Post subject: re: day flight or night flight?

I fly from Argentina to America and vice versa and the time lenth is about the same as Israel and America. I always fly the red eye. I think that's the only way to go. When we've left at 8, my children always went to sleep better, but even when we left later, they eventually went to sleep. No matter how hard it is for them to sleep, it's much harder to keep them busy for so long. I've flown with all ages.

I do hate them all, though because I don't like to fly even without kids.
_________________
Don't take whatever I say too seriously, this is entertainment for me Smile

.
Member of the Not Good With Words Club.

Gold Member Joined: Apr 23 2007 Posts: 2419

We fly from Israel-America pretty frequently. I once did a day flight and never again. The best thing that we have figured out is to take the midnight/1am flight. What we do is put the kids to sleep as usual (6:30/7ish) and then wake them up to go to the airport (usually around 9ish) They are half asleep in the car and then in Ben Gurion there is a play area where they can run around. Then once we get on the plane, they either fall asleep right away or are up until after the meal and then fall asleep.

When we arrive its morning in America. I keep the kids on a normalish schedule. The ones who nap do others don't and then just put them to sleep a little early if they need. Since we started this we have no jetlag going to America.

The way home is trickier but we have found the 7:00pm flight to be the best both sleep and jetlag wise