18 yr old just wants to sleep

[Cdnsar81]

The subject says it all. I want to take one more trip to Disney.. Not sure when I'd return. Kids are 18,13&10. Two boys and a girl
The oldest will sleep in till noon if I let him. He is truely a PIA to wake up! I'm sure most mornings we will want to leave early for the parks... And I'm dreading already me nagging and nagging him to wake up cause we r leaving. Thinking if that turns into the case... He can meet us wherever we r when he gets up via text msg's. it's a lot of money to just sleep half the day away.
Anyone else in or have been in the same boat?

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

He's old enough to take responsibility for his own actions. Why not just leave him at home if he doesn't want to go? If he does go, let him sleep. He can join you later.

 

[PrincessJo]

My son turned 17 on our last trip and sleeps late as well. It was especially hard to wake him up one morning, so DH and I left him in the room. When DS woke up and was ready to go, he just sent us a text.

The morning DH and I had alone in Hollywood Studios was actually really nice. It was fun to enjoy the park by ourselves. DS was disappointed that he missed riding ToT, so he was awake bright and early the rest of the trip

After my kiddo turns 18 and is out of high school, ain't no way I'm paying for a room and tickets for him to waste half the day. If he doesn't want to go, I'm leaving him at home.

 

[MSSANDRA]

I can see it two ways. This is very likely the last change to take a vacation with your whole family and you have every right to want that. My oldest is a senior in collage and we have a 7 year old. I really have a hard time doing
Summer and the other choices are quite limited. Trips are getting HARD. I also would have a hard time paying for a ticket for him to not use effectively. What does he want to do? Maybe a compromise where he has the option of sleeping in a couple morning and meeting up with you by say 10 or 11? Maybe "encourage" him by planning some really good mid- morning breakfast meals?
Maybe avoid AM EMH so that he is not getting up tooooo early.

Im lucky that our oldest loves WDW enough to relent to my rope drop rules. He rarely travels other places with us anymore but WDW...yep.

 

[Happyjen27]

You've just described my husband, LOL!!!

He's a grown man, and still such a sleepyhead. It's just how his body works, and I've learned to work with it so as to not be irritated.

I think in your case, I would offer to pay his way if he will be joining the family, including early mornings, for the vacation. If he wants a separate type vacation where he keeps different hours, and joins you here and there, he can pay for his own tickets, and chip in for the room. He might just rather stay home, and that's fine too.

At 20 my mother wanted to go to Spain with me, and I had to pay my own airfare and chip in some meager amounts for the few hotels we stayed in (we stayed with friends the bulk of the trip). She paid for all of the food. You see, at 18 I became an adult, and my free ride was over.

 

[puffkin]

At 18, I would have a serious discussion if he even wants to go or just to stay home. If he wants to go, but wants to sleep in late every day, I would either make him chip in for the ticket, or buy him a cheaper ticket so he only has a few days in the park and can sleep in the others and spend time at the resort. I wouldn't make him pay for the room and stuff....you would pay that regardless if he was there or not.

I totally get wanting to have one last vacation, but a vacation full of fighting and conflicting ideas/styles would not be something I would enjoy.

 

[scrapquitler]

The subject says it all. I want to take one more trip to Disney.. Not sure when I'd return. Kids are 18,13&10. Two boys and a girl
The oldest will sleep in till noon if I let him. He is truely a PIA to wake up! I'm sure most mornings we will want to leave early for the parks... And I'm dreading already me nagging and nagging him to wake up cause we r leaving. Thinking if that turns into the case... He can meet us wherever we r when he gets up via text msg's. it's a lot of money to just sleep half the day away.
Anyone else in or have been in the same boat?

Have him meet you in the parks for lunch. It's his vacation too, why get stressed and argue about it? He probably will want to stay until closing, so let him.

 

[khandih]

then they go until the wee hours of the morning. If he gets up around noon then heads to the park, he'll still get in a full day if he stays until closing. My family is going with two young grandkids. We'll likely get going early, then leave the park in the hot afternoon to nap and swim and rest. We'll then return to the parks in the late afternoon or early evening until closing. Your son will probably spend close to the same amount of time in the parks that we will - just different hours.

It does get harder when your kids get big for vacations. We have two older kids and a 12 year old. My dd is married with two young kids (5 & 2), and my son is 24, so we are pretty spread out. We'll spend much of the vacation together, but I suspect that there will be a couple of evenings where we'll take turns watching littles and the others will return to park. We may also leave my son sleeping, as he still sleeps late on his own.

You didn't mention husband, but why don't you plan an evening out with him if he is going and let your ds play with the younger kids - in the park, at the pool, wherever. Or have the two older stay and do something special with the 7 yo. I'm suggesting this assuming that your ds does want to go. If he doesn't want to go - it will probably be terribly frustrating since he probably won't want to be very accommodating.

Good luck and have a great time.

 

[marmalade]

Have him meet you in the parks for lunch. It's his vacation too, why get stressed and argue about it? He probably will want to stay until closing, so let him.

This is what I was thinking too. Him sleeping in and losing the morning hours is no different than someone getting to the parks early and leaving early and missing the evening hours.

Let him sleep in and meet up with you guys later in the day.

 

[Cdnsar81]

Thanks everyone. All the replies do make sense. If he does stay home I will want my mom coming over to 'check' on him... Make sure there are no parties! But I really do want him to come... My hubby and I separated 10 months ago... Kids and I have dealt ok with it but the year has been crap and I want them to unwind!
I'll have to have a serious discussion soon with him
Him meeting is later sounds great. Just as long as he doesn't spend the whole day in the room!
Ekkkk

 

[FargoBear]

Give him a handful of melatonin at 8 p.m. every night. He'll be up before noon the next day.

 

[Cdnsar81]

Give him a handful of melatonin at 8 p.m. every night. He'll be up before noon the next day.

Lmao!

 

[LilyWDW]

Give him a handful of melatonin at 8 p.m. every night. He'll be up before noon the next day.

Unless melatonin does to him what it does to me. I can't sleep after taking it for some odd reason. Even my doctor laughs at me.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

I have an 18 year old DS. He would also have zero interest in getting up at the crack of dawn for a Disney day. Teenagers really do like their sleep, especially on vacation. But Disney's theming also generally lends itself better to little girls than young men, which tends to not provide any morning motivation for older teenaged boys.

I know some have said "leave him home".....I personally could never do that. Family vacations become even more precious at this stage of life (once my DS starts college in September, how many opportunities for family getaways will we actually have?). Have you considered checking out the other attractions and parks in Orlando that might appeal more to your older children? Something that might not demand the early morning wake-up call in order to enjoy them? (first thing that comes to mind....staying onsite at Universal, where you would have free Express Pass so you could arrive anytime you like and have front of the line access)

If your trip is to unwind after a tough year, I'd want the family to be enjoying things together. Have you mentioned your concerns to him?

 

[Aliceacc]

Yes, it's a lot of money to spend sleeping.

But it's also a lot of money to spend arguing.

He's a big boy. He knows that sleeping in means missing family fun. If that's the tradeoff he's willing to make, make sure he knows where you'll be, and have him text you when he gets to the park you're in.

He'll get there when he gets there, and you can share a happy afternoon together. Plan your FPs for late afternoon, so you can count on him being with the family to enjoy the headliners.

At this age, it's less about the amount of time you spend together and more about the quality of that time. So ask him how he wants to proceed. Does he want to get up with you for Rope Drop? Does he want to set a wakeup call for 10 so he's there for most of the morning? Or noon? Or does he want to sleep until he wakes up and join you then?

 

[BigBlueWho]

I am kind of dreading this situation myself w/ nephews next summer. We, as a family of 20+ are going together next summer, and it has been 10 years since we all went...I have 3 older nephews in this group that don't want to go/ sleep late. I have told my wife our plan is our plan and I won't let them derail it.