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There are different reasons why you may or may not want to adjust your child to a different time zone. Let’s weigh our options:
Team Adjust to Time Change:
It is a big time change. If you are going from NYC to Spain, you don’t want to miss lunch because you are all still getting your beauty sleep!
You’ll be at your destination for a long time. If you are going from Coast to Coast, you may want to adjust your child the entire 3-hour time change if you want to keep them on the local time’s schedule and routine, especially for meals.
Partially Adjusting to the Time Change: You can always adjust your child just a couple of hours to the new time zone rather than thinking you need to go all the way. This is a good option if you are only traveling for a long weekend. Partially adjusting your internal clock might even fall in your favor! This is especially the case if you are traveling to a European country where they tend to eat dinner much later in the evening, like in Spain. Staying on Eastern Time (or now Pacific Time since we moved) would allow you to stay out a little later than bedtime usually allows you to at home.
Team don’t adjust to a new time zone
You aren’t traveling for very long and it’s not a big time change. For example, if we are going to NYC from LA for a long weekend (only a 3-hr time change), then we purposely aren’t going to adjust.
Both parents work and you won’t have a transition time between getting back home and when you go back to work. Some people just don’t want to adjust no matter how long they are traveling somewhere because they don’t want to go through it again when they get back home. This may not bea big factor for you if one if you is a stay-at-home parent.
You want to sleep in while on vacation. Is your child an early riser and you’d like to sleep in on vacation? Going from west coast to east will give you those three extra hours in the morning should you not choose to adjust your child.
Or the reverse- more time at night. Not changing sleep patterns when you go from east coast to west will make your child sleepier earlier in the evening, giving you more time in the evening.
And Remember… as a general rule or thumb, “East is a beast, west is best.” meaning it’s easier adjusting to a new time zone when you are traveling west (because it’s easier staying up later than waking up earlier).
If and how you adjust your kids to a new time zone is entirely up to you, so do whatever you feel is best for you and your kids.
And if you haven’t already, make sure you check out:
Traveling with your kids by plane? Check out: Airport travel logistics and tips with kids.
Wondering what our favorite things are to fly with? Check out our Things We Love: For Flying list here!
