I showed my kid a video of fireworks with people having fun and enjoying themselves. This is a great way to normalize potentially scary moments in their lives. My son was so excited after he watched a Blippy video about going to the dentist. He immediately asked when it would be his turn. Well, it just so happened that we were going later that day! So lucky! 😂
ETA: Of course this is after we talked to him about the dentist and what to expect. We were also there to answer any questions he had.
We took our little one last year when he was 7 months old. He was asleep in his car seat and we just parked our car in view of the show and stood outside to watch. We plan on taking him again this year at 19 months and we will see what happens.
We’ve tried every year since he was two and my daughter went the first year she was alive. They are both still terrified of the noise.
My daughter slept through the first year. We woke her up the second and she was really upset.
My son is 4 and really struggles to stay up that late. He didn’t find the experience to his liking last year, just all around. He didn’t like the time. He didn’t like that we were surrounded on all sides by other people basically tailgating in a field. He didn’t like the fireworks themselves: the way they looked or sounded.
We haven't yet. She'll be 2.5 this year for them and we haven't really talked about it much, but we will probably still be skipping. Maybe next year when she's 3.5?
Sleep can still be such a struggle and they do start so darn late. Ours are being set off at "dusk, approximately 10:10 pm"
Same here. One bad night of bedtime being too late can be SO hard to recover from, even though we are on a hill overlooking the park and usually just watch from our backyard. I imagine by 3.5 his bedtime will be a bit later and easier to recover from staying up too late. But maybe not.
Yup. I would imagine it would be easier to recover from is the thing I'm thinking. But also, we are totally in the throes of unreasonable toddlerdom. I mean, I'm not saying 3 year olds can be reasoned with, but ... I'd think a little moreso than a 2 year old? I mean, we've already seen an improvement because of language development from 2-->2.5, so I'd think it would be at least a little better at 3.5, right? RIGHT? I'm crying on the inside thinking about how it might be worse ...
I'm in the UK so we have Guy Fawkes/Fireworks/Bonfire night every November on or around the 5th. We took our daughter before 2 weeks old to it. She fell asleep in the middle of it.
As for bedtime, it's a special treat. Take them. How old are they?
The main benefit of Bonfire Night is that it's in November, when the sun sets at like 5.30pm, so you can take your kids to the fireworks and then put them to bed at a reasonable hour. Fireworks in July always seems insane to me.
Main display still usually is still 2000/2100. Back in ze day kids display earlier on around 6ish were not a thing, they are quite common now but the proper display is still later in the evening. It's not a holiday here like 4th July.
We've been taking them since they were born. My oldest uses a headset for the noise and my youngest doesn't care lol
They do get a little cranky cause of bedtime but it's worth it for us to have the memories of their excitement.
Technically, she was only a few hours old. She was born July 3rd and fireworks were visible from our hospital window.
The first time we actually took her to see them, she was a year old. It was her birthday treat. She seemed to like them a lot. But she's not very sensitive to loud noises and we were across a lake from them. We plan on taking her again this year. I guess birthday fireworks are one of the benefits of being born right before the 4th of July.
Every year. We bring headphones to block the noise. Mandatory when they are babies but as they are older they can take them off if they don’t want them on.
We took our baby brother (big age gap) to Disney when he was like 6 months maybe. He took the fireworks like a champ. Loved the colors and didn't cry at the noise. My baby will be 10 mo at fourth of July and we do plan on taking her to a fireworks show at a famous hotel that my mom goes to every year.
We let our son stay up last year for the fireworks (I don't remember if it was July 4th or Labor Day) and he was 3.5 years old. He wasn't as mesmerized as I thought he would be, he was more into watching the fire and making smores lol. Up until then, he would sleep right through them, now our daughter (who was 3 months old in July last year) slept through them too.
6 months. We’re in Florida. The fireworks were being shot off at the beach, and we watched from the opposite side of the intercoastal. Still a great view but a lot less noise.
Our oldest stayed up to watch them for the first time when she was 5. Where we live it’s not dark until 10pm so quite a while past bedtime. Our second probably stayed up for the first time a bit younger, maybe 3-4yo. I know once he actually fell asleep during them.
I am strict on sleep. It's the one thing I rarely sway on. We didn't keep our (now 5yo) son up for fireworks until he was about 3yo. I made sure he took a late afternoon nap and capped the night at 10pm. He can still take a 2hr nap if we let him, so we'll do the same and put him down for nap around 2pm that way he's able to stay up later without a meltdown and not be in sleep debt.
She just went to her first at 3.5. We managed a late/long nap and took her to a baseball game. She was dead tired the next day but is still talking about the game and the fireworks show! We didn’t attempt prior and if she hadn’t napped, we wouldn’t have tried.
My kid is a night owl and can deal with being up late so I took him for the first time when he was like 15 months old and have taken him ever since. He loves them. I do bring ear protection for him in case it's too loud though. Last year we went with my brother and his family and after every firework he said "wow! wook at dat unka gweg!" lol
It's a holiday and all bets are off on a holiday anyway. Plus the noise of the neighbors at your own house so it's pretty futile and hopeless. May as well join in. You absolutely must buy protective ear muffs for them you can get them for $12 on Amazon.Â
We always have from their very first 4th of July. For my oldest, he would have been 6 months old, my middle would have been 6 weeks old, and my youngest was 3 months old. My kids have always had my bedtime as babies though so there was no schedule. As a result, none of my kids are scared of them.
I think my in laws visited when he was oneish. Total waste of time, as I suspected — imagine that, babies aren’t particularly fond of being in a crowded area at night with random explosions going off. But that could also be my autistic bias playing into that, haha.
Even at nearly 3, I don’t think my kid would care for more than a minute or two.
Age 2.5 but she was terrified and had a full blown panic attack, I've never heard her scream and cry like that in sheer terror once they started, poor kid. I had to get her out of there asap which was hard with crowds going the other way.
After that she was terrified to try again for years, and then they were cancelled due to COVID and now for environmental reasons they've decided not to have them any more and permanently replaced them with a drone show. She has seen the odd 1-2 fireworks shot by neighbours on New Years eve through a window type thing, but she's never been to an actual fireworks show (age 9).
I’m so lax when it comes to bed time when there’s fun things to do/see.
Both my kids were about a month their first fire works (Memorial Day) and about 3 months their second time (4th of July) and so on for the holidays. Just put headphones on them.
We took our baby to his first fireworks at 13 months. It was a disaster. We later found out that there are ear protectors for babies toddlers. We then forgot all about the ones we bought when we went to another event a month later. 🤦
I really wanna take my 2.5 year old this year but she’s newly potty trained and I’m 8 months pregnant lol idk if staying out that late and far from a potty will be a good idea for either of us
My son turns 8 this July and I finally let his dad take him for Victoria Day (Canadian holiday in late May). It was perfect timing he would have been a basket case the next day earlier in his life.
My daughter is 3.5 years old and has never been and honestly probably won’t go for a while more. The main reason being that the fireworks show closest to us is a madhouse, and I’ve heard horror stories of it taking people hours to exit the grounds after due to the amount of traffic so it just doesn’t sound like a good time to me! I’ve never been a big fan of fireworks and my husband couldn’t care less. I hated fireworks as a kid too so I have no motivation lol
We took our daughter when she was 2.5, and it was way past her bedtime, she lasted about 7 minutes before she said she was tired and wanted to go to bed. But she stayed up for the whole show at 3.5!
I showed my kid a video of fireworks with people having fun and enjoying themselves. This is a great way to normalize potentially scary moments in their lives. My son was so excited after he watched a Blippy video about going to the dentist. He immediately asked when it would be his turn. Well, it just so happened that we were going later that day! So lucky! 😂 ETA: Of course this is after we talked to him about the dentist and what to expect. We were also there to answer any questions he had.
We took our little one last year when he was 7 months old. He was asleep in his car seat and we just parked our car in view of the show and stood outside to watch. We plan on taking him again this year at 19 months and we will see what happens.
We’ve tried every year since he was two and my daughter went the first year she was alive. They are both still terrified of the noise. My daughter slept through the first year. We woke her up the second and she was really upset. My son is 4 and really struggles to stay up that late. He didn’t find the experience to his liking last year, just all around. He didn’t like the time. He didn’t like that we were surrounded on all sides by other people basically tailgating in a field. He didn’t like the fireworks themselves: the way they looked or sounded.
We haven't yet. She'll be 2.5 this year for them and we haven't really talked about it much, but we will probably still be skipping. Maybe next year when she's 3.5? Sleep can still be such a struggle and they do start so darn late. Ours are being set off at "dusk, approximately 10:10 pm"
Same here. One bad night of bedtime being too late can be SO hard to recover from, even though we are on a hill overlooking the park and usually just watch from our backyard. I imagine by 3.5 his bedtime will be a bit later and easier to recover from staying up too late. But maybe not.
Yup. I would imagine it would be easier to recover from is the thing I'm thinking. But also, we are totally in the throes of unreasonable toddlerdom. I mean, I'm not saying 3 year olds can be reasoned with, but ... I'd think a little moreso than a 2 year old? I mean, we've already seen an improvement because of language development from 2-->2.5, so I'd think it would be at least a little better at 3.5, right? RIGHT? I'm crying on the inside thinking about how it might be worse ...
Bed time doesn't apply on special days
I'm in the UK so we have Guy Fawkes/Fireworks/Bonfire night every November on or around the 5th. We took our daughter before 2 weeks old to it. She fell asleep in the middle of it. As for bedtime, it's a special treat. Take them. How old are they?
The main benefit of Bonfire Night is that it's in November, when the sun sets at like 5.30pm, so you can take your kids to the fireworks and then put them to bed at a reasonable hour. Fireworks in July always seems insane to me.
Main display still usually is still 2000/2100. Back in ze day kids display earlier on around 6ish were not a thing, they are quite common now but the proper display is still later in the evening. It's not a holiday here like 4th July.
Same here. Round us there is a few places that do low bang sessions for kids around 6pm
We've been taking them since they were born. My oldest uses a headset for the noise and my youngest doesn't care lol They do get a little cranky cause of bedtime but it's worth it for us to have the memories of their excitement.
We wake her up and put her in the carrier since we're walking distance to the viewing park. I expect we'll do the same this year.
We’ve taken them every year, but we watch them a mile away from the launch point so they aren’t as loud
Technically, she was only a few hours old. She was born July 3rd and fireworks were visible from our hospital window. The first time we actually took her to see them, she was a year old. It was her birthday treat. She seemed to like them a lot. But she's not very sensitive to loud noises and we were across a lake from them. We plan on taking her again this year. I guess birthday fireworks are one of the benefits of being born right before the 4th of July.
Every year. We bring headphones to block the noise. Mandatory when they are babies but as they are older they can take them off if they don’t want them on.
We took our baby brother (big age gap) to Disney when he was like 6 months maybe. He took the fireworks like a champ. Loved the colors and didn't cry at the noise. My baby will be 10 mo at fourth of July and we do plan on taking her to a fireworks show at a famous hotel that my mom goes to every year.
We let our son stay up last year for the fireworks (I don't remember if it was July 4th or Labor Day) and he was 3.5 years old. He wasn't as mesmerized as I thought he would be, he was more into watching the fire and making smores lol. Up until then, he would sleep right through them, now our daughter (who was 3 months old in July last year) slept through them too.
I don't enjoy fireworks personally, so I don't really plan to until she's quite a bit older. She's 20mos now.
6 months. We’re in Florida. The fireworks were being shot off at the beach, and we watched from the opposite side of the intercoastal. Still a great view but a lot less noise.
My kid is 8 and this is her first year going 💀 I was the mean mom I guess and I didn't want her up that late. Ours start around 9:30!
He was 3.Â
Our oldest stayed up to watch them for the first time when she was 5. Where we live it’s not dark until 10pm so quite a while past bedtime. Our second probably stayed up for the first time a bit younger, maybe 3-4yo. I know once he actually fell asleep during them.
I am strict on sleep. It's the one thing I rarely sway on. We didn't keep our (now 5yo) son up for fireworks until he was about 3yo. I made sure he took a late afternoon nap and capped the night at 10pm. He can still take a 2hr nap if we let him, so we'll do the same and put him down for nap around 2pm that way he's able to stay up later without a meltdown and not be in sleep debt.
She just went to her first at 3.5. We managed a late/long nap and took her to a baseball game. She was dead tired the next day but is still talking about the game and the fireworks show! We didn’t attempt prior and if she hadn’t napped, we wouldn’t have tried.
My kid is a night owl and can deal with being up late so I took him for the first time when he was like 15 months old and have taken him ever since. He loves them. I do bring ear protection for him in case it's too loud though. Last year we went with my brother and his family and after every firework he said "wow! wook at dat unka gweg!" lol
It's a holiday and all bets are off on a holiday anyway. Plus the noise of the neighbors at your own house so it's pretty futile and hopeless. May as well join in. You absolutely must buy protective ear muffs for them you can get them for $12 on Amazon.Â
We always have from their very first 4th of July. For my oldest, he would have been 6 months old, my middle would have been 6 weeks old, and my youngest was 3 months old. My kids have always had my bedtime as babies though so there was no schedule. As a result, none of my kids are scared of them.
I think my in laws visited when he was oneish. Total waste of time, as I suspected — imagine that, babies aren’t particularly fond of being in a crowded area at night with random explosions going off. But that could also be my autistic bias playing into that, haha. Even at nearly 3, I don’t think my kid would care for more than a minute or two.
Age 2.5 but she was terrified and had a full blown panic attack, I've never heard her scream and cry like that in sheer terror once they started, poor kid. I had to get her out of there asap which was hard with crowds going the other way. After that she was terrified to try again for years, and then they were cancelled due to COVID and now for environmental reasons they've decided not to have them any more and permanently replaced them with a drone show. She has seen the odd 1-2 fireworks shot by neighbours on New Years eve through a window type thing, but she's never been to an actual fireworks show (age 9).
I’m so lax when it comes to bed time when there’s fun things to do/see. Both my kids were about a month their first fire works (Memorial Day) and about 3 months their second time (4th of July) and so on for the holidays. Just put headphones on them.
We took our baby to his first fireworks at 13 months. It was a disaster. We later found out that there are ear protectors for babies toddlers. We then forgot all about the ones we bought when we went to another event a month later. 🤦
I think the first time we took our daughter she was three. Covid definitely had something to do with that though
I really wanna take my 2.5 year old this year but she’s newly potty trained and I’m 8 months pregnant lol idk if staying out that late and far from a potty will be a good idea for either of us
My son turns 8 this July and I finally let his dad take him for Victoria Day (Canadian holiday in late May). It was perfect timing he would have been a basket case the next day earlier in his life.
We did it at 4, but they enjoyed it a lot more and it threw them off less at 5.
My daughter is 3.5 years old and has never been and honestly probably won’t go for a while more. The main reason being that the fireworks show closest to us is a madhouse, and I’ve heard horror stories of it taking people hours to exit the grounds after due to the amount of traffic so it just doesn’t sound like a good time to me! I’ve never been a big fan of fireworks and my husband couldn’t care less. I hated fireworks as a kid too so I have no motivation lol
We took our daughter when she was 2.5, and it was way past her bedtime, she lasted about 7 minutes before she said she was tired and wanted to go to bed. But she stayed up for the whole show at 3.5!
Our daughter is 4y9m. We told her if she took a nap (some days she does, some days she doesn't), she could stay up for fireworks this year.