My daughter and I spent a week at Disney World this past April, with my mother and my sister’s family. I can never quite remember the moment I agreed to what I’ve come to refer to as “that madness last spring.”

I’m beginning to think they slipped me a little sumpthin’ sumpthin’ in my drink, because agreeing to go to Disney for five days with a 2-year-old—and without your spouse or partner—is a little like saying, “Yeah! I’d love it if you poured gasoline on my head and lit a match! Please do!”

While I struggled to keep my daughter on some semblance of a routine, my sister kept her kids out from sun-up to sun-down, often returning to our rented condominium with her son asleep in the stroller and her daughter sleep-walking by her side.

Me, I was glassy-eyed by 6 p.m., ready for a hot bath and a totally stimuli-free evening of bad network television.

Not wanting to deprive Emmeline of—God help me—“The Disney Experience,” I relented and one day we arrived at the park by 10 a.m. and didn’t leave the grounds until well after the signature evening parade and fireworks.

It was nearly midnight when we got home, and when I tried to change my kid into her jammies, she opened one angry, sleepy eye and gave me the business:

“MOMMY! LEAVE ME ALONE! I AM SLEEPIN’!”

Ah, the memories.

But what’s a mommy to do? You’re on vacation, and you’ve spent weeks planning and packing and preparing and counting on having The Time Of Your Lives. So do you get to your destination, only to make sure that everyone gets a nap at precisely 1 p.m. every day no matter what?

Flexible, Yet Structured

According to Tovah Klein, Ph.D., there’s no reason to break out the bullwhip and goosestep the kids through their normal at-home routine. After all, a vacation is supposed to be a break from the everyday hum-and-drum.

Klein, director of the Barnard College Center For Toddler Development in New York City, says that there is no need to remain on the rigid—er, regulated—schedule you have at home.

“Vacations tend to be big, big fun, the beach or an amusement park,” says Klein. “There’s nothing wrong with that. You just have to read your kid.”

Young children, and toddlers in particular, have no sense of time passing so they need certain markers to understand that the day is moving forward, Klein adds. There are some routines that need to be kept, no matter where you are: grandma’s house, the beach, Disney.

“The main thing is that toddlers thrive on consistency,” she says. “Of course, when you’re on vacation there can be some flexibility, but they still need structure.”

So if you sit down for breakfast every day at 8 a.m., you should try to do the same on the road. You may be in a different environment, but the child will still recognize the familiarity of eating at the same time that they do at home.

The Best Intentions 

When we spent three weeks at the ocean this past summer, our days got a little loosey-goosey. The fresh air tuckered us all out, and glory be, my kid slept some days until 9 a.m.—a good two hours later that her average wake-up call at home.