Holidays with grandparents

I’m going to have to ask my mother why we never went on holiday with her parents when I was a child. It would’ve been really nice.

Of course she doesn't think everyone went on holiday with their grandparents, she obviously just means it's not that unusual.

We never went with mine because they were very elderly by the time I was born, but I know they'd taken my cousins on holidays.

And my parents took their grandchildren on a few caravan holidays too.

And whenever I stay in a caravan, there are tonnes of caravan owners with their grandchildren.

When I was young, we went on holiday to my grandparents as they lived by the sea. They'd also come away with us in the UK but not abroad (also auntie and cousins). My DH used to go on hols to paternal grandparents (UK) and holiday abroad with maternal grandparents (wealthy but immigrants so they'd go back to home but also travel extensively in Europe).

We have had holidays with both sets of grandparents with kids, more with my parents as they have a timeshare in Europe we could all go to every year). GP paid for accommodation and food (esp when kids little) and we'd pay for flights / ferry.

Going on holiday with GP def meant we had more hols when kids were young than would otherwise have done and i'm infinitely grateful. It also gave us a break on hols / extra pair of hands. We both have lovely parents though and can see why it would be others idea of hell

I am the grandparent. I sometimes go on hols in UK with one of my DDs and family - I try and be a help (babysitting etc.) and pay my share. I have made it clear that I do not consider that having done it before a precedent is set and I expect always to be asked. They go abroad without me - that's a fine of course.

I paid for a big all-family holiday abroad after my OH died - a sort of present from Grandpa.

It’s not how it is in my family but I think that it’s quite common for the grandparents to pay for a holiday that they go on with their DC and young grandchildren. Something family friendly. A holiday though. Your friend is really lucky.

Never went on holiday with my grandparents. There were around 17 grandchildren, though. Didn't see my dad's parents. We don't have a holiday with my parents and they have never paid for us to go on holiday.

My mum was a single mum and her mother widowed so we always went away with granny and she paid. Often various aunts cousins etc would come too. Was perfectly normal for our family.

I take the grandparents on holiday.

As a child I never went on any holidays with my GP.

As a parent myself now it wouldn’t even be considered for GP to go on holiday with DC on their own or indeed with me and DH as well. I know some people like the big extended family holidays but it is my idea of hell. I’d rather not go on holiday if that was the only option.

Growing up we went on holiday every two years most uk a couple abroad.

Once my kids turned 18 I couldn't afford to continue to pay for them so they still come but pay for themselves.

As children we sometimes went on holiday with grandpatenrs. It wasn't a regular thing, but I can remember at least 2 or 3 occasions, one of them abroad. It was lovely. Very fond memories. We have been a few times with our own children and my parents or in-laws too. I love big family holidays.

We took DF on holiday (UK) for several years after he was widowed. He paid towards the holiday but didn't pay the whole thing. A couple of years we added widowed FIL too. Worked well, the two grandfathers moved at small children pace, were quite happy to participate on castle and dam building on the beach, children were quite happy to explore remains of WWII radar look-out post and similar things.

I remember my grandparents having the adjacent caravan to us on childhood holidays. And taking DH and DS1 to same caravan site when my parents were there.

Key in our case is that grandparent generation were able to amuse themselves so although we tended to go off somewhere with them every day, we weren't tied to them all day.

In our case we’ve taken the grandparents and subsidised their holidays eg we paid for the accommodation and hire car, they paid for their flights.

We’ll probably take our DC and future DGC on holiday, so we’ll end up having paid out both ways …

As a child, we went on holidays with my grandparents every 2 years. (My parents were immigrants and we went back to their country of birth). As adults, we continued to holiday with my parents every 2 years, returning to the same place. It's very beautiful, we had a family house to stay in and the extended family would all return at the same time.

I very much hope our kids will want to come on holiday with us as adults. I do however think there is an art to making these kind of holidays happy and relaxing for everyone. (I have also been on holidays with my in laws and that didn't really work so it wasn't repeated.)

Not normal for me at all.
Although I have known people who have had generous relatives who pay for lots of things.
I suppose these ones feel holidays are important and want to spend time together.