Should kids go on holiday abroad every year?

Exactly!! @WatermelonWaveclub

I don't know how old your child is, but seeing as they are ND don't forget that it's fine to not be "well rounded" too.
You can't artificially create a "well rounded" child, out of a child who doesn't have that predisposition, and striving to do so can often lead to unhappiness.

I won't take mine yet. I remember going abroad at 8,.9 and 10 and being bored as heck.

Quite.

We didn’t take ds abroad until he was 8 because he and I are disabled so it’s a ballache, but when we did - on the plane he sat in his seat, looked out of the window, watched some tv and chatted quietly to us.

He absolutely behaved appropriately, because he knows how to behave in ‘sit quietly and don’t disturb others’ type situations.

We flew to LA and the child, about 11, behind me, constantly kicked the back of my seat. I tried to stay calm but eventually quietly and politely asked the father to tell him it was very rude and unpleasant. I had to ask again several times, and mother said 'oh he always does this on each flight we take'.

I eventually asked the air stewart to have a word and a warning. It was a VERY long flight, and this child made it really unpleasant. A very frequent flyer as his mother said.

No they don't seem to. The father has also made several transatlantic trips without the family in the last year.

They don't care at all about the planet then?

You seem to be missing the point that children who are on airplanes more often will behave better on airplanes. At no point did I say that they can’t learn to behave anywhere else, it was in response to someone saying they are waiting to fly when their kids are ‘less feral’. My 5 year old has never been badly behaved on a plane, because she is very comfortable with the environment. HTH

Lol. My 9 and 6 year olds have never been on a plane but I have no doubt they would behave themselves. Partly because they are old enough to sit still and understand that they need to, but also because I have put a lot of work into managing their behaviour so they know how to behave in public. We hardly ever go to the cinema, but when we do go they behave nicely.

Nope. Children who have been taught to be well behaved (and don’t have any other issues going on with them) are generally well behaved, and those who haven’t, aren’t.

How is something that you need large amounts of money for not a luxury?

Not so, the children of wealthy bankers or pilots for example could easily fly 5 or 6 times a year. A family we know well for example did: holiday home in Mallorca may half term and again in July, the states to visit friends in August, Carribean in January, Italy for Feb half term and Australia at Easter. Of those only the Australian trip was considered a " big holiday" or remarkable in any way.

I accidentally said something controversial the other day on a Facebook holiday group. A man was asking what people do about possible fines you could get when taking kids out of school. I said we only go on holidays in the school holidays. Well that seemed a very unpopular opinion. I mentioned that it’s more expensive but I think it’s worth it for their education and would just not travel as often. Apparently that meant I wasn’t making memories with my children, they would be uncultured and I was just teaching them the only way to live was stuck to a desk day in day out! This was news to me. I use almost all my holiday time with my children (not taking time off by myself/with hubby/friends) and if we don’t go abroad we just do things in this country, or at home! I think it’s time together that’s important, not going abroad. And there is so much to learn just within a couple of hours from home.

I think experiencing different cultures and appreciating that things are different abroad is very important.
Does it need to be a two week holiday abroad every year? No.

Well at least proportional to the number of kids I’ve seen generally in business/lounges vs holiday flights

I tend to agree kids who have more practice at anything do it better on average but vast majority of kids that fly will only do it once or twice a year so it’s reaching a bit to say it’s familiar and they will therefore be better behaved than someone flying for first time.
Most kids I’ve seen on flights have been pretty well behaved on the whole but I’ve seen as many total horrors in business/in lounges as on jet 2 holiday flights

Of course not! My kids are now adults and with us didn't go abroad much at all for holidays. We did a lot of camping in the UK with groups of friends which they loved and arguably made them more "well-rounded". We have been on 3 proper holidays abroad in the 20 years since we had kids then 3 smaller trips to France. Now DD is an adult she has been on a couple of holidays in Europe with her boyfriend and she will hopefully continue to travel as an adult as it is absolutely a great thing but it is of course a luxury.

It’s a wonderful luxury, I’m pleased my DC have inherited my love of travel. I have taken them to around 45 countries and now they go on trips with their friends or do solo trips.

I'm 50 this year I've never been abroad.
My children have been on caravan holidays in the UK and for a few years pre covid we had a couple of stays with family in Scotland. Oh has been unable to work for the last 3 years due to ill health and even with benefits we are surviving on 1.5k a month less than we had when he was working. I'm hoping that I can afford to take them for a few nights in London in the 6 week holidays to visit eldest who went to uni there and then never came back.

Ok, we don’t have to agree, but that’s my experience.
Just like how children who have gone to the cinema a lot behave better in the cinema. Children who have a dog behave better around dogs. Children who go to swimming lessons behave better around swimming pools. It’s common sense, but whatever helps you sleep at night!

You seem to be missing the point that

children who are on airplanes more often will behave better on airplanes

Is rubbish.

All children can behave well/badly- how they are on a plane is indicative of their usual behaviour and their family culture.

It's not sustainable for everybody in the world to go on a foreign holiday every year. I'd rather our kids have an inhabitable planet to live in when they grow up so we don't go abroad every year even though we could probably afford to. I'd say we go abroad every 2-3 years to somewhere you can get to by train or ferry.

You seem to be missing the point that children who are on airplanes more often will behave better on airplanes. At no point did I say that they can’t learn to behave anywhere else, it was in response to someone saying they are waiting to fly when their kids are ‘less feral’. My 5 year old has never been badly behaved on a plane, because she is very comfortable with the environment. HTH

It’s utter bollocks.

Do you actually think that ‘on a plane’ is the only time children can learn to ‘sit quietly and behave themselves’?

No on a train? A bus? In the classroom? The cinema? The doctor’s waiting room? Grannies house? a restaurant?

And a plane is the only place parents can learn how keep their kids appropriately engaged in something?

That’s such a stupid proposition.

Yep, correct. Anything that they do frequently, they’re more likely to be well behaved at. It’s practice as you say, just becomes second nature. Yes they’re still kids but they’re much more likely to behave better - not be one of the kids you see having a tantrum because they don’t want to keep their seatbelt on etc

I thought I'd done alright with my UK holidays as a child, but the later reclassification of these as staycations has annoyed me far more than semantics should, so that's probably my lack of well rounded-ness showing right there 😂