To ask if you take your children out alone

At a risk of a flaming, I would really struggle to be friends with women who couldn't take their own children out alone... disabilities and health issues of either mum or kids aside obviously. I have little patience for such delicate flower behaviour

Why wouldn't you? Do you go out alone without your kids?

Obviously....

During term times those sorts of days out are usually weekends so we would go together as a family. During holidays or if DH had something else he needed to do of course i'd take them out by myself.

Only rarely since they started school. Dh is very much a family man and lives for the big days out and holidays. I loathe adventure centres , rollercoasters and water parks so I’m very happy to let him take the lead on those things.

As toddlers I took them to all sorts, and in summer holidays when dh was working away, we’d travel with him and I’d take them out for the day and meet up in the evenings. Occasionally I’d take a few of their friends out for the day during school breaks.

Now I prefer to do the quieter things - hikes, walks, museums, shopping, beach, zoo and save up the high octane fun so the biggest kid of all doesn’t feel left out,

Goodness yes. Even taken three on a day trip by plane to a European capital alone and on a short foreign holiday alone.

I take five kids on holiday for two weeks every summer. Two with fairly complex disabilities. Youngest is a toddler, oldest an older teen but I’ve been doing this for nine years now. Husband can’t get the time off and it’s the only opportunity we get for me to go back to my home country and see family. Weirdly it’s the spending time with family and having extra adult ‘help’ that’s the hardest part.
Generally by the time I get back from that, once I’ve screamed into a pillow for a few days, a trip to the farm with the youngest three on my own feels like child’s play.

Yes I have a 4 year old and a 1 year old and take them on days out by myself. My DH will also do this by himself. Yes it can be difficult at times but I can cope.

Why are you asking? Are you struggling taking yours out alone?

Of course! I'm a single parent so wouldn't get far if I didn't haha. But before I was single I did, including going away just me and them.

Incredulous you do it all because you take two kids out? Gently, I think you need less sheltered friends.

Yes, I often do days out with mum friends or DS's school friends. And DH occasionally does days out with his brother and nephews.

We work shifts around eachother, so a family day out usually requires one of us to book annual leave. We usually do a day out together for each of the kids birthdays, pumpkin picking in October and a Santa's Grotto in December, everything else is solo

Yes and shock horror I use public transport as I don't drive. Friends have told me I am 'brave' for taking the kids into London as though it is akin to taking them up everest (London is a 30 min dirext train ride......)

Yes, always have done.
There were times when it was trickier, with two under two but I had the older two to entertain so staying in wasn't an option really.

I always did when my children were small. I was a single parent so I had no choice. I also took them on holiday abroad on my own. I now take my grandchildren for days out alone. I can't think of a reason why you wouldn't.

I have x 3 children. I have always taken them out alone, even on holiday for a week at a time. I think this is normal but some of my friends think its wierd and would never go anywhere unless their DH was with them.

Yeps - Dh was a shift worker when the children were smaller so we could limit our childcare bill, so I used to pack up the car and take the kids away for weekends camping/days out (he would join us if he could or when work was finished)

We have obviously had family days out and holidays. I do have recollections of it being harder work when they were smaller but I managed.

Beach days were and still are a favourite things for us to do, I’d pack the car the night before, get up early and just go, if I’d waited around for DH to be about we wouldn’t have done anything.

I am a single foster carer, I am registered to have two children so of course we do all the things that children should get to experience in childhood. I think if there was a problem with single people taking children out alone then SS would be on it and not allow single people to be registered for more than one child. As a foster carer I can have children who are very close in age (I once had a 7 month old and an 8 week old) or children with a big age gap.

Depends where. I have a 5 year age gap between my two so for theme parks etc we really need an adult per child. Now that my older one is a confident swimmer, I'll take them both to bog standard swimming pools by myself - I can stay with the toddler and have the older one in sight. But I won't do water parks for example without an adult with each child. Most other places though I'll take the two of them - they amuse each other and the older one is quite helpful so it's often easier with both.

Of course I do.

I’m always baffled by adults that have never taken their kids out alone and wouldn’t dream of going somewhere even like shopping without someone else with them.

People are odd. I'm retired and get praised for being 'brave' just because I travel alone and independently with my backpack!

There are just a lot of very anxious people around who can't imagine coping with life on their own.

I have a 2 and a 4 year old and I pick the places I take them if I'm on my own. They are both a bit rogue and will run off, grab things they shouldn't, not do what they're told etc. 2- year old will refuse to walk a lot too. It's too much and not enjoyable to manage this outside somewhere contained like softplay, park, museum. So I do that kind of thing with them and do days out as a family, I do hope when they're more like 3 and 5 they will be a bit more reasonable and we can be more adventurous when it's just us.

Of course. My DS is an adult now but when he was younger, we took different time off during school holidays and both took him out to various places on our own.

I took him to Harry Potter studios, Whitstable and Beaulieu while his dad was at work and they went several places without me.
In fact, they did quite a few football away trips and I stayed at home. It’s pretty normal I’d say

You get used to it. And the kids get used to listening to you, if you are the sole adult (SEN excepting of course). I had five kids, was a lone parent, two with degrees of SEN (one a bit prone to wandering off) and I took them out a lot, but I tailored the locations. When they were small we didn't go swimming for example but would go for long (to the kids!) walks in the countryside with a picnic.

Yeah I do all the time

toddler and baby

we have a Merlin pass and I only work 4 days so we go to all sorts of attractions when it’s quiet on a midweek day

I’ve taken them both on 2 separate trips away alone (once to Dublin and once on the Eurostar to Paris)

was determined not to waste my maternity leave sitting at home

I think I’m lucky that my toddler is really good and never runs off and has no issues sitting on the buggy board and listens to instructions and knows to hold the buggy or my hand when I say

this might get more difficult when the baby is walking though

Yes, husband is sometimes away at the weekend. I have two crazy boys under 5 so I caveat this by saying I have to make sure I get a good nights sleep and get myself ‘in the zone’ to manage it though!