New York with a 4 year old…ridiculous?

I’m not sure of the point really - he’s a bit young to appreciate much, and it could be very cold or snowy in March which could limit outdoor stuff. I’m really not sure I would enjoy NYC with such a young child either.

I took DS when he was around 11, he enjoyed it, but was also shattered early every evening. We did a lot of city breaks when he was younger but closer to home, shorter flights, better weather.

It's hard to see why you want to go there.

Fancy a city break? Paris and Amsterdam both have lots of stuff for kids, as do London, Edinburgh or plenty of other cities that are much easier to get to assuming that you're in the UK.

Long flight, jet lag and you don't mention anything you actually want to do, just stuff you've done before and know won't be suitable.

We loved city breaks with our kids but I wouldn't say NY was our favourite.

What sort of thing do you think your 4yo would enjoy in NYC? Also won't it be really cold?

Well the 4 yr old won't be making any NY Memories, and it's doubtful it would want to be attempting 20k steps a day. Your DH is sensible.

We took our dd when she was two (she's 20 now) and she was beyond miserable the whole time.

It's a longstanding family joke that she hates New York. I've got two hundred photos of the three of us and she's wailing in all of them. She hated central park and she hated everywhere we ate because she wanted milk and they kept bringing strawberry or chocolate milk. Happy memories.

If a four-year-old can live there then a four-year-old can go on a holiday there. But it’s not going to be the eating and drinking holiday that you experienced the first time round. It’s going to be let’s go find a park, let’s go find something to do that’s more kid friendly, let’s go for a walk while he has a nap in the buggy, etc, etc I took one to New York when they were 10 and eight and they had an absolute blast.

4 is a really awkward age tbh. I’d do it with a baby up to about age 2, in fact I have done several times as we had family in NY when DD was a toddler, because they still have the stroller so you can move at a quicker pace and you get 2 hours every afternoon whilst they sleep in it to do a museum they’d find boring. But 4 is walking yet can’t walk far, not napping but still gets tired, is involved enough to want things to be to their interests but still has a really short attention span. And it’s just a lot of money and effort to hang around playgrounds, do minimal cultural stuff and have to rush through dinner because they’re tired due to the time difference. I’d put a pin in it and revisit when DC is 6- that’s a great age for city breaks!

We took my ds at 2 and had a fantastic time, but we were staying with friends so the 'tourist' bit was fairly low key.

What’s the point in going so far so your 4yo can go on different play parks he’s not going to appreciate it!

We had two holidays in long Island (sag harbor) when DC were 3&5 and then 6&8 and then at the end of both holidays we went into NYC for one night and then two nights respectively.

My children adored NYC. On the first trip we just did a big cinema Dh&DS and me and DD did a Broadway show.

Second trip they were older and we went to the natural history museum, some cool diners and had dinner in bed from the massive deli under the hotel (to be fair that's what they still talk about as teens!)

My son struggled with so much walking at age 6 though and we could have only done one full day of walking and museum.

Long Island is amazing for children though if you want to split a trip. There's a fab jnteractive play museum 'museum of the East end', beaches, the lighthouse at Montauk. But appreciate you want cocktails and NYC vibes!

Nothing like a small child to ruin a good day out. Any chance you can palm him off onto someone and go alone? I can't see much to appeal to a 4 year old apart from Central Park but New York is a long way to go to find some swings.

I mean it’s a trip for you. It sounds stressful to me, I would not take my nearly 4 year old on a city trip especially not long haul and w jet lag. Can’t imagine he would love being dragged around NY, nice restaurants, walking 20k steps etc. he would be tired, grumpy and jet lagged.
leave him with grandparents or wait a few years. Or be prepared to change your schedule to accommodate him.

Have you taken him on a city break before? I personally didn’t take mine on that kind of trip until they were old enough to walk a reasonable distance and get the point of sightseeing.

It will be fine. New York is full of lovely parks and play areas. Great museums. You might just need to take things at a slower pace and add in kid friendly activities, with less steps.

There’s loads of things for kids to do in New York. We’ve been there with our kids at all different ages and had a great time. Use the hop on/hop off sight seeing buses to get around to save on a bit of the walking.

I imagine there are places more suitable for a 4 yo but if you plan what you want to do then it'll be fine if you desperately want to go, it wont really be for him though. My DC came to Vegas younger than that with us, there was loads to do and we just made sure we planned it properly.