Why don't people take their kids on holiday?

It’s not either or, though, is it. Children who are taken travelling don’t necessarily miss out on museums and the theatre. In fact, in my experience, the best travelled are also the most cultured in other ways too. And I completely disagree that a child gets nothing culturally from a beach holiday. Being in a foreign country, where people speak a different language, the food is different etc. is a learning experience. Mixing with children from other parts of the world or different parts of the UK. Snorkelling, sailing and other water activities. New experiences. Like I say upthread, travel - be it a city break in Rome, skiing in the alps, adventure holiday in Costa Rica, or sun & sea in Barbados - gives one intangible benefits in life.

We take my dc and dsc away on holidays. We've had some great and very memorable times, I think it really helps family bonding particularly with blended families. I'd love to be able to afford more and go to adventurous/long-haul places but we simply can't afford it for all of us.
My ex however takes our dc nowhere. He has holidays with his wife but they never invite our dc along. They are tight, selfish tossers.

I apologise we live in a dull country and there’s more beautiful world out there to be seen and explored and as I was saying she won’t be the only person getting on any plane so she’s more than entitled to use that form of travel and go on a well deserved holiday to a beautiful country that has more to offer than the UK. You people are crazy that are against people LIVING how they want to. I am not stopping flying because Susan down the road is frightful of what happens to the environment or what ever even is the concern. It’s a normal part of living and a beautiful thing to do. If it was that bad planes wouldn’t exist.

Another silly argument, planes don't just keep flying if there's no demand.

I disagree. I don’t think that the kind of holidays most people take (beach / holiday) are valuable to children & so don’t prioritise them. I find city breaks more educational but only after a certain age when you can expect them to make their orders in the language / try and understand cultures and that is usually after 7. Instead in the early years I make multiple (expensive) trips per year that centre around UK museums / zoos / wildlife parks / pond dipping / food / camping.

I’m wealthy, I travel a lot personally and for work, but for me it’s a value judgement.

i have no desire to take my kids on holiday, they are 1 and 4. The 1 year old is quite inconvenient to take places and the 4 year old has food allergies which makes meals challenging - everything is made at home. similar with DH who is on a restricted diet so buying food out while in-transit is impossible.

honestly a holiday just seems like a lot of work with not much upside.

Maybe I missed the first part of the conversation, but this thread is bashing parents who don’t take their kids on holiday, so I assumed the mention of class parties was in the context of bashing parents who don’t do them, so I was just saying I don’t see class parties as being on the same level of experience as holidays, most people I know holiday regularly, class parties are much less common (and indeed even parties in general, I noticed a big drop off post covid) so it just seems a weird comparison.

why do you keep saying that? no one is telling you you SHOULD have class parties, have the parties you want 😂

Let's not pretend it's a burden, that is all. if you don't want them, don't have them. All I am saying is that inviting half a class or an entire class + some other friends to a soft play is exactly the same for the parents.

I don't know many kids who refuse to go to a class party when they are invited, I am not sure why you are taking it so personally.

No but you have the party the kid wants? Class parties were sports halls with bouncy castles, those weren’t the kinds of parties mine wanted.

Again, they are not mandatory?

Just saying that, on the parents point of view, there's absolutely no difference to organise a party for 15 or a class party. There's no work, or more work, involved, that's all.

One man's "tight" is another man's "frugal". Each to their own

Also, I do enjoy holidays, but can easily understand why someone else might prefer to spend the same amount of money redecorating a room they use all year round

maybe I just plan better for my ASD Child....

Rude, much?!

Right and not every kid wants a whole class party? Can’t say they were all that common, sure we went to a few, but not 30+ a year, so clearly not the majority doing them.

I ‘travelled’ extensively as a child to many far flung corners of the world. Bizarrely it didn’t spark any wanderlust in me. I remember being dreadfully bored and wanting to go home for the whole time.
I like where I live and don’t feel the need to ‘escape’. Holidays are not a necessity to me like they seem to be for others. I’d be happy not to go away, and only really do so for my DH who does love to get away. I’d never say it to him, but I spend most of a holiday abroad secretly wanting to go home.

No, sorry that's just lame. That's like excusing wearing a fur coat because the original owner was "already dead".
If people weren't buying tickets, the planes wouldn't be flying empty.

We all have collective responsibility for the state of the planet. It's unfortunate that there are still so many of us who think that responsibility is someone else's.

I presume most kids have fond memories of what they do in their own families whether it is a grand holiday or baking or going to a favourite resturant or playing in a park or a million other things

Who is to say what is appropriate or not, every day there ia 'well I say of you dont do this you are wrong ' threads who is the odd one with these?"it is not one way is right

I agree. I’m not a traveller but my children all say that they’re so happy to have the nice memories of childhood holidays that we all had together when they were small and as they got older.

We have a tourer so go away regularly in our caravan with our 3 year old. We have taken her abroad once, she absolutely loved it! We went away for a wedding without her and I felt soooo guilty because of how much she loved it when we went as a family. I wouldn't go away on holiday without her it just doesnt feel right. Although she loves the caravan holidays too just as much!

I see the pp doesn't get sarcasm.

But if the birthday child doesn't want to invite everyone to their party and only does it because the parents have some whatsapp or social media issues going where their world will end because some school parent they want to impress child is not going to be invited if they actually allow their child to have the birthday party they actually want?

Are you asking why they don't travel in general with their kids or why they don't take their kids when they themselves go on holiday? I can certainly see the latter, our hearts always sink when see lots of kids at our hotel, kids are horrible on holidays.

Nothing is mandatory, but they're not a big deal either. They're not different from soft play parties with half the class for example.

We’ve never done one, we did soft play parties with half the class, never did an all class one. I didn’t realise that was in the mandatory childhood rule book.

I don't love whole class parties, but you can suck it up and deal with it for your child's birthday, surely.

We didn’t travel much as children, maybe once every 2-3 years, and I definitely felt like I missed out when I turned up to university and everyone around me had travelled half the globe. Luckily I had the wanderlust gene so corrected for my travel deprived childhood with lots and lots of travel in my 20s including a gap year after university. Travel gives you intangible benefits in life.