Holiday with a baby and a toddler...

[pebblebubbles]

Please tell me your honest opinions on whether it actually was a holiday.

DC1 is 20 months and extremely lively. I have to take him out for a good 2 hour run about every day and he's still bouncing off the walls all day. Dc2 is a newborn and remarkably easy in comparison even with the 2/3 hourly wake ups throughout the night.

PIL want us all to go on holiday to celebrate MIL's birthday. I'm really apprehensive about going because I feel like it's very difficult right now let alone when they want to go next year DC2 will be on the move by then!

DH is very hands on and would absolutely do his fair share but as lovely as PIL are, they are very good at hyping up dc1 but not actually helping so I can't see there being more help to hand.

With me not currently working we're also on a really tight budget and I'm not sure I want to sacrifice any spare pennies we get for what could essentially be the very opposite of a "holiday"!

Have you done it? Was it as bad as I'm expecting it to be?

My first response was no way but I'm now on the fence because MIL is lovely and it's for a special celebration for her.

Yeah don't go. Where is she suggesting you go? Will there be lots of grown up meals?

Could you compromise on a weekend away at a family friendly place?

It’s not a holiday and is generally harder work than being at home when they’re that age. There’s bits that are very enjoyable but overall it’s an endurance test

If you can't afford it; don't go.
Whether you enjoy the holiday or not depends on your expectations. I love holidays and always found being away easier than being at home as there were 2 adults all day to care for 2 and later 3 children. There are also a lot less tasks to do ie no vacuuming , ironing etc
Where you stay has an impact on stress levels. I would tend towards self catering i a villa without swimming pool with toddlers.
There could be something lovely about all being away together but don't go expecting to have the opportunity to lie around sunbathing , having leisurely dinners or browsing the shops. Saying that, I've been away many times with small children on lots of different types of holidays and loved them all.

Where does he want to go? Open plan villa, ungated pool, miles from shops and restaurants, only museums to visit? Fuck no. Center Parcs? Or family friendly resort with nice pools and good buffet restaurant? Yes.

We are currently away with DS1 (2.5yrs) and DS2 (12 weeks) It has been enjoyable but also bloody hard work. It hasn’t been remotely relaxing as the kids haven’t been sleeping particularly well and we seem to spend all our time applying sun cream, hanging up wet swim stuff and dealing with DS1 tantrumming when we won’t let him have a third ice cream.

However it massively depends on what kind of holiday it is, how kid friendly it is, how likely your in laws are to help out and what everyone’s expectations are. Fancy dinners out at 10pm = no way. Chilled out days by the pool and a self catering villa = maybe.

But all of that is null and void if you can’t afford it. Please don’t feel obliged to spend a lot of money doing something that won’t be completely enjoyable for everyone.

Agree with everyone else. At that age, there are a few moments of Quite Good Fun, surrounded by a lot of What The Hell Were We Thinking Of?! If you're an easy-going person, it will feel worth it. If you're a stressy person (like me), you'll wish you were back home!

But just to make you feel better, my DCs are now 6 and 3, and we just had an ace holiday. It's much easier now, so it does get better!

We’ve just done an abroad trip with our lively almost 2 year old...we won’t be doing it again for a couple of years!
The holiday itself was great. He still has a nap so we could relax on the balcony for a couple of hours.
However...the journey was a nightmare!
I didn’t really factor in a couple of things so I’ll tell you the main issues we had.

We took a pram. This gets taken off you before you get on the plane, meaning that we had to queue for about 20 mins to get on the plane itself. Try teaching a toddler to stay still and queue...nope.
Once we were on the plane we missed our take off slot, so were sat on the runway for an hour. Nightmare...and the same thing happened on the way home.
When we landed there was about a mile walk to the baggage reclaim, again with no pram.

Then there was a massive queue at passport control...toddler decided he would rather run. He was ended up getting carried through like a surfboard.

I had been focusing on getting through the flight, but it was everything either side that caused us the problems!