How often do you take your kids for big days out?

[pancakes222]

I know I shouldn't compare (comparison is the thief of joy and all that!) but I often see friends taking their kids out for big days out eg theme parks, London shows, zoo, Lego land etc but when I suggest the same to DH he just says it's a waste of money that we don't really have, that the kids won't remember it, will probably just whinge all the way round etc and that they are just as happy playing at their grandmas or going to the park. DD is age 6 and DS is 2.5.

I feel like I did used to take DD more places like this when she was younger and the only one because I only had to pay for the one child whereas these places do now add up when paying for 2 adults 2 children.

We don't have loads of money but I do love experiences and worry at the back of my mind that we aren't giving those same experiences for second born. I also think on the other hand maybe DH does have a point and maybe it is better just getting by with free local trips at the moment and when they are older they may well enjoy bigger experiences then instead perhaps....

Suppose I'm just looking for a bit of reassurance that I'm not the only one who isn't taking the kids big places and wondering whether people share DHs views? (In which case I should probably stop nagging him! and also to stop comparing!)

At 6 and 2.5 - never. They get just as much enjoyment at much smaller scale days out. The 2.5 year old won't even remember them anyway. I'm with your DH :)

I not worry at this age your youngest will not remember going to any of these things. She is also possibly too young to fully get the benefits of a day at a theme park or a day out in London. FWIW we went to Disney when DD2 was 5 and she has very little memory for it. Save your money for when they are both a bit older.

Mine didn’t go on expensive days out until around age 7, prior to that they were happy with the park, beach, friends houses, picnics, National Trust visits etc.

I get those saying that the 2.5 year old won't remember and I agree. But that means the 6 year old who would probably really enjoy them misses out.

I think there is a balance to be had. Some big days out are really good fun, but you don't have to do them every weekend.

we don’t really. We have free entry to national trust and English heritage through my work so we go there for day trips sometimes (kids love running around a good castle ruin) but we hardly ever go to big attractions. We priced up going to our local farm / soft play / adventure place and it was about £70 … it’s always crowded and the kids never seem to enjoy it because everything has long queues.

my kids are 10,4 & 2.5

Ours are adult now but when they were small I was out a lot - we did DLP every year for 5 days just before Christmas plus shorter trips / day trips at other times , we had Merlin passes and did chessington / Thorpe park / Legoland a few times a week when they were off school and in the summer holidays used to do a theme park tour taking in Lightwater valley / flamingo land / Blackpool pleasure beach / Drayton manor / Alton towers . We also live commutable to London so did day trips there a lot . We had a 6 yr age gap and ours didn’t really get on so it was easier to be out with them .

I try and do something every weekend. Take them out to the cinema or we go to big central London park or just to walk around Camden or Covent Garden. When I could drive we did bigger days out like legoland but only when offers were on or we would get a caravan for the weekend. This week we went to a food festival (free, local, walking distance) and to the local park which had an event on.

Some do remember, some don’t. My youngest can remember Disneyland at age 3. And I am able to remember places from small. My eldest however doesn’t remember and we did even more with him. I always remember someone saying “even if they don’t remember; you will.” It’s a day for you too, obvs depending on the activity. I’ve got beautiful pictures of my kids at Thomasland for instance.

Atleast once a month but I'm living through my child. We was dirt poor growing up and my mum had issues so we never went anywhere. Birthdays were none events.

Have really never gone to anywhere like Legoland, zoos (I feel sad looking at caged animals anyway), expensive shows. We regularly (apart form COVID times) went on trips across the country by train, for visits to museums, art galleries or just to look round cities/towns we wanted to visit. Also to the theatre or to concerts.

At the ages of your children though we stayed much more local and did lots of outdoor things.

We have annual pass to large theme park. Go 4x a month in term time. Rarely in holidays. Its 20 min away so often go for maybe 4 hrs. If busy we just see the animals, splash park, play areas.
We go to the farm weekly but its 5 min away and we have passes.
Inlaws take dcs twice a month to either farm or zoo.
We have another farm about 40 min away. Go maybe every 3 months.

Sealife maybe 2x a year. I find them boring and tbh 30 min and kids have had enough.

But my kids probably have more fun running around the woods making dens, or country parks. But if its just me taking them the theme park or farm is easier, toilets etc without toddler running off.
Dh doesn't have an annual pass for the theme park so we do counrty parks etc with him it works well as we go with friends for the theme park

Circus each time its in town as a relative works in a nearby shop and always gets given complimentary tickets for advertising for them.

Circus each time its in town as a relative works in a nearby shop and always gets given complimentary tickets for advertising for them.

Theme parks and Legoland - never
London (West End?) shows - never. We do go to smaller-scale shows and concerts a few times a year
Zoo - we have membership, so go several times a year

We tend to have a day out most weekends, but the type of outing varies a lot. Last weekend it was mostly museums and galleries (free) but went to a gallery cafe for coffee and cake afterwards and bought a children's book from the gift shop so did spend a bit of money.

We had merlin passes when Dd was little & really did get our moneys worth out of them.I think a lot depends where you live -
I used to take Dd somewhere every Weekend but I’m in London so it was just the price of a tube ride to a free museum or gallery lots of the time:

If you want to take your 6 yr old to a show kids week is coming up soon (free tickets for children).
we didn’t have loads of money but there are lots of cheap days out & deals about to make it more affordable

I have 4 dc all 7 & under so it costs to go places. We don’t do the big stuff much, just yet. We have National Trust and a great local one, we have done the aquarium, farm etc a lot pre Covid but I am more selective now. Lego land was ridiculous price wise and a whinging fest and in no hurry to repeat. We are going to London for a few days in the Autumn holiday. We holiday and living rurally days out involve a longer journey. We do however go to some fab places camping, and regularly at weekends we canoe, paddle board, cycle etc. i used to feel bad but am more like your DH now it’s seems a bit pointless atm. Saving it for occasional trips like London, holidays and for when they are older and enjoy it more.

We have never taken ours to a theme park. A day of standing in queues is not our idea of a good time. We do go to the zoo but the one closest to us is reasonably priced. We go to shows about one a year but not London ones. We've only been to 1 London show with the DC. I agree with your DH that young children don't care and are just as happy playing outdoors as they are at lego land.

At that age, probably the zoo or the safari park once a year. (Well, the safari park offers free return entry, so twice, in that case, but paying once).

Your dh is right.

In truth, even as they got older, we would do one "big trip" in the Summer Holidays, and that was usually it.
Once they got their Blue Peter Cards for free entry to places, that helped a lot, and one year we got Grandparents to buy a season ticket to a local attraction instead of getting them all loads of individual "stuff" at Christmas, so that was a good year for return trips.
Mostly thought we would go out to free places, or low cost things.

In the holidays I try to go somewhere like Gullivers/Splaah Landings type places once per week (I feel guilty as I only have 2 days off per week with her in hols)but all the other weekends of the year she’s either at a kids party sat and/or sun & the other day go down to the park. Summer we’re out in the garden a lot so maybe do more in the winter like indoor fun places as I hate being stuck at home!

DS 14 and DP have merlin passes and so go to theme parkS regularly. We are all visiting alton towers in July. And then in November I’m taking dd to london as she’s asked to go do the tourist thing (shopping edition) to spend her birthday money she may get and she’s saving. We just had a holiday last week. Other than that we take visits to town once a month.

We have always gone many many places. (3 Dc and husband) We started going from when the kids were aged 6 months youngest -3 years oldest. I love experiences and taking them out but we also have clubs at weekends so time is limited.
We’ve visited pretty much every singe visitor attraction in our county that would have anything of interest for kids. Visited every larger national trust in our county and the two counties surrounding ours.
Weve most of the theme parks in the south plus Alton towers (Legoland, chessington, paultons, flambards etc plus smaller ones for younger kids) Not a massive fan of theme parks however unless I have the money for fast pass options which rare! Also only an hour from London so have taken them any times and seen all of the popular kids attractions there. Been to dozens of farms with repeat visits to many over the past 10 years.
Weve now exhausted pretty much everything that is drivable in a day so I’m going to have to book more overnight stays to get to things in further counties (done this a couple of times in the past with air B and B or holiday cottages etc)
I won’t lie, it’s expensive so we alternate the more expensive days with national trust or beaches and parks but money is prioritised for outings way above a nice car or redecorating the house for example.

It depends what you consider an expensive day out, we have annual passes to our local aquarium that also has some monkeys, meerkats etc £15 a head only 1 DC so pretty cheap as we go at least 15 times a year.
Last trip to the zoo used clubcard vouchers so cost us nothing in cash and only a third of the price in vouchers, we've got Legoland booked the same way, always take packed lunches, we also recently used them for the Eurotunnel and drove to Holland (much cheaper than Disney) , MIL stables her horse on a farm and is friendly with the owner so DS goes there regularly plays with the animals, collects eggs, feeds lambs and chickens. We also live walking distance to the beach.
We did go to the natural history museum recently (family Railcard bought with you guessed it clubard vouchers gets us a third off trains) museum is free and we took lunch. We did go out for dinner because it was my birthday but it wasn't somewhere very fancy as we had DS with us. There are often things going on in our local park, recent jubilee picnic with brass bands etc -free, they have music there of some kind every weekend over the summer months.

I'm not an Instagram person but if I was it might look like we spend a tonne of money on outings but we actually spend very little. You just need to be creative and search for free or very low cost activities.

I also forgot god awful soft play, £15 a year for local residents - we live in a tourist area

We went to the zoo in May half term, did a Harry Potter Forbidden Forest walk in December, Safari last October half term, and a theme park last summer holidays..... So that's four big days out in 12 months. My 9 and 5 year old are also happy paddling in the local river, or meeting up with cousins for a walk.

I would save your money till they are a bit older. Four bigs day out a year is about what we can afford, and I don't feel guilty it's not more or less.

P. S. I feel I should mention we do regularly take them out, this weekend we visited a free open farm Sunday event (kids loved), last weekend we met up with the cousins, weeekend before local swimming pool etc etc. It is just the big expensive days out are much less frequent.

Rarely, we used to have theme park passes before they started school but none of us want to go during school holidays and queue for hours.

We do have our own caravan though so go away most weekends and a lot of the school holidays.