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!)

Big days out, basically never.
But we have membership for the local farm park and go there for a couple of hours every few weeks.
We also live right by the beach so kind of take it for granted that we can go there for half an hour or an hour whenever we want without it having to be a big thing.
We go for walks/bike rides/to the park or beach mostly.

Sometimes to a National Trust place. Bowling/cinema maybe once a year.
We’ve done a couple of kids theatre shows in the local theatre and gone to the circus a few times.

We go camping with friends and to stay with family a few times a year where we do different variations of the above.

Depends what you mean by big days out? We do quite a few full days out in the hols but some are cheap or free (heading into a near-ish city & doing a few free museums say). Your DH does sound a bit joyless to be honest, but I might be biased by the fact I never went anywhere as a kid & regret that.

Mine are teenagers now so they don’t want to know me, but when they were little I used to aim for once a week - be that a Saturday or a day in the week in school holidays. They weren’t always big days out, like theme parks. We did two or three of those a year, but other outings were things like swimming, soft play, a more fun park we had to drive to or a free thing like the nature reserve or the science museum.
My oldest needs to let off steam so I had to take him somewhere he could burn off energy every day, but that could be a walk into town or with his younger brother in the buggy.

Definitely depends what you mean by 'big days out' of course.

We used to go out every day in the Summer when mine were little, as my eldest was like a coiled spring and just needed to be out and about, but 99% of the time we went places that were free, or perhaps we had ice-creams or I paid out for train fare or petrol.
Depends to some extent where you live of course, and if you drive / have access to a car, but I think most of us can find things to do that don't cost within a reasonable distance of our homes.

We only do big days out a handful of times a year. DS gets just as much enjoyment going to the park or swimming, so we do that a lot.
He's 7 now, so it might change when he's older...but for now we'll stick with the more affordable activities.

same Here.

DD is 8 and we've been shielding since Feb 2020 so now we've had covid and survived we can go out more. 4/5 'big' days out in the last month (theme park, zoo, shopping day,etc) and a few smaller days out (museum, national trust places, soft play)

Mine are older now but I took them on either big days such as theme parks/zoos/Pizza Hut/bowling/cinema/museums/ball pit type of combo every weekend and a few days a week during all the school holidays if we weren’t away on holiday.
We had Merlin passes and live half an hour from the seaside and a bit much longer from London.

2 or 3 times a year, usually once in the summer and once in the October half term if the weather is still nice. We always use vouchers though and DS2 is still free in some places (under 90cm tall).

We go to a country park type place around once a month. Usually we just need to pay for parking, snacks, and maybe a few £ for a ride if there are any.

Once-twice a month on average, sometimes 4 in a week during school holidays, other times no big trips except parks/swimming etc for a few months. We take quite a few holidays too so have family time then.

Whilst I agree with your dh that your 2.5 year old won’t remember it, I do believe that dc take in experiences and get something from them. But mainly, I don’t think that days out are just for the dc; they are only little once and I like looking back on holidays and days out as happy memories of my own life.

We do medium sized outings, like local zoo, farm/play centre, local aquarium 2-3 times a month, more in school holidays. At Christmas & birthdays we ask relatives to give money towards annual passes, which also helps stem the flow of plastic tat into my house. Usually we get one family pass per birthday or per child at Christmas, insted of 5 toys that would be fogotten by new-year.

Once a year I use clubcard points to get tickets for somewhere bigger, usually over the summer. And over covid we used the money we would have spent on a birthday party on a bigger family outing insted.

I think it probably averages out once a month or so? We live in London so there's plenty available and we don't always pay huge amounts for it - just mooching about somewhere like Covent Garden is good fun, or Chelsea when the flower show is on (for example). We get lots of theatre tickets on ticket lotteries, so we've been to see three or four shows this year. We do one trip into town each half term and will probably line up a few for the summer holidays, and maybe a theme park as we're not far from Legoland or Chessington. We also eat out probably once a month. We got out of the habit of going to museums when we had to book and haven't really picked it up again yet, so that's on my list for this year!

Hardly ever as we didn't have the money. We would go to the parks to meet up with family for picnics and beaches quite a lot in the summer which they were happy with. At your dcs age I really wouldn't worry about it too much. I know its hard but try not to compare yourself with others, they only post the good bits