Had a bit of a rubbish holiday; can anyone cheer me up?

[shallweorderpizza]

Feel really down and deflated. I went away with my two children and it was a bit miserable. I was with friends and anticipated a few tensions from different parenting styles and so on but the reality was harder than I thought. I felt like a bit of a nuisance throughout the trip and we found ourselves left behind a lot which upset one of my children.

Looking at the photos my friends have put up it’s like we weren’t even there.

There were nice moments but on balance I feel like we spent a lot of money for very limited enjoyment.

Going away with friends rarely works if one/both families have children. Exceedingly rare for everyone to enjoy it.

Ugh, you do get some like that. Last year's holiday didn't feel very successful - it was way too hot, especially for our oldest who is very sensitive to heat and was stressed about school stuff and kept saying they didn't want to be there, some of our days out didn't work too well, DH was being excessively critical of my driving.

It was supposed to be us finally introducing the kids to DH's favourite part of the world and it wasn't a disaster but it wasn't what we hoped it would be. I think it felt especially that way as we'd had such a good holiday the year before.

Maybe find something nice to plan, even just a day out, with the kids so you have something nicer to remember?