I don’t want to go abroad

[BooomShakeTheRoom]

I was wondering if anyone else feels this way? I used to love holidays abroad with my husband before kids - was the highlight of my year.

My eldest is now 7 (3 kids) and weve only ever holidayed in the UK. We go away every year but stay within 5 hrs drive. We like it. I especially like the low cost (meaning if it’s stressful it’s not such a big deal), low prep needed, access to NHS and can navigate the holiday with small kids easily.

The option to go abroad has come up this year and whilst I’d love to take my kids in a plane, I just can’t get excited by it. All I think is same sh*t, different location, £5k lighter.

Is this normal? I’m prone to anxiety so I’m wondering if that’s holding us back. I loved going on holiday as a child and worry I’m depriving my children as they get older!

We went abroad when my youngest was five. Did uk holidays up until that point. Did zoos, national trust parks, farms, castles etc. Basically anywhere with a big field space to run. A three year old abroad in the heat? I'd rather poke my eyes out!

No, I love going abroad. I never went abroad until I was an adult and I felt I missed out on a lot, so I want to visit as many different places as we can with the kids during their childhood. Although we've stuck with fairly easy journeys while they're young (mostly Eurostar as we live 15 mins from a terminal), plus trips to the US to visit family. DC1 went abroad when she was 11 months and DC2 when she was 10 months. They've never had any issues travelling, partly because I did extended bfing which was an easy way to keep them quiet and off to sleep on any journey.

I absolutely love going abroad, but didn't go away at all when the DC were between 1 and 3. Those were the "nope" years. Since then we have mostly gone camping in France- just slung everything in the van and gone. I cannot say the holiday we had in Normandy and Brittany when they were 8 and 3 was easy (I have recounted the poo at the chateau anecdote many times on MN), and neither really was Brittany when they were 9 and 4, and we missed a couple of years because of Covid. Came roaring back when they were 12 and 7, and it's been great ever since.

The real threshold IME is when you can let them run off and play with the other kids, so about 5 depending on site layout. (And that's another plus about camping- it's more sociable, especially on a site with other British campers. You'll often end up having a chat or a glass of wine with another family- very welcome if you're a single parent like me).

We AI'd from 3 months. Fantastic holidays with lots of people in the same boat. Going out with a firm friend from those years next week.

We took our kids from age 1. Always had a good time.
Sometimes it was the same shit but I was happily doing the same shit with more variety somewhere interesting.
Flights and Villa or apartment separately is how we usually travel.

Really? I have always felt that holidays in the UK are really expensive, as expensive as going to another european country for example; we have definitely never saved any money by staying in the UK, accomodation is more expensive here and the same for eating out, unless you are comparing it to a luxury resort in the Maldives...