Need a bit of a hand hold please, feeling low just left holiday early…

[indigopoodle]

We've Just got back from a very short and not so sweet holiday to northern France with the kids.
I have to say I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it anyway because of DC1 aged 5’s behaviour during the summer hols, he’s just been really difficult and DH and I both agreed it was going to be tough going.
I have been feeling pretty low for a good few months now as well, mostly due to life stresses of dealing with 2 young kids plus working (DC2 is 2), but also because I suffer with depression and anxiety anyway and currently seem to be experiencing a low in general; which also means I struggle with sleep more.

So we headed off on our holiday and made our way to the campsite. Our plot was situated directly next to the swimming pool and entertainment stage, you couldn’t get any closer than that. The water slides looked over our decking area so we had groups of kids queuing up the stairs looking over us. The pool closed at 8 and the evening entertainment went on until gone 11pm which we discovered the first night. We spoke to people who were situated further down the campsite and they said that they could still hear the music loudly and they adjusted their children’s bedtime. We tried to do this on the second night by keeping them up late but of course they got up usual time the next day and then became difficult mid afternoon through being so tired. The pool was pretty cold, it wasn’t very warm and the weather was turning bad so we decided to leave 2 days early.

I feel so bitterly disappointed by this whole situation, I’m angry with myself for not being able to relax more and go with it. But we are so run ragged after a day with the kids that our quiet evening chatting and having a drink is like total therapy. When we realised we couldn’t have a quiet evening it all just went downhill and felt like the total opposite of a holiday. What a waste of money…

We just left ours with a load of fruit shoots, a phone and told them not to answer the door

I sympathise OP. We had our fair share of disappointing holidays when our DC were young too. At least you could leave early. Not really possible when you're on a package holiday to Spain.

Sympathies op. Had some challenging times with young children on holiday and it sometimes doesn’t work out. At least you could go home a bit earlier.

I appreciate you're having a difficult time but you went there with already a really negative attitude and made no attempt to make the best of it. Those really aren't major issues in the grand scheme of things.

Holidays with young children can be hit and miss; it's often hard to predict especially with weather variables

I don't think there's anything wrong with coming home early; I remember coming home early from family holidays when I was little myself because of bad weather. You've not fallen for the sunk cost fallacy.

It's miserable when it goes wrong but try not to blame yourself as that will add to your low mood.

Easy for me to say maybe. I think it's worth an appointment with a gp about how you're feeling. Been there, was a bit nervous of going but the subsequent therapy I had 20 odd years ago has helped me whenever I've needed it in the years since.

We've done eurocamp often, sometimes we've had an amazing spot, others not so much, but all the sites have been great overall. We did complain one year as we were right by the busy road out and it wasn't safe for our toddlers to play (they apologised they were unable to move us but they gave us £200 refund on a £700 stay so were more than reasonable), we adapted and just spent less time in the accommodation than we usually would - sorry you had a crap time, it's easy to get overwhelmed by any minor inconvenience when holidaying with young kids and I've definitely been there but you learn to relax and just accept it for what it is. The kids have amazing memories of even the holidays me and DH remember as being really stressful!

Children don’t care where they go on holiday so long as there are things to do and they are having fun.

I’ve taken mine on long haul amazing holidays and they’ve had more fun going down to Devon, Scotland or Wales.

Where do you live? There’s Devon, Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and north Norfolk to explore. Surely one of them is within 2-3 hours?

In future I’d just go here in the UK and have less hassle. The weather is getting better here, there’s no need to go away for sun now.

Honestly the best holidays for some young children , in my opinion, are caravan parks in the UK, once older you can get more adventurous, but to give you all a break, I would go for a Haven type break for a few years