Holidays

[Thepinklady77]

After two years, five holidays ( one in the UK and four abroad) we are in the final day of our first truly successful holiday - by that I mean escaping with only minor disagreement and no meltdowns. To get that though we have had to carefully stage manage every hour of every day. Previous holidays have seen very difficult bedtimes (screaming and aggression for up to an hour), at least one major meltdown a day and dinner time stresses. DH and I have been reflecting on what has been different this time!

1. same place (3rd time visiting) so very familiar but this time in a single room rather than a one bedroom apartment where children have been sleeping out of sight from us. We think our As5 needs to know that when he wakes he will see us lying right beside him.
   
   
2. clearly designed day time routines - breakfast, morning outing, lunch, downtime with tv/colouring, afternoon pool time, dinner, bed - no diversion from this.
   
   What have other people found to help with calm and relaxing holidays for all?

[jellycatspyjamas]

Not trying to do too much which for us usually means one day out and about and one day close to home. And we need to be near water - swimming pool, paddling pool my kids are water babies which helps regulate them if they’re struggling.

[Italiangreyhound]

We have been lucky and had some good holidays but we have had one that was a disaster.

"What have other people found to help with calm and relaxing holidays for all?"

We try and fit them very much around what works for the kids and we are almost 6 years in.

The kids used to like the beach, so we went near the beach. The kids used to like swimming so we went to a place with lakes to swim in. The kids love snow so we went to Lapland.

We have to allow a lot of down time in the hotel with the kids just recuperating. Our dd has ASD and that makes crowds a problem etc.

Food has been a major issue since both kids are very fussy! We took some breakfast things they liked and I'd now not travel far without mini boxes of cereal since they are so popular with my two!

It's been a balancing act and what they most enjoy seems to be things one could not predict! So a lot of it is trial and error, and not having too high expectations.

[Weekends]

Hi,

The same approaches mentioned in other posts have worked for us.
We never go away for long, and we do the same type of things at the same time of year, every year. This seems to help my LO know what to expect and when. The same goes, in general, for big days out and meet ups wherever possible, e.g. we usually go ice skating after Christmas. Spontaneity does exist, but probably not as much as in other families!

I often show pics before we go away. I learnt from arriving at a hotel in the dark one time. That wasn't a happy experience!