aibu to expect that if I'm sharing a bill for something I've attended with my children, I should pay child prices for them and not a per-head split?!

[Notmyidea]

have had this twice recently. At a Christmas meal where the dds ordered from a children's menu while adults had several alcoholic drinks and now mil is trying to arrange a family holiday cottage per head; same price for adults and the grandkids who will range from twenty year-old students to babes in arms.
I'm pretty sure I'm nbu but if anyone would like to help me formulate a diplomatic response I'm all ears.

[Isityouorme]

Babies don't count! We share the cost per adult. if there are specifc costs, such as £50 for cot then we ould pay that. It sounds quite strange OP in your situation but YANBU. Could you ask to split the costs differently. Eg If a family group goes to cottage costing £800, group consisting of a) PIL, b) SIL, DB and DC aged 12 and 5, and c) OP, DH, baby under 1, then PIL should pay £250, SIL plus DH and kids £300 and you £250.

[3smellysocks]

I think it would be better to charge per room or per bed in regards to a holiday cottage. Of course a baby in a cot in it's parents room shouldn't count at all. Can you email this suggestion around.

Child should only pay for child sized meal.

[CandyCrush]

I find this a lot and not only that but I am a single parent with one child and often end up paying the same as the other "families"- often 2 parents and 2 children.

[3smellysocks]

I'd also email MIL and say they need to split the meal bills more fairly, as the kids have cheap child sized portions and no expensive alcoholic drinks. Suggest working out a standard cost for a child's meal/drink and times it by how ever many kids are eating child portions. The remaining bill left after this is the amount to be split between the adults. Say you are happy to work if out.

[gordyslovesheep]

baby is still a person sleeping in a room though - seems fair to me if your family are going to occupy 2 rooms you pay for it

[SantasENormaSnob]

Re holiday cottage we always pay per room.

Eating out then the children shouldn't be counted as a head but nor should they be completely excluded from the bill.

When eating in a large group we often find it easier to pay for what our family has. We have 3 children so prefer it that way as we know we are neither scrimping on the bill nor paying over the odds.

[Hulababy]

For anything where there is a specific child cost - pay what you owe

For a cottage - it's normally a per cottage booking, no child prices. So spit according. We normally pay per room. So if going with grandparents - we would pay for 2 rooms and them one room - so 2/3 of bill.

[peaceandlovebunny]

you are right. they are children. if you pay full for them you are subsidising the adults. pay your own.

[honeytea]

I think yanbu about the meal, a kid's meal is much cheaper than an adult's meal.

I do think that after the age of maybe 1 a child should be counted as a full adult in holiday bookings. Even if they are going to be in the parent's room to sleep they will take up lots of the comunal space with toys and running around, also the noise a small child will make will affect the rest ofthe group much more than an older child/adult.

[Winterwalk]

Candycrush, do you mean you find this with holidays? If the couple with 2 kids are using two rooms and you are only using one by sharing with your DC then it's unfair to charge you both the same. However, if they are using two rooms and you are also using two rooms then an equal split is fair.

[ihearsounds]

Holidays we pay per room, or half room if say one of my dc's was sharing a room with someone elses dc we would pay half that room each.

Meals, always pay for my own. Gave up years ago splitting because its never fair. I don't think I should subsidize other peoples 3 course meals and copious amounts of booze.

[freemanbatch]

I think I must be being spoilt when I go on holiday with family because we always split by family so three families go and we each pay a third which means that mum and dad pay the same as the three of us and the four in my sisters family. I suspect its our parents trying to make sure we can afford a holiday though.

For meals I would always pay for me and the kids rather than an even split.

[AppearingDignified]

Always by room! We share houses for 4 weeks a year and ask for contribution on a room basis.

We then tend to share shopping per adult couple and don't worry about the kids. None of our kids are over 9 tho.

[houseelfdobby]

We pay for the whole house when we go away with friends/family then there are no arguments. Not always possible for everyone, of course. When we have been invited away by friends to their holiday cottages, we have not paid. Food: we tend to do a kitty - split in whatever way people agree is reasonable.

If this house party is being organised by your MIL then she should offer to pay for everyone. If she can't afford that then perhaps she should find something cheaper. Presumably, over time, other members of the family will return the favour and everything will work out.

[Justforlaughs]

Simplest solution for splitting the bill evenly when out with kids is to drink copious amounts of very expensive alcohol yourself. You may find that their attitude changes very suddenly.

I have never considered going away and sharing accomodation with anyone else because it all strikes me as too complicated. I would always advocate staying in the same area/ camp site/ hotel or wherever, but have your own space and also pay for what you choose. Value/ luxury caravan, tent, ensuite/ basic room etc. I think that you need to sort out some way of paying that everyone agrees with but if you can't then you have to decide whether you want the grief.

In my own family, we would always work out payment depending on how much people can afford, rather than what something actually cost, but that's us and I know that many people couldn't cope with that. It doesn't make us right or wrong, just what suits us and that's what you need to do with negotiation among your family. Good luck (sounds like you might need it )

[theoriginalandbestrookie]

For cottages when sharing we split by number of bedrooms. however next summer we are going away with SIL and family and they will use 3 bedrooms and us 2 but DH plans to split costs in half because we can afford a bit more and I am happy enough with that.

Not fair that meals split per head as you say childrens meals are cheaper and they don't drink alcohol. Having said that though although we do shared holidays, we don't do a lot of shared meals as it ends up being complicated but when we do I think we just pay for what each family ordered.

[poshfrock]

Went away with my family 2 years ago - 15 of us ( 10 adults, 5 children aged between 6 & 14). We did it on a per head basis. Worked fine for everyone. BTW we paid the most as we had 4 kids but couldn't think of a fairer way to do it.