To never take my children on holiday again.

[MyBrexitUnicornDied]

Argh. So pissed off. Kids are 7 and 4, have taken them to the Lakes for a supposedly fun week.

The 7 year has done nothing but whine, the four year old keeps dissolving into temper tantrums. They aren’t sleeping well at night but are still up early in the morning.

I’ve had enough, I normally take loads of pictures on holiday but there’s hardly any on my phone as there aren’t any I really want to remember.

I’m seriously considering no holidays for the next two years at least.

6 and 8 are the magic numbers. That, and we either ignore or mercilessly take the piss out of whiny 6 yr old until she stops. This is the first year i haven't threatened to go by myself next year.

You need to take them to a caravan park with cheesey entertainment for the next few years

Yup, that's what we did. Somewhere to go in the evenings and plenty of space to run around during the day. Save the proper holidays for when they're past the age of enjoying party dances with 8ft tall squirrels.

It definitely gets better! We camp for a week in the New Forest every year, have done for the last 19.

The years before children were fabulous, when we had one who was just 6 weeks old, it was easy enough, the next year we had a one year old and I was in the first trimester and about a 5 minute walk from the toilet block, so less fabulous.

The following year, we had a 4 month old (easy) and a 2 year old (needing constant entertainment), so it was busy, but still fun.

Ages 1 & 3 - busy.

Ages 2 & 4, starting to become a little bit like hard work.

Ages 3 & 5 to 7 & 9 - miserable. For all concerned.

Ages 8 & 10 - 70% fun, 30% Whinge Central.

9 & 11, completely wonderful! So good in fact, that we stayed an extra 3 days! They could go off on their bikes for hours at a time, the eldest had a phone with a tracker so we knew where they were and they could call us in an emergency, plus we could arrange for them to be back at the tent at a certain time. swing ball kept them busy for hours, they read, played cards, made friends with other kids and generally left us to read and chat - I can't wait till next year! Of course, it's only 2 years till we'll have a teenager so perhaps 2018 and 2019 will go down in our family history as "The 2 years when we all enjoyed our family camping holiday"...

Holidays with whingey kids can be soul destroying, I agree with PPs - take them where there are other kids they can play with and take it in turns with other parents to watch over them.

Go to a campsite with a big play park. Camp right next to it so you can see your kids, sit and drink wine. I highly recommend Blacklands Farm in Henfield for this and my son only cane back when hungry or thirtsty. All the campsite kids played together.

Have you tried the leisure pool in Keswick?

We go for a LONG AFTERNOON DRIVE. They sleep for 1-2 hours. They are similar ages to yours and only do this on holiday. We wouldn't survive without these naps. Sometimes we even manage a quick pint in a pub garden! ( we know one where we can park next to a bench under a tree).

Ages 3 & 5 to 7 & 9 - miserable. For all concerned

I’m liking the rest of your post betsy I seriously think we might give next year a miss. Wait for them both to get a bit less demanding before trying again.

Stupid thing was I was trying to convince dh to do Euro Disney next year. It’s safe to say we won’t be going.

Would love to do a hotel & pool type thing but the 4 year old has issues with their ears and can’t go in the water.

I threatened them with the pencil museum in Keswick but they said they wanted to go - weirdos
The pencil museum is great, don’t criticise places you have not been to.

We go for a LONG AFTERNOON DRIVE. They sleep for 1-2 hours

Fuck that. The little devils don’t sleep anyway. Bitter experience has taught us that a nap in the day leads to very awake children at 11pm.

The pencil museum is great, don’t criticise places you have not been to

Apologies, there was a after that to indicate it was a joke, you have to admit “Pencil Museum” does not sound thrilling. Plus it’s given you the opportunity to correct me and give them some publicity.

Personally I’m planning that until my kids are 8 or 9 their holiday will be a “fun week with grandma” while we go relax. I may indulge them a visit to London to see the museums before then.

Might because we only have one ,but the looked down upon AI holidays worked a treat with DD as do long weekends at adventure parks. Expensive but no one is crying during it.

Take them to the cocoa bean factory in Hawkshead where they can make their own chocolates & shut up for an hour or two

I could have written this! My children are also 7 and 4. I had a small breakdown, induced by their whining, a few days into our holiday to France, and told them I was never taking them on holiday again. Things did improve; I think excitement, sleep deprivation etc played a big part. A quiet day and some early nights combined with the threat seemed to improve things. Now back, I’ve secretly booked a holiday for next year . I hope the rest of your hol improves!

Try www.real-family-holidays.org/ and in particular the one in Margam, South Wales. Near beaches, theme parks, an adventure playpark and animals 20m from the door, loads of kids to play with, activities, food and ensuite accommodation for about £30pp per night. Four or five days maximum. Took five and eight year old and both loved it. Also took kindle for downtime in evenings.

I've got a 3,5,10 year old, we did a Eurocamp holiday for a week and they were brilliant. Now on day 4 of our holiday in Devon and they argue, moan, complain. My 4 yr old moaned as she didn't want to go on the beach today it's too sandy. Despite her loving the beach on the Eurocamp holiday 🤦‍♀️

Does anybody have older children? I am hopeful that once they are over 8/9 holidays become actual holidays

Ummm, there may have been a few years where it became “more bearable”... but the prolonged wingeing this year about who’s turn it was to use the only charger/ who wasn’t sleeping on the camp bed tonight/ wanting to go home to play on fortnite and constant ‘can I have?’ must have wiped it from my brain.

Holidays at that age are whinge central

We gave up trying and just did butlins/ pontine Type stuff till they grew out of it. (Age 37 jk)

You have to do holidays that kids enjoy if you want them to be happy.
DD and I both dislike long walks, this has traditionally been DH's go to activity...now we stay behind and sleep, read, or mooch about, he goes for a long walk. Everyone is happy.
Second the idea of camping on a site with good play facilities, we did this with DD in North Devon, had a great time.
Short activities, small museums are your friend. I think one of the best places for child friendly breaks is Anglesey. Lots of little attractions, lots of beaches, frequently favourable weather.

It is differently fun (!) with young teens. Mine will climb a mountain with some pre-walk whinging and plenty of snack breaks and will - to an extent - humour me when I suggest "fun" outings, but the older one refuses to do anything before 11am because she neeeeeds to sleep. And there is certainly plenty of brattish behaviour. But at least it isn't quite as soul-crushing as those earlier years - we only ever went away with cousins during that period so at least they had friends to play with. And now I can enjoy some down time - in fact, they'd happily let me read all day if it meant they could Instagram/YouTube in peace!

I'd love to go to lakes love walking

Will never go with kids, they'd ruin it and not enjoy it

They enjoy hot all inc hotels with pools interesting food cultural trips shopping etc so we do that

I'd rather be at home than something the children didn't enjoy. I'll do hols purely for us once kids leave home when I'm late 40s. Enjoy the kids and have fun with them. Life's too short.

Mine are 14 and 12 now. Think the best holidays have been between older one being 7 and 11 or so. Now it seems no one wants to get out of bed in the morning

I'd love to go to lakes love walking

We only did two walks. Picked for points of interest for the kids- rock scrambling, tree climbing and pond skimming (which they enjoyed, the whining started in the car).
We have actually done quite a lot of kid friendly stuff that I mentioned earlier in the post.

Honestly I’ve not taken them on a weeks walking holiday. There has been a massive attempt at kid friendly stuff (mentioned earlier). Lots of trips to play grounds to let them find friends and play.

Thanks for that link haggis looks great.

Most of our holidays when they were little had other children there - cousins, mostly- who were slightly older and essentially babysat. We started on UK country holidays when they were 10, 8 and 3. Mostly they've been fine. We usually have other people there as a distraction, and find bribing mechanisms (dinners out etc). They don't mind walking, especially if it becomes a challenge, eg bet you can't do 6 miles to X, etc. Now they're older they do things like surfing, mountain biking etc which they love and keeps them quiet for a day or 2. It does get better, and I bet you next year they'll ask to go back to the Lakes and you'll be

Adjust your expectations. Do something they like, divide and conquer, then you have a chance of enjoying at least half an hour a day.

Autistic children adjust your expectations for you rather quickly!