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.

Lowther Castle. Its amazing.

It's more than amazing at Lowther!

kids aged 10, 13, and 15, and I can confirm that our holidays include lie ins, family time, nice meals out and they even do their share of the cooking.

Blanking from my memory the early years where we kicked each other out of bed to deal with early risers and kids nagging to go in the pool from 6 am, and then not going to sleep at night

noword true.

I find the Lake District expensive with kids as they really will want to do the attractions like brockhole etc.

But the biggest issue you have imo is timing. We always go away at the start of the holidays when they’re still quite in school routine and we’re not all too fed up of each other. No more than one week into the start of the school holidays.

To be fair to them, it sounds like you took them on a shit holiday

They’d probably have rather stayed home too.

WiFi Wifi Wifi.....

Mind you, I would struggle without wifi too..

(I am on holiday as I type this)

Honestly not bragging, but we've had only Eurocamp holidays (8 now) and they've been great. Dc are now 12 and 8.

Plus points:
Children have total freedom to roam safe campsite with gang of friends, they love the independence.
Only moves we make on hols are to the pool, beach, or walk to town for ice cream/dinner
We get to sit still lots with a pile of books, sunbathe, read, drink wine and eat nibbles, bbq.
If they have walkie talkies they can be summoned for bbq tea
Everyone happy and tired by 9 pm.
Kids sleep well and get up 8/9 am.
Small sites fall quiet at 10-1030pm- bliss.
Everyone comes home happy and we are horizontal with the fact we haven't moved for a week or two!

Downsides:
Put on hold ideas of culture/sightseeing/nightlife!

Can't recommend them highly enough.

This year we threw in our first 'cultural' day trip to a beautiful French town- worked well. (Promises of eating patisserie, ice cream, etc.)

Only thing is- choose a small site so you don't lose the kids, or wonder where they are if there are 4 pools- less relaxing, if super fun.

Pool time can I admit be full on when they're little but this passes as they learn to swim.

Try Eurocamp!

Kids that age (and older!), can and do whinge, but it does get better as they age and each summer I find them just slightly easier than the last (mine are now 7 and 10). We had a great week's holiday with them in the Lakes this year, but they are old enough to do some reasonably short, fun walks and we were really lucky with the weather - it hardly rained at all. We loved the walks to Rydal Caves, climbing Gummer's How and up to and beyond Aira Force - all child-friendly - lots of stepping stones and scrambling and sense of achievement.

Other stuff they liked - lake ferry and Fell Foot Park on Windermere, the Lakeland Motor Museum (surprisingly fun), and I suspect they'd have like the Lakes Aquarium when they were the same ages as yours.

TBH, we always enjoy our holidays, but I am very mindful of what my kids like doing and I try to incorporate plenty of pool time, access to good adventure playgrounds, fun and challenging outdoor activities, museums that cater to a young audience and on things they are interested in (no art museums, for instance), and things like good zoos and aquariums. Beaches are also good, even if it's just for a walk out of season and anywhere they can climb inc. old castles, the Roman Forum, etc. They hate having to follow a path and not touch anything, so we avoid those kind of 'look, don't touch' places or keep visits short and followed by an ice cream or a playground.

Bamboo twenty two- totally agree. Stick to the base!

But the biggest issue you have imo is timing. We always go away at the start of the holidays when they’re still quite in school routine and we’re not all too fed up of each other

I think you are right. They are fed up of each other, fed up of me and dh. They aren’t sleeping well and are knackered.

To be fair to them, it sounds like you took them on a shit holiday

Thanks for that. Really making me feel good about myself. We have done quite a lot of kiddie friendly crap. I didn’t set out to give everyone a shit holiday.

Walks with my DD have always involved bribery. Usually sweets/chocolate. We have to walk so far then we can have another one. It gets her going.

But I think most years I have at some point or other had to pull her up for being awful. We've had several family rows on crazy/mini golf courses in various parts of Britain. She's only just 11 now so this hasn't been sulky teenager behaviour.

but I am very mindful of what my kids like doing and I try to incorporate plenty of pool time, access to good adventure playgrounds, fun and challenging outdoor activities, museums that cater to a young audience and on things they are interested in (no art museums, for instance), and things like good zoos and aquariums

Yeah we did that - plus two walks chosen to be kid friendly (scrambling, pond skimming and making little bridges into the water - which the kids did enjoy).

You can get holidays with full time childcare ;) Just saying.

But in reality...cheesy camp holidays with tons of kids entertainment and discos etc.

Mine are just getting past it and its great.

Next year.... have a look into ear putty and an aqua band if you would like to do a pool holiday- this works for my daughters ears as long as she doesn't spend ages under water.
This year..... rest assured they'll probably be telling their friends what a fab holiday they had by next week

Mine is 7 she is an only so we take holidays as just a family of 3 or go with extended family so her cousins can come and my parents. On our own we haven't had a bad holiday since she was 18 months old. We always self cater. It used to be holiday cottages but is now our touring caravan. I don't expect her to walk anywhere - I love to walk but she hates it so long walks are just a no no in our house. We did the lake district for along weekend last year and spent most of it at Lowther Castle which was next to the caravan park and had the most brilliant childrens play area. I find places like Haven are great - she can do kids activities and in the evening we can go to the entertainment and I can have a drink.

We abandon bed time and I just let her sleep in in the morning. After a few days she'll need an afternoon lying on the sofa in front of the TV to recover but that is fine by me too.

Holidays with her cousins are tougher. They are 8 and 4 and just fight with each other non-stop. to be honest a week with them puts me off holidays!

I guess some kids are just easier not to want to throttle than others when confined to a holiday destination!

See cheesy "entertainment" is just not for everyone. Nor is letting a child roam free at a Eurocamp - DS2 has sn so that is just not an option. You really have to think k about what works well for everyone.

I've really tried to think about what works for us as a family. We did a city break this year and two weeks sun. City break was fab for us all (5* hotel with pool - essential) and two week sun/pool which was less successful - long flight, villa only ok, too hot and too long.

The trouble is that things don't change just because you are on holiday. If a sibling is getting on your nerves at home, they're not going to do it any less in a different place. Young children don't behave differently away from home.

This is something that we adults forget - or try to deny! And because we've saved all year for our holiday we want it to be good and for everyone to enjoy it. But young children don't understand any of that.

I think it is about lowering your own expectations of how wonderful it will be. They will have good memories - they'll forget the whining, etc and remember some of the good bits.

Next year.... have a look into ear putty and an aqua band if you would like to do a pool holiday

We tried ear putty and a band a year ago and he just couldn’t tolerate it. It’s probably time to give it another go. I agree pool holidays are probably best for small kids.

Loads of presumption here!

We LOVED Lakes type hols as kids. Roaming up fells, playing for hours by becks with fishing nets and dam building, Primus stove by the lake to heat beans for lunch, go on the steamer, get a rowing boat.

Not all kids are keen on the cliched ‘pool’ holiday, and not all kids are averse to walking, scrambling, climbing.

My kids love the Lakes, have fine since they were 5. The eldest now go under their own steam to youth hostels.

And there are other threads saying kids are whining and fighting......on pool and holiday park holidays!

We go where there is a swimming pool. I get to supervise from a sun bed and the three of them are in and out of the water all day. My oldest (12.5) taught the youngest (4) to swim this year. We don’t fight and try and get them into bed have a leisurely dinner and hang out for a bit then all of us go to bed. Yes we had arguments but nothing threats to not allow them in the pool didn’t sort out. The four year old is never out of my sight and I’m lucky that the 9 and 12.5 year old swim well and would pull them out should there be a need. It does involve being in th water a lot. Didn’t read very much but we all enjoyed it.

MyBrexitUnicornDied I am 34 and I loved the Pencil Museum in Keswick when I went in March this year

Holidays with no DC and a HTB are just as bad. I have constant whining from HTB because he is "forced" to go to museums and educational visits out because I don't want to spend my days in a cabin/caravan/hotel watching football/rugby/whatever sport is on the tv at that time!

I second the suggestion of Eurocamp-type holidays (mentioned above). The freedom offered - kids can roam safely, go to clubs if they want to, make lots of friends - means that they have a great time and that the parents can relax. A lot of our kids best holiday memories involve Eurocamp.

How rude to say you took them all on a shit holiday! Not everyone goes to centre Parcs or similar. I went on many family hols to the lakes, and it was always February half term! My dad disliked crowds and it was cheap. We certainly went to the pencil museum.

My 5 year old (and 2yo) went on a 2 week expensive (for us) holiday to Spain this month. A non touristy and beautiful area. She infuriated me by asking when we could go to our local farm park.

I don't enjoy holidays with the kids. Had 3 days by the beach this year, that was sunny and nice and everyone enjoyed it. But mostly they're just happier at home and so it's less effort to have a really nice staycation and spend the holiday money on takeaways and stuff to reduce the chores. It's a bit boring but I spend ages on Pinterest looking at places in Thailand and imagining where we'll go when they're old enough to be left at home to really enjoy an exciting holiday.