To ask for help designing a £5,000 prize?

[bewilderedwinner]

I am clearly BU by posting this here but I'm desperate for advice.

A couple of months ago I won one of the top prizes in a prize draw. The prize is for my child to win the "experience of their dreams", within the category of Transport and Technology (there were 4-5 other categories, which presumably other winners have been chosen for). The value of the prize is up to £5,000. So ostensibly, we could arrange for a trip to NASA, or a trip down Route 66, or, I don't know, a very expensive boat ride!

The thing is, my son is only just 4 years old. He doesn't really have a "dream" thing. He's OBSESSED with tools, building/fixing things, and he likes cars and other vehicles to an extent. Loves caravans and campervans. But how do we make that into a dream experience worth £5,000? Whenever I ask him what he'd like to do if he could do anything in the world, he just says, "play with my tools". Where would you go if you could go anywhere? "Gran's house". You get the picture. I suppose with covid his experience has been quite limited, and combined with being so young, he just doesn't know what's out there, and what fun we could have with 5k!

I'm a single mum earning less than £20k a year - this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to do something we'd otherwise never be able to afford. We both have valid passports in the same surname, but we have no contact with the other parent due to domestic abuse, so bonus points for ideas we can do within the UK, so I don't have to worry about the legalities of travelling, IYSWIM. For clarity, this is a bespoke experience we need to do, not a "thing", and there is no cash alternative.

Please help - what would you do?! All/any ideas would be gratefully received!

I'd take him to London for a week. Visit theTransport Museum. Visit the interactive sections of the Science Museum and the Maritime Museum. Make a bingo list of all the different types on transport and ride on them all - from Clipper boat down the Thames to the DLR driverless train, overground and underground trains, a black cab, top front of a double decker, cable car, rickshaw decked out in Christmas lights etc. Maybe even a helicopter ride if he wouldn't be scared.
You can also do a day trip from there to Diggerland in Kent where he can drive a crane and a tractor and to Legoland near Windsor where he could build his own model.
End with a trip to Hamleys to buy him a big Mechano set and some safe tools.

How lovely that you have won this. It sounds fantastic.

@FawnFrenchieMum

If you have passports and both have the same name you shouldn't have any trouble travelling. At most you just need to take his birth certificate to prove your his mother and have parental responsibility.

Unfortunately I don't think this is the case - taking his birth certificate would possibly be even worse, because then they would be able to see that there is another person named on there, from whom we don't have permission to travel! But you're right in that I think it's quite unlikely we'll be asked.

If he likes machinery you could try one of these
www.jcbexplore.com/experiences/

My dd doesn’t have contact with dad. I’ve taken her abroad several times and never been stopped

I would definitely go to Legoland in Denmark. He'd get to travel by plane and train, go to a different country, and visit Legoland.

If you are the resident parent you can take your child out of the country for up to 28 days without needing permission
www.gov.uk/permission-take-child-abroad

No you’ve got the law wrong.

There is nothing to say you need the other parents permission to travel. If you have residency then you have the right to take your child out of the country without permission for up to a month.

It’s only really when there’s different surnames that you have to prove you’re the parent.

You’ve been misinformed

X-post!

[quote Hathertonhariden]If you are the resident parent you can take your child out of the country for up to 28 days without needing permission
www.gov.uk/permission-take-child-abroad[/quote]
That, unfortunately, is only if you have a child arrangement order, which I don't have :-(

Have discussed it thoroughly with my divorce lawyer.

Thanks though :-(

I have a different surname to my son. I have a new partner with yet another different surname. The three of us have travelled abroad multiple times together without a single question. With the same surname you're very unlikely to have any issue.

@GaiusHelenMohiam

No you’ve got the law wrong.

There is nothing to say you need the other parents permission to travel. If you have residency then you have the right to take your child out of the country without permission for up to a month.

It’s only really when there’s different surnames that you have to prove you’re the parent.

You’ve been misinformed

I don't think I have been misinformed, but thank you :-)

It's all here www.gov.uk/permission-take-child-abroad

And same/different names have nothing to do with it...

I don’t have any kind of formal order and never been stopped. You can’t deny your child travel because Dad's a cretin

Do you have residency?

I used to take a copy of the residency order along with our passports.

I don’t know where abouts you are located, but could you fly to (for example) Scotland, do something there, then first class train home?

I don't have a child arrangement order, no. Nothing has been done through the courts relating to custody.

Honestly this isn't what I came here to discuss, I understand that it's unlikely we'll be stopped, but I also understand the law, although I am happy to take the risk, as many of us single parents have done.

Eurostar to Disney then train to legoland billund?? If it’s even possible by train. Amazing prize OP. I’d love designing this trip.

Helicopter ride to somewhere like legoland Denmark, train back?

I’ve never once taken any form of permission to take my kids abroad, and their dad is an arsehole of the highest order! I’ve once been question mildly when coming back into the country, but we have different names, they just asked my kids who I was and they said mum and that was that! X

Go to cape canaveral (so?) abs see the rocket garden it's awesome

@coronafiona

Go to cape canaveral (so?) abs see the rocket garden it's awesome

I LOVE this idea!

I knew you awesome people would come up with the goods!

You could book a sleeper train. They are quite expensive and definitely an experience.

The Kennedy Space Centre is amazing for all ages to be fair, there is a lot for children there. You can also have lunch with retired astronauts. I’d also recommend the NASCAR Speedway Hall of Fame in Charlotte.

I’d recommend a road trip up the coast of America (it’s about 8 hours between them). The Sourthern East Coast have some beautiful beaches. In North Carolina you can also travel around the Outer Banks. I’d go to Wilmington and see the boats there at Copeland Maritime Center and look at the retired battleships.