Going on holiday is horrid

[CountTheStars]

With children under 5. Why do I do it? Why does anyone do it? It’s just stressful, expensive, stuff always goes wrong, the kids fight, get overtired & don’t appreciate any attractions or walks or planned trips out; they’re just as happy playing by a puddle in a fucking car park or throwing stones one by one down a drain.

No-one agrees on what they want to do with the day so you compromise & end up doing something no-one wants at all. For some mysterious reason you think it’d be a great idea to uproot the kids from a nicely established routine & a familiar environment where you’ve got everything under control to an unfamiliar place, where the beds & rooms are different, so bedtimes are a right effing drama & you get little to no sleep. The weather is traditionally shite (looking at you UK holidays) and you spend about 3 days trying to figure out how everything works in the new place. Plus the tortuously long car journeys there & back if you’re crazy like me & booked somewhere too far away.

Everyone breathes an audible sigh of relief to get home. Kids go and play with a puddle/drain, I can watch junk on Netflix in the evening, and everyone is happy.

I don’t think I ABU in thinking this about holidays with preschoolers because all I could hear when out and about where angry/exhausted parents, and pockets of screaming. No-one enjoys holidays with under 5’s, surely?

DH wants to go to an AI in Croatia next year. Was lovely when we went as a couple when I was pregnant with DD1 but our children will then be 4 and just turned 2.

I have said that I will go if he: a) pays for it all out of his disposable income, b) does exactly 50% of child supervision in the day, c) coughs up for two rooms so we can take it in turns to sleep with the children while the other has a lie in.

Funnily enough, he’s losing interest now.

All of our holidays have been uk self catering- and although I enjoy them (I love the seaside!) I agree that it’s same shit, different place re: cooking/making packed lunches etc. and I’d absolutely love to try all inclusive with kids!

Any recommendations?! 😉

Holidays with small kids aren’t holidays are they? It’s just parenting somewhere slightly less convenient and usually vastly more expensive than usual. That’s it. There’s no sunbathing or taking advantage of the all inclusive drinks/food. It’s just spending time fighting with your kids about sleep, eating, not moaning about it being too hot, sun cream, swimwear, having a drink……. I’d 100% rather stay at home

For those recommending AI, I would loke to try this but for a family of four during school holidays must cost at least 3k for a week?!

Exactly. I couldn’t even dream of some of these types of holidays ppl are talking about in response. The Maldives, travelling round Europe & stopping off at various theme parks……..great, if you have the wanga!

Think I’ll stick to my rainy UK holidays. Got a feeling this thread has become a bit of a holiday competition 🫤

@NoParticularPattern I sunbathed and took advantage of the food and drink.
No fighting about any of those things you listed.
The kids fell asleep when they fell asleep. No routine, we're on holiday.

Hols are great if you choose them

No competition here - single parent on low income but love holidays so have prioritised them (dc now have a hobby that's had to change that). Never been AI although I'm sure we'd love that too. They were born abroad so I was flying with one then both from infants. We are so busy in day to day life it's nice just being anywhere new, even self catering - having no schedule and cooking in a kitchen that's better and less cluttered than mine. Even when we go camping the showers are usually better than the one on my house so it's a treat 😆

@Punkypinky

Your experience of family holidays in your childhood was also mine. We camped, in the Lakes & Wales & I have great memories of those times but it must have been hard for my parents. I’m amazed at how hard they worked for us with very very little money. They couldn’t even afford a holiday cottage at that time so on reflection I feel very lucky to be able to do that with my kids.

Congratulations OP, you made the Mirror!

P.S I love holidays with my DH and kiddies!

@TheHaka @Mally100 I did similar to Spain last month with 3 kids aged 9, 6 and an 11 month old. Was hectic only because I was alone (thanks DH) but very good. Not my type of holiday but will do until eldest turns 12.

I think where you live also makes a difference to the price of holidays.

If you live in central London with access to 6 different international airports - who are also hubs for low-cost airlines - all within 1h on public transport, you have 20+ flights a day to Mallorca to choose from, and a similar offer for hundreds of destinations. Some of those will be very cheap.

Compare that to being a 3 hour drive away from Newcastle, your "local" airport, and being limited to three TUI flights a week. Any of those could easily cost £400 pp during school holidays because the offer is so limited, so suddenly your travel is four times the cost of those in London.

I just priced flights from Newcastle that would have cost me £400 for 3 of us where it would have been £1600 from either of my more local airports. I suppose you do have to be a bit flexible and look around but the Uk is pretty small and you're never that far from an airport.

Yeah, it can work the other way around too! But it does have a lot to do with how much offer there is in the first place, especially if we're comparing the same destinations. Some aren't even on a direct route outside of London, Manchester, and perhaps Glasgow.

Tbf the third kid makes a difference as its extra seat and pushes to into two rooms for lots of places

We never went on a proper holiday when dd was younger. We went for a weekend to Blackpool when she was 4- we had an amazing time.
Then we went abroad AI for the first time when she was 8. It was so good. The weather, the pool, the unlimited slushies.
Dd is fairly chilled out as standard. She's happy enough to go and get herself drinks from the bar, and go down waterslides without me having to go with her. So I can sit and relax while she has a great time. But also I love waterparks too, so I'm happy to throw myself down a slide and keep her entertained.

Maybe to you

Nail on the head in your last sentence. One kid is a world away from two, bouncing off each other and egging each other on. Ha the good old days of one kid sitting still and all that. Good times 😂

Remortgage your house and go to Sani in Greece. They even have beach nannies.

I love holidays with my 19 month old. I fear it may go down hill when he become a bit more aware he can say no to things.

We have always self catered in cottages in the UK. When the DC were little , I used to find it hard work, as at home, all the life admin stuff ended up still being my responsibility. Generally holidays meant doing everything I did at home but with less stuff.

DH could never understand why I might need to do washing on a two week holiday, we often used to get through three changes of clothes in a day when the DC were small, wet clothes, covered in ice cream or seagull poo or the memorable time DD rolled down a grassy hill over a cow pat !
The car journeys were always the worst part though.

I have 3 kids and I still love holidays with the kids!

They’re now 3, 6 and 8. We had a brilliant holiday with them at Easter. The first time we took the three of them overseas they were 3 months, 3 and 5. That was also brilliant. And we’ve had a bunch of great ones in between both in the UK and abroad.

I am no perfect mother and my kids are definitely NOT chilled out but we still manage to have a fantastic time on holiday. This thread comes up time and time again and I honestly can’t understand all the holiday misery on here.

It also depends on where you live as "oh we'd only ever going haul or nothing" is fine if in lean years you're an easy commute to the beach or similar for days out. If you live in say The Midlands then the scope for days out, esp if vyou don't drive, are limited to city stuff or the odd pretty town with a castle / river.