Never Leaving the country again for holidays!

[AppleIsMyName]

We've been going on holidays with DS since he was 3 months. Always long haul flights and he was a always a pleasure to fly with, sleeps throughout the entire trip. Our last trip before covid stricked he was 8 months and again, a dream to fly with.

FF to our first holiday post covid (he's just turned 3) and he was nothing short of a nightmare. I was very nervous as to how how would react with flights so we decided to do a "tester" and take him on a shorter flight within Europe instead a long one. It was still horrible. We were that annoying family with the screaming child that everyone probably hate (no one said anything but I'm sure they all thought it). I just wanted to hide under the seats from embarrassment. The episode lasted about 10 minutes I think (felt like 8 hours) Didn't even know why he was screaming and he wanted to get off the plane mid air.

During the holiday we were constantly running behind him to stop him from hurting himself etc, he gets bored easily so we have to be on the go 24/7. We tried to make the best of it but it was so hard to relax and I couldn't wait to get home. (thankfully coming back he slept all through) That's cuz he was prob tired from being so naughty at the airport!

I've decided never to leave the country again as a family until he get older for my own sanity. Tough decision cuz we love travelling together as a family but it was just too much.

Prior to having kids I always wondered how people holiday with children, it didn't look hard but boy was I wrong.

So my question is what's the point of holidaying with kids if you're not going to enjoy and relax? (ps. I know not all toddlers behave like mine, I think God gave me an exceptionally naughty lil boy LOL)

Mark Warner holidays are brilliant with DC and if they are pre school then it's loads cheaper outside the school holidays. June is perfect.

Yep, some people have utterly unappealing holidays.

but I suspect budget will drive a lot. if you can’t afford abroad, then limited to uk camping. So yes - I imagine even you would suck that up for your child of the only Opp for them to have a holiday.

fact is… camping holds bugger all appeal to me , but if I didn’t have £4 to spend on AI beach front hotel abroad, I’d take my children on a holiday I could afford and that probably would be “child centric”. But at least you knew you were doing it for your child and make the best of it and get pleasure through it that way

£4k!!

You have exactly the same attitude as me. And as a happy side effect, I have children with at least a rudimentary knowledge of some subjects like history, art, design or religion that didn't come from school work. Just to give one example, we visited and marvelled at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris only weeks before that awful fire. My children genuinely mourned and understood what had been lost in a way they never would have had we confined ourselves only to 'beaches and pools' holidays. The latter are fine in and of themselves, are enjoyable to an extent but it is also surely valuable if you are going to use precious money and time to travel to learn and experience more than which hotel pool has the best slide. Or at least you can know that but also know that the church in the centre of the town has a beautiful ceiling that dates back 500 years.