To think don't go to a family focused holiday place if you don't want to be around children!

[Familyy]

On holiday at a small apartment complex which advertises itself heavily on being family and young child friendly. The owners are very hands on and have been absolutely lovely with us and our DC one of whom is an 18 month old.

Anyway, today round the pool there was an older couple with no DC who sat by us on some sun loungers and then proceeded all afternoon to tut and look at each other / mutter to each other whenever our youngest made a noise. He wasn't bad, just a typical 18 month old. A couple of whinges throughout the afternoon, one short cry when he fell and then the odd shout / shriek when playing with his brother and dad in the pool.

AIBU to think why go to a place like this (it's all over their website and description on booking sites that it's for families) if you don't want to be disturbed by small kids and why sit next to a family with a small child even more so and then moan about it?!

There were other DC around too making more noise than us but our youngest is one of only 2 babies I've seen here so far (only a handful of apartments in the complex).

And AIBU to not make an effort to try and keep DS quiet for their sakes (when he's making normal toddler noise obviously I would if he was having a meltdown or something).

The algorithms on their search engine might have said 'great for people with no kids'. You just don't know.

I agree entirely - if I was lucky enough to get away without the kids I'd go adults only, no question. My sister (no kids) recently went to a Butlins and complained that the pool was kid-focused.... I didn't really know what to say.

Maybe they booked through someone else and the apartment complex was promoted differently?

You will get loads of replies telling you that you should keep your children quiet. But I'm with you, there are plenty of adult only places to go on holiday. Ignore the miserable sods.

Absolutely. It you don't want to be surrounded by kids don't go to family friendly places in the school holidays (unless a teacher and don't have a choice)

Maybe so but it's not really the problem of any of the families here.

Absolutely. I can be massively irritated by the noise made by children I don't know, but therefore wouldn't book to go to such a place. It's not rocket surgery.

I think if you're going on any kind of a holiday you have to expect to hear the sounds of people having fun. If it's a family holiday, some of the people having fun will be children.

Maybe they enjoy complaining and are having a great time?

Yes, if they were actively missold I guess I'd have some sympathy, but even so, these days having a Google of the resort is part of your due diligence. People who really don't want to encounter toddler noise should really go adult only.

I think the point the pp was trying to make was maybe they thought they were booking somewhere adult-friendly! I guess if you book outside school holidays (I guess it's borderline now as private schools have broken up and people seemed to be on holiday weeks ago around here, even though I am not in Scotland) you don't expect kids, but people forget all the parents with younger kids who are not tied to school holidays. I don't think there are that many places that are advertised as adults-only, but it's obviously better to avoid theme parks and Butlins.

Honestly if people are daft enough to think no English school holidays means no kids, that's nobody's fault but their own. Not only are preschool aged DC a thing, but most of the continent have broken up by now anyway.

Ugh. This happened to me once. We got moved from our quiet hotel we'd booked to another which was full of kids. Nightmare. They were up at 6.30 playing tennis on the courts behind our room.

Absolutely not being unreasonable - DP and I deliberately search out quiet places, without facilities that would appeal to families, and that are in the middle of nowhere. Of course you still could get families with young children pitching up but these places are less likely to appeal.

As we value peace and quiet on holiday we would avoid like the plague anywhere promoting itself as likely to appeal to families.

I dont like kids (didn't like them when I was one so wasn't likely to change my opinion), but we go to Haven sites a lot, which are obviously very child friendly. We only use it as a base and keep ourselves to ourselves but understand that kids will make a noise. TBF its quite nice to see them playing instead of them sitting on screens.

I can't understand why anyone would do what we do and complain about the kids, completely unreasonable from them

Had a group of old people tut at my toddler for making a happy loud noise on the prom once. I actually looked at them, laughed and rolled my eyes. Some people see joyless, enjoy your holiday.

Not the point but I really want to know where you’ve gone! Sounds perfect !!!

And no, I don’t think you’re being unreasonable!

@riesenrad I was assuming the OP is abroad. It is already school holidays for the majority of European countries by early July (including Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland). It's really only England and Wales still in school now. July is very much school holiday period in most countries

God yes op. These places were great when my children were young but now I avoid them like the plague. You can filter now on most sites for adults only, why on earth would they not do this?

YANBU. You’d be surprised how very few people research their holiday or where they are going. Some people rely entirely on brochures, maybe never even read reviews etc. my sister in law is very like this.

I noticed a couple like this on our recent hols … they’d bagsy a couple of sunbeds by the toddler pool then sit there with faces like smacked arses when the kids were running in and out shrieking 🤷🏼‍♀️

That's why we go to adult only places- I like kids a lot but my H prefers the vibe at adults only now our son is 24. ! With regards to school holidays- Gatwick on Tuesday night was full of school age kids with parents and without trying to sound snobby - poorly behaved feral ones too creating pandemonium. What's the crack with that? Do schools not care about kids being away from school anymore? , or do parents just say they've got covid !

This reminds me of a time when I took my DC to the flumes session at a local pool during half term. The wave machine came on and there was a po-faced woman standing in the middle of it moaning that children were splashing water about 😂😂