Should kids go on holiday abroad every year?

[TillyTooms]

To grow up well rounded or is it just a nice luxury to have?

Before having kids I imagined we'd be jetting off every year like I did pre kids however having a neurodivergent child has meant I'm not able to work as much as I could previously and our income has seen a reduction.

We have a comfortable income and can do days out and pay for my daughter's hobbies but not enough to jet away every year.

I know this sounds like a stupid question but I just feel like I've let them down somehow.

You can spot the kids who fly frequently by how great their behaviour is while travelling

How big a trip are we talking?

Some people on here seem to think a holiday is costing several grand via a package to a hotel that's all inclusive and fingers crossed we don't get food poisoning.

Others are happy with a car ferry to France and others camping and so on.

If you are happy to drove abroad that will open up many more possibilities.

There are lots of ways to get around this, short city breaks, book as soon as flights open up, and find b and bs?

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Bollocks.

Not bollocks at all look at the DCs in first on any flight, they are always calm and happy to sit still. The parents are used to it to so bring the right equipment and know how to manage jet lag. It's just like 11yo Londoners know how to use the tube- just practice.

Bwahahahaha!

You certainly don't have to fly do go abroad. And if families just stay in compound by the pool, etc- there is NO cultural aspect at all.

The word 'should' in the OP, is truly bizarre.

Train in Europe is increasingly popular. Kids love it- you can move around, watch countryside, play games.

I thought I'd done alright with my UK holidays as a child, but the later reclassification of these as staycations has annoyed me far more than semantics should, so that's probably my lack of well rounded-ness showing right there 😂

Yep, correct. Anything that they do frequently, they’re more likely to be well behaved at. It’s practice as you say, just becomes second nature. Yes they’re still kids but they’re much more likely to behave better - not be one of the kids you see having a tantrum because they don’t want to keep their seatbelt on etc

It’s utter bollocks.

Do you actually think that ‘on a plane’ is the only time children can learn to ‘sit quietly and behave themselves’?

No on a train? A bus? In the classroom? The cinema? The doctor’s waiting room? Grannies house? a restaurant?

And a plane is the only place parents can learn how keep their kids appropriately engaged in something?

That’s such a stupid proposition.

You seem to be missing the point that children who are on airplanes more often will behave better on airplanes. At no point did I say that they can’t learn to behave anywhere else, it was in response to someone saying they are waiting to fly when their kids are ‘less feral’. My 5 year old has never been badly behaved on a plane, because she is very comfortable with the environment. HTH

It's not sustainable for everybody in the world to go on a foreign holiday every year. I'd rather our kids have an inhabitable planet to live in when they grow up so we don't go abroad every year even though we could probably afford to. I'd say we go abroad every 2-3 years to somewhere you can get to by train or ferry.

You seem to be missing the point that

children who are on airplanes more often will behave better on airplanes

Is rubbish.

All children can behave well/badly- how they are on a plane is indicative of their usual behaviour and their family culture.

Ok, we don’t have to agree, but that’s my experience.
Just like how children who have gone to the cinema a lot behave better in the cinema. Children who have a dog behave better around dogs. Children who go to swimming lessons behave better around swimming pools. It’s common sense, but whatever helps you sleep at night!

I'm 50 this year I've never been abroad.
My children have been on caravan holidays in the UK and for a few years pre covid we had a couple of stays with family in Scotland. Oh has been unable to work for the last 3 years due to ill health and even with benefits we are surviving on 1.5k a month less than we had when he was working. I'm hoping that I can afford to take them for a few nights in London in the 6 week holidays to visit eldest who went to uni there and then never came back.

It’s a wonderful luxury, I’m pleased my DC have inherited my love of travel. I have taken them to around 45 countries and now they go on trips with their friends or do solo trips.

Of course not! My kids are now adults and with us didn't go abroad much at all for holidays. We did a lot of camping in the UK with groups of friends which they loved and arguably made them more "well-rounded". We have been on 3 proper holidays abroad in the 20 years since we had kids then 3 smaller trips to France. Now DD is an adult she has been on a couple of holidays in Europe with her boyfriend and she will hopefully continue to travel as an adult as it is absolutely a great thing but it is of course a luxury.

I tend to agree kids who have more practice at anything do it better on average but vast majority of kids that fly will only do it once or twice a year so it’s reaching a bit to say it’s familiar and they will therefore be better behaved than someone flying for first time.
Most kids I’ve seen on flights have been pretty well behaved on the whole but I’ve seen as many total horrors in business/in lounges as on jet 2 holiday flights

Well at least proportional to the number of kids I’ve seen generally in business/lounges vs holiday flights

I think experiencing different cultures and appreciating that things are different abroad is very important.
Does it need to be a two week holiday abroad every year? No.

I accidentally said something controversial the other day on a Facebook holiday group. A man was asking what people do about possible fines you could get when taking kids out of school. I said we only go on holidays in the school holidays. Well that seemed a very unpopular opinion. I mentioned that it’s more expensive but I think it’s worth it for their education and would just not travel as often. Apparently that meant I wasn’t making memories with my children, they would be uncultured and I was just teaching them the only way to live was stuck to a desk day in day out! This was news to me. I use almost all my holiday time with my children (not taking time off by myself/with hubby/friends) and if we don’t go abroad we just do things in this country, or at home! I think it’s time together that’s important, not going abroad. And there is so much to learn just within a couple of hours from home.

Not so, the children of wealthy bankers or pilots for example could easily fly 5 or 6 times a year. A family we know well for example did: holiday home in Mallorca may half term and again in July, the states to visit friends in August, Carribean in January, Italy for Feb half term and Australia at Easter. Of those only the Australian trip was considered a " big holiday" or remarkable in any way.

How is something that you need large amounts of money for not a luxury?

Nope. Children who have been taught to be well behaved (and don’t have any other issues going on with them) are generally well behaved, and those who haven’t, aren’t.

You seem to be missing the point that children who are on airplanes more often will behave better on airplanes. At no point did I say that they can’t learn to behave anywhere else, it was in response to someone saying they are waiting to fly when their kids are ‘less feral’. My 5 year old has never been badly behaved on a plane, because she is very comfortable with the environment. HTH

Lol. My 9 and 6 year olds have never been on a plane but I have no doubt they would behave themselves. Partly because they are old enough to sit still and understand that they need to, but also because I have put a lot of work into managing their behaviour so they know how to behave in public. We hardly ever go to the cinema, but when we do go they behave nicely.