To not have attempted to go abroad yet

[eatery]

I’m just not convinced it would be enjoyable with two under 5s. Am I wrong, or would it just be SSDL?

Ahhh, I get it now. Thank you!

You are so wrong. I only started staying at proper hotels with food and facilities (rather than back packing) when holidaying with DS from about 4 years old. Is frikkin awesome.

Wake up, eat breakfast made by someone else.
Sunbathe at pool.
Go to zoo or whatever. Come back to clean room and dinner made by someone else etc. etc. etc.

What's not to like?

I mean you do you!
but I don’t ever get the argument same shit diff place

we took kids away loads since a few weeks old

it’s always good - no laundry - no house work - no life admin -no work - no cooking

just time together without the stress of normal life

We drop the routine and kids can sleep whenever wherever

no bedtime drama and stress about time 🤷‍♀️

take turns having a break / lie in whatever

I guess it’s more the being out of routine. Strange food, heat, water stress, feeling like you should be enjoying yourselves but chasing children around …

Going on holiday with my kids is my fave thing ever. Go to a nice all inclusive with a little that has a little splash pad/ pool aimed at younger kids. You can sit on the side with an iced coffee in the sun and watch them have the time of their lives!

Op, I get the feeling nothing anyone says is going to convince you it’s doable and can be great fun. You just seem to have such a downer in the idea that your posts reek of doom and gloom.

I’m just jealous! It would be a struggle to afford it and so can’t really risk it

Really depends on your kids. Ours doesn't eat or sleep, and is a grumpy terror the whole time. We live abroad and have done trips home since birth, but it hasn't improved yet.

I suppose I associate holidays abroad with freedom and chilling and realistically couldn’t do that with young kids.

We took ours from 18 months. It's SSDL to some extent but if there are two of you and you genuinely share the load you can enjoy it. One on duty taking full responsibility whilst the other chills.
Also it probably depends whether your idea of a holiday involves sightseeing and travelling or fly and flop.
For me it's fly and flop. I recommend a very family friendly hotel with two bedrooms. Then you can put them to bed and close the door. During the day don't be too ambitious about what you do. A morning on the beach and afternoon by the pool.

There were some stressful parts in among pure delight and the memories and photos are great.

Sure, some of these things can happen. And more likely to if you set out with the mindset it will be awful.

So they wat chips and ice cream for a week because that's all they like? Worse things happen. It gets hot here too. Find somewhere with a children's pool. It's all good.

I will never ever go on holiday with a toddler again. Babies fine, school age kids fine. That 1 to 4 age group nope id rather stay home

Oh it's a brilliant age for going away!

Sorry, what does SSDL mean?!

So same as every other day no matter where you are?

Go to an all inclusive, sit on the beach and enjoy the sunshine.

We go abroad 3 times a year with our 3 boys (5,10,12) - youngest was middle one at 2 months and that was long haul. Honestly once you get into “family holiday” mode you’ll have fun. We’re mainly all inclusive , kids club, mini disco vibes still. Older two loved a kids club so we got time to relax then. Younger one not as keen but older brothers are both club swimmers so happy with them in pool so just takes one adult to watch all 3 so the other has a break. We’ve always made sure we have some time alone to either exercise (my husband) or read (me). Divide and conquer! Yes some of same shit but don’t have to cook, clean, wash clothes and the sunshine / being outside all day is fab.

We haven't yet. Part of that is financing a abroad holiday and also the fact we are all audhd. Mine need down days and calm environments. It seems bonkers to me to spend thousands when our holidays can be so hit and miss. We've had ones where they all got neurovirus. where they've needed to not leave the accommodation for a few days. I'd rather spend 500 and hope for the best than I would thousands.

As already answered on page one - same shit, different location.

A way of people making the very idea of holidays miserable and claiming that nothing you can do on holiday, none of the pools or castles or beaches or parks or anything else you enjoy doing is worth it because you also still have to feed your children and put them to bed

Haha this is my suspicion, manageable with one but not two or more

It's already been answered in the thread, but it means same shit, different location.

I have 3!

It isn’t that @DappledThings . I think I’d just be following a child around a beach or pool or something literally all day, they’d be hot and overtired and grumpy, they wouldn’t eat well apart from a thousand ice creams, stress of sunburn, they wouldn’t sleep well, I don’t know, I’ve never done it. Part of me would like to but I don’t think we can afford to lose the money of something potentially non enjoyable.

It really depends how important going abroad is to you OP (and since you haven't done it for five years I'm guessing it really isn't). For us, it was, and DH and I are from different countries, so travel was just a part of our lives. But I really don't see the difference between going to a caravan park in Cornwall or a caravan park in France in terms of SSDL. It's all being on holiday. The location is just personal preference.

We didn’t bother to go with two of them until the youngest was 6.5, not worth the faff.
We did go when we just had one DD, when she was 2 (for a family wedding, short flight and lots of family on hand to help), and also when she was 3 mainly to get value out of her passport.
Children are happy with a bucket and spade on a UK beach anyway, they have no concept of what country they’re in.

Depends on what you enjoy!

Some of my favourite overseas beach holidays with kids were when they were under school age. Content with playing in the splash pool/beach, long naps, snacky tea early in the evening and then a walk along the seafront in the buggy to put them to sleep before a later adult dinner time. Transfer them to bed when we went to bed.

Wonderful times.

Budget (and school age kids as well as little kids) means almost all of our holidays are touring caravan holidays. Much much harder work for me, but the kids mostly love it. I’d rather do several caravan holidays per year and an abroad holiday every 5+ years than just an abroad holiday every 2 years or so, which I think would be how the budget fell. We manage that many caravan holidays because it is our caravan though, so we’re not paying holiday park prices for a static.

Times will change again. Recently I have done a European city break with the older kids. I can see short breaks with just some children becoming the new norm because the older ones don’t want the same as the younger ones are capable of. Everything keeps changing!