to never go abroad on holiday again until the kids have left home...

[liath]

Have been out of the UK 3 times since having the dcs and even when it's gone relatively well there has been the unpleasantness of flying with small kids, endless queues, dodgy weather etc. We've had endless delays, missed flights, gastroenteritis & broken bones. I get back more knackered than before I left.

AIBU to want to spend every holiday between now and my youngest's 18th birthday at bloody Centre Parcs - at least I know the chocolate ice cream there is good.

Very wise. YANBU .

I don't even have a passport anymore - stops me harbouring any stupid thoughts of travelling with two small children!

Yanbu - We don't have passports for the exact same reason spongebrain!

YANBU
I am astonished that people take young kids abroad. I did it once and will avoid if at all possible from now on

Yay! I'm not alone - thought there was going to be loads of posts following mine saying how pathetic I was for not wanting to go abroad .

I am the only person I know with small children who has not yet ventured abroad .

Dodgy weather? Where have you been? I never found more dodgy weather than the uk, to be honest

YANBU in the least (but you are very brave to have even attempted it).

I know loads of people who do go abroad with very young children, and then they come back and tell you about all their mishaps - and I can't help thinking: Well what do you expect?

I even know someone who took a two-month-old baby on their skiing holiday - he got altitude sickness...

Having said that, last year we went abroad for the first time since having children, but we went by ferry, which meant we could pile everything in the car - much easier. We did the Portsmouth to St Malo overnight ferry crossing.

It was dodgy weather in Spain, Franca. Too hot (nearly 40 degrees some days) so the kids didn't want to go out and we were stuck in the holiday villa with them and hardly any toys....and my MIL....! I'm scared of flying too so always have plummeting-in-flames type nightmares before we go.

Sadly DH loves foreign holidays, it took over a decade of going out with him before I pursuaded him to take a holiday in the UK.

Oh gosh Liath, that sounds dreadful.
I hate flying too, I understand.

We have done loads of trips since our DC were really tiny - DH works away a lot and rather than being left behind, we would often go and see him. This is both short and long haul, all over. We all love travelling still, and although we now have to worry about school blooming terms, we do what we can. Last trip to the Far East, China and Japan - fabulous.

Not YABU more YABF ( feeble )

@ YABF!! I'll have you know I managed to manhandle both kids, husband with a broken arm, 2 sets of skis and 4 pieces of luggage back from our latest holiday "success" (and the flight was delayed and I had to drive all the way back to Scotland from Manchester airport) and I only cried twice and lost my temper once. How very dare you .

I'm surprised you've done it 3 times, considering.

Well, there's different kinds of abroad though, isn't there?

YANBU not to want to take children to a tourist trappy beach resort somewhere where it's way too hot to be out before 6PM, when you can have it equally trashy in Blackpool or elsewhere in Britain.

However there are fantastic places abroad, as well as in Britain and I think it'd be unreasonable not to want to show your children as much of the world as possible. Yeah, it doesn't matter whether that donkey ride on the beach is in Bridlington or Teneriffe, but that's not what going abroad is about.

My child will be taken abroad at least once a year, partly to meet her family, but also to see where mummy comes from, and by that I don't mean just the region, but showing her different areas - in the same way as we show her different regions of the UK, and, when we can afford it, also of other countries.

Is it the travelling with more than one child that is the problem? I've been all over with ds (5) - just the two of us. Africa three times, Caribbean twice, Europe several times. I did holiday cottages in the UK until he was 2 and by then I'd had enough of it and wanted to do the sort of holidays I'd done pre-ds. Haven't quite managed that yet but I reckon I will by the time ds is about 8.

We've taken our three DCs on various holidays successfully - first one was skiing when dd1 was 4 months (but we did go to a relatively low resort).
I think you need to consider the sort of holiday you & the rest of the family like.

We would never take ours on a standard beach holiday, as we don't like them ourselves. I find more active holidays work better, where there are things the kids like to do.

Also driving works better than plane, certainly until dc's are old enough to sit quietly for a couple of hours and able to deal with their own luggage.

If you like Center Parcs - they also have resorts in Holand, Germany etc which might be worth a try if you get bored with the UK ones.

YANBU.The very thought is scary. Holidays in Britain are bad enough.

I agree the UK from now on.

DS1 7 and DS2 3 after a HIDEDOUS holiday in Italy last Summer, illness, split open head, plane emergency landing, too hot, hotel on a lake steep edges all over the place, rickity lift to our room, long low windows that opened with a finger on the 7th floor, little one terrible in the flight there and back, contemplated driving home as the outward flight was so stressfull.

It was a wedding they were page boys we had to go.

NEVER AGAIN.

I wish I'd read this thread before I booked my holiday earlier on today.

YANBU - Come to the Isle of Wight, loads of beaches, nice countryside and a pace of life that left most of the mainland years ago.

YANBU - so what is it with everyone that they have seen it all in Great Britin?? Its fab here - so massively diverse in such a small area. Loving the sound of IoW!!

will show this to dp..... thanks all for eye opener

Wow, sorry to hear about all these bad experiences. Yes, I agree that traveling with small children can be very stressing.

We travelled quite a lot with very small children, mainly because we were living in the UK then and we wanted to visit our families and friends in Italy (our home country) as often as it was possible/affordable. To be honest, to survive months of wet weather in Devon, I needed a good number of weeks in the Italian 30 degrees weather ...

Yes, I remember very well how stressful it was to fly with an active small toddler (nightmare). Another time we drove to Italy, I arrived there with no voice as I'd spent 2 days singing and reading stories to entertain the children, I think we were the only family with no radio in the car (I then forced dh to get one).

But it was worth it, you know. Mostly because I learnt to pack lightly . And the children grow, learn to travel (and what to expect when traveling) and the more they grow the more pleasant it is to take them around and see them appreciate different things.