'Rent-a-friend'! Taking kid's mate on holiday- good idea or millstone round your neck??!

[unpaidcleaner]

Friends of ours have only kid (f)aged 9. they're thinking of inviting one of the girls friends on holiday with them next year. my initial thought was 'eeek - what if they get landed with paying full cost of extra child (airfares/extra accommodation/ as well as board, activities etc. and what if the kids then fall out on Day 1 and it's a disaster & their holiday's ruined???' Seemed like a minefield to me. But they find it hard going if its just the 3 of them all the time, and the girl's too old for kids clubs and the like. Am i just a doom-monger? What do other people think?

No, I think it's a good idea.

Good idea. MUCH easier with 2 to play together ime. Which is one of the reasons I've always been such a big inviter of friends to tea.

9yos won't fall out on day 1 and if they do they'll jolly well have to sort it out.

I've done it twice, with DD and DS. Both were wonderful. Do it, but work out costs first.

I put the proposal to the other parents... airfare, accommodation, costs like food etc and then asked them if they wanted me to put their kid on our travel insurance.

It was no hassle at all.

God i couldn't bear having other people's kids with me for days.Happy to take cousins but noone else.

omg never! other people's kids 24/7

I think it's a great idea, especially at that age. My nearly 9 year old dd has just spent a whole holiday missing all her friends and being mean to her younger brothers. The whole thing would have been so much easier if she'd had someone to hang out with.

I'm going to the forest tommorow with my four and two extras. I'm really looking forward to it.

I took two of my sister's kids to a summer camp in the States for weeks before I had children.Oh,and worked there for months to pay for it.

What a bloody great aunt I was (am).

I really hope it's a good idea! It's a little pipe dream of mine for when DD is a little older and realises we're a pair of old farts who aren't really that much fun to play with. Or a pair of old farts who USED to be fun to play with but whose knees have given out due to excess mucking about with a 3yo.

Go on holiday with another family. Each set of parents has responsibility for their own children. All children play together and don't get bored.

God,holidaying with another family would be even worse.
Are people so bored by their own family's company?

My parents used to take my little sisters best friend on hols, then the friends parents would take my little sister with them. I grew up having 3 sisters to run amok with on hols but we had all left home by the time the youngest was 9. As she went into her teenage years it was fab for her to be on hols with a friend - I heard one year in Italy a cycle touring club of young attractive men was in the hotel across the way and many evenings were spent hanging over the balcony chatting them up.. she could hardly have done that with my mum sat with her!
If I only had one child I would def take their friend on hols as long as either the other parents fully reimburse you, or take yours on a reciprocal holiday later on.

I think it's one of those things that depends on personalities - like foreign exchanges (notorious millrace) eg. Do your friends plan to do some small practice runs - take friend on a weekend's camping trip, something like that? Would think that was essential!

Interetsing - we are struggling with this question for next year when the DC will be are 10, and 8 and more fun for them than just bruv who they play with all the time Will probaly do, but after a few sleepovers first to ensure kids not a complete nightmares, and get them used to our style. Also, need to be similarly matched in eg swimming ability and things they are allowed to do... 9 probably a good age for your DD - I would have loved to have a had a girl friend to play with on hols instead of only my pesky little brother...

'notorious millrace' ??

Que?

moondog, disagreeing? - or did I not make sense?

I meant that the system of exchanging teenagers with a foreign family is well-known to be tricky & very dependent on family chemistry to work. I've seen both sides - my own worked fine (3 summers in a row with same family, have good French as result) but my French exchange girl's younger brother - who seemed like a nice kid when I was there, & so a good match for my brother - was a complete shocker away from his own family. No-one could've predicted that.

No Bink,I just mean that i don't understand 'notorious millrace' reference.
Am i being thick?

ah - then it's case of me not making sense (wouldn't be first time ). "Millrace" just used as alternative to "minefield", with same sort of intended meaning.

Well it looks like i'm outnumbered,(i started this thread, said it sounded iffy to me!). I guess they'd sort out the money beforehand, for flights,and as someone rightly said, 'families'ususaaly = 4 people anyway for accommodation. I hate the thought of having to be on 'good behaviour' all the time, having another parents kid around, you never know what they're going to report back - not that i do anything terrible ..wandering around the house in my undies is about as bad as it gets..that's scary enough