Those with young kids - are holidays a nightmare for you too?

[Solsticestar1]

Just back from family holiday with 3yr old and 9m old and omg it’s hard. The number of times I asked my DH to F off…. The number of times I questioned my life choices. Please tell me it’s normal and will get better. I have never been through anything more mentally and physically challenging as this.

The flight was brutal

Just to add we didn't do self catering we went half board. So it wasn't the same as being at home.

Holidays with little kids = the same shit with worse facilities than your own home.

Unfortunately I can only report that for us, the younger years were the glory years for holidays - teen DC now, and holidays are a living hell. Given up on holidays pretty much now.

Really? I love the teen years for holidays. We’ve just done Center Parcs, one afternoon the kids went off to do quad biking and swimming and DH and I went to the spa for afternoon tea and a massage - bliss! Met up at 7 for dinner, played badminton and table tennis in the week, lovely balanced week.

Hmmm it’s almost as if all children are different

Indeed, just trying to reassure OP as I hate the whole “just you wait” type of message some women resort to on here. Not experienced this within my own circles.

We’re not “some women” “resorting” to anything - we are women simply sharing our life experiences. What I hate is women like you who try to invalidate other women’s actual experiences.

I LOVE travelling and I’m selfish.. Post kids holidays were a shock to the system, looking after your children in a different pace and nothing like a holiday. I’ve had to lower my expectations massively and to get some kind of holiday we bring grandparents or use a nanny/ Kinderhotel. First time we took them trekking for example I was expecting to walk for hours but as you can imagine that did not happen and now I plan for very short hikes or they take a gondola up and I do a huge loop on my own and meet them later on. Or I go running up a mountain when my husband looks after them and then we swap.
Most of the time we go on holiday for our sake as our kids are happy with a pool or a forest anywhere pretty much, so nowadays we’re not travelling as much as I’d like to. I’ll wait until they’re older and will appreciate it more as well as it being easier. They’re 5.5 and 2.5 now and it’s slowly getting easier so hang in there and keep persevering!

When they get to about 5 years old it gets so much easier. We went once when they were tiny but after that stuck to uk caravan or cottage holidays until they went to school.

We never went abroad with our two until they were five and seven. Too much like hard work! We did centre parcs, Devon and Derbyshire. We went to farms, NT houses etc. Going abroad isn’t really relaxing unless you use the holiday clubs. Ours are nineteen and seventeen now and would rather go away with friends. I’m a bit sad! It’s great when they are older but not when they are under five.

We have DD7 and one on the way, 2-3 years old was the hardest time for us (we first went when she was 3 months old) so no wonder you found it hard with two!

We always stay in self catering rather than AI, as although it means we need to prepare a few meals (we tend to eat out once a day) we are on our own schedule, there's no rush to get everyone ready and down for meals. We don't have to worry about how much noise we make or how space we need round the pool and 1-2 days we get a take away from one of the local restaurants so I dont even bother getting dressed 😅Its probably incredibly anti social but Im quite happy in our own little bubble for the week.

Once DD gets a bit older AI might be better for us as she'll want some more entertainment but at the moment she happy playing in the pool most of the day or going for a walk for an ice cream or to the beach.

I think its a good experience for children to travel though, we certainly dont spend the whole time visiting museums and doing edcuational trips but even chatting to people in restaurants and shops and doing a bit of exploring is so good for them so well done for doing it in the first place.

It's just not a holiday at all.

I’m really struggling to understand what people with young children mean when they talk about “holidays.” Do they think they’re going to some magical land where all responsibilities suddenly stop?

For me, a holiday is just the same parenting… in a different location.That’s why I choose holidays based on what will make our life easier for a week: an all-inclusive hotel.

I won’t be able to sit and relax for more than five minutes. But the fact that I don’t have to meal plan, shop, cook, book restaurants, clean, or plan everything ahead? That already takes a huge amount of mental load off.

And honestly, that’s what a holiday looks like to me.