Tell Asda about how your holidays have changed now you have children - £300 voucher to be won!NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

Holidays can be a great way to recharge your batteries. However, holidaying with children in tow may be a far cry from the relaxing breaks you were used to before they came along.

Asda would like to hear about your holidays have changed since having children.

Are journeys that were once the exciting beginning of your trip now a time where you have to juggle loads of luggage and the dreaded “are we there yet” chorus from your DC? Maybe you’ve swapped your previous adventurous treks with more relaxing destinations or now consider the holidays you used to enjoy overrated? Perhaps your priorities when choosing a destination or accommodation have completely changed to encompass your children’s needs and entertainment?

Tell Asda about the ways your holidays have changed since you’ve had children by posting on the thread below. All who post will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 Asda voucher.

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

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Holidays have changed a lot of us. Before I had my 3 little girls we could go anywhere and anytime. But now need to cater around the kids and make sure they will have suitable entertainment, food and facilities before we can think about ourselves.

We definitely have less relaxing holidays now we have two children to entertain although it is getting easier as they get older. We are trying an all. Inclusive holiday for the first time which we've never done before. We wanted something easy with entertainment for the children!

I haven't been abroad since our honeymoon as since having children I think the travelling would be hard work. There wouldn't be much chance of relaxing by the pool either as I would constantly be watching the children!
We spend our holidays in the UK now, choosing family-friendly places in easy reach of the beach.

My holidays haven't changed too much since I had kids. I always enjoyed dive bombing into the pool and eating chips for every meal for a week, I just have company now 😁 I holiday the same as I did before, just with kids in tow

Wow - massively!
We used to travel all over the world for weeks at a time......
Now, we frequent Butlins, Center Parcs and other places. We mainly stay in the UK and actually, I quite like it - we do self catering and we drive in our own car and we've visited some areas of the UK I've never been to before and throughly enjoyed the beauty of the land.
Exhausting and crammed full of memory making!

Before children, my husband and I enjoyed holidaying somewhere hot and sunny, where we could relax, enjoy lying in the sun, reading books and generally lazing around. We would spend time exploring new places, but all at our own pace.

Our first DD came along and at 8 months old we took her to visit family in Canada - she was a very laid-back baby who slept well and fitted into whatever we did.

Roll on a few years to when we had three children. Our holidays changed completely - being very conscience of the damage the sun can do and having young children that needed watching all the time, our holidays changed to mobile homes on family sites in this country. Instead of eating out all the time, the benefit of a mobile home was it was easy to prepare picnic lunches and easy evening meals. If there was a swimming pool, we would be teaching the children to swim and playing games. Days out consisted of places we thought the children would enjoy, such as Sealife Centres, farms with animals and play areas. If we were lucky, we might manage to read a few chapters of a book once the children were in bed and before we fell asleep.

As they got older we visited Europe a few times, either staying in Center Parcs or a mobile home on family friendly sites. We visited a few chateaux in France, provided they were geared up to children as well as adults.

As you can see, our holidays with our children were a total contrast to how we had holidayed before. However, by making changes to ensure they were happy and occupied, it meant that we would be able to relax and enjoy spending quality time with the children, away from the day to day routine. I wouldn't swap the holidays we have had with the children for anything - many of my childhood memories are centred around family holidays and I know my children already have many happy memories. Even when things go wrong - like my husband taking the wrong autoroute from Le Mans as we were heading home to the UK and me trying to guide us away from central Paris are memories that we share and laugh about.

I think family holidays are one of the most enjoyable parts of parenthood, as we get to spend plenty of quality time as a family. we have visited different places and seen things through the eyes of our children. My older children are of the age that they will stop coming away with us soon, although the 10 year old has a few years yet. I will be very sad when they are all too old/independent to holiday with Mum and Dad, but then we can go back to more lazy holidays. I think, if I was to give anybody advice on how to have a good family holiday, i would say to choose something the children will really enjoy - after all, happy children equal happy parents!

They are less relaxing. You cannot keep your eyes off them!

Our holidays now are planned a long time in advance instead of a few weeks before and we might cover less ground than we used to but it's still more fun!

Holidays seem like a Bootcamp when you thought you'd booked Rest & Relaxation. You come back lighter in body but also in spirit. I'll be sad when they don't want to holiday with us any more.

The one change I don't enjoy is being restricted to going in school hols - expensive, crowded and a bit too hot for me in lots of places.

But I love going on holiday with the kids.mwe do far more seaside type hols and haven't flown for years. We tend to pack up the car and drive down through France - we got as far as Italy one year! It,s lovely seeing special places through their eyes

Holidays have to be much more planned now. There's less eating out in nice restaurants etc. Travel time is more of a factor.

But they are probably more fun too!

Holidays used to be abroad - long, restful and fun. Lots of nice food, sun and plenty of nice wine. Packing was a suitcase each and on return from holiday we unpacked at our ease. Holidays don't feel like a holiday anymore. They feel like a change of scenery!

Our holidays are now all in the UK, partly because I can't face a plane with children and partly due to cost. We go self catering and stay in either a cottage or holiday park (usually the latter). We need separate bedrooms and a living space so the kids can go to bed and we can spend some time together. Holiday parks provide ample entertainment but I hate caravans and static vans so we usually pay through the nose for the top package. We stayed at a park once with an amazing sea view apartment which was by far the best but the beds were hard and lumpy. I miss luxury!

I stock up on food and drinks for months before and I have so many lists for budgets, packing and plans. I find out what's on in the local area, where to eat, activities for children, parking and especially where the toilets are. Everything is planned, just to avoid the panic when we can't find a toilet! When we pack the car it's overflowing. The buggy takes up half of it and then there are many other bags full of all sorts of things. I now travel with plasters and tissues and calpol - just in case.

The biggest change has been the 4am holiday start - "can we go to the beach now please" as small child clambers out of bed and refuses to get back in. Sleep, who needs sleep on holiday? We start to get out of bed and put breakfast together, bleary eyed and I search of coffee (just another day then). We're the first people at weatherspoons at 9am, sat on the seafront with a pint. What excellent parenting,but we're shattered and have been up for 5 hours so really it's lunch time!

One day when our littlies are bigger I hope that we can have relaxing holidays again. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't change our life or our holidays for the world but I do miss relaxing in luxury.

Holiday??What does mean this word????
When we go in "holiday" (some little break in some theme park or beach in the South of the UK) we bring with us so many things that the house seems empty when we are loaded the car!The journey to the place is a nightmare, I can't read, I can't use the phone, I can't do nothing because he kids are mad :D :D But I love this new holiday, it is full of love (and stress too :D :D)

Our holidays used to be abroad, relaxing and about us. Our honeymoon was in Pisa (bliss)

Now, we have been on the same holiday the last 2 years. Same again this year. To see steam trains. Trains. And ride them. In the UK. Not relaxing.

Now have to lug extra luggage, sling and pushchair as well as enough milk and food for my baby. It's much more of a hassle these days. Still go as I don't want to miss out. We did east coast USA when she was 8 months all on public transport and managing a milk allergy. It was tough but great fun!

Definitely a change from relaxing break to activity break now that kids are here. Having said that I'd got all the sun / drinking / travelling holidays out of my system beforehand. I now equally enjoy our family holidays and am looking forward to all the activities we can do once the kids are a bit older.

holidays are manic, out till late, eating in different restaurants, enjoying quality time together, priceless!

Same shit different location

They used to be times to relax but now they are quite stressful and definitely harder work than staying at home. However they are also a wonderful opportunity for family time and building up happy memories for when things get tough.

I used to backpack every year. Booked no accommodation. Just flights. Amazing. Now we have 2 children under 3 and haven't been away with both yet. We will most definitely explore more of what the UK has to offer for the next few years. Largely because of the cost of flights during school holidays (we are both teachers)

Holidays are way more expensive now we're tied to the school holidays, but great fun too, they're planned quite carefully to make sure everyone gets time to do what they'd like, we have enough food/drinks/changes of clothes etc. I don't miss the laid back spontaneous holidays dh and I used to have too much because there'll be plenty of time for that when the children have grown, and then I'll probably be missing the mayhem of holidaying with little ones.

Our holidays have changed completely. Prior to having my son we went abroad either to a package beach holiday, or further afield and a bit more adventurous booked independently with plenty of trips and exploring the area and delving into the local life.

The last 3 out of 4 of our holidays have been to Butlins Minehead for a just for tots break. My son, now 3, absolutely loves it there, so much for him to do and places to explore for him. So if he is happy we are happy. We also went on a caravan holiday last summer, first time i'd ever been in a caravan and I have to say it was enjoyable. Lots of day trips out, but we were in Cornwall which is beautiful and plenty to do. I guess its gone from relaxing, eating good local foreign good, to always being on the go and trying as much as we can to eat good local food.

Pre kids we used to go on holiday to places like Rome and Barcelona. Now we have a pre schooler and we're about to go to Peppa Pig World. Oh how things have changed!

We used to go on day trips and explore and now spend most of our time on the beach or at the pool. Both my children love the water. We used to eat out at lots of different restaurants and now we go all inclusive for on site meals to make sure there's always something acceptable for our slightly fussy eaters. Loved holidays before having children, love holidays with my children.

We used to book holidays spontaneously - now everything is planned to military precision. We are far more choosy and careful about accommodation now - everything has to be geared up to be right for the kids. We used to enjoy self catering and adventuring out an night finding special restaurants tucked away - now all inclusive is the only way we can contain costs and know that everyone will eat. Our days used to be spent relaxing with a book by the pool - now they are spent madly dashing between beach/sea and the pool. Yes, our holidays have changed completely!
All that said however, I absolutely love going away and spending quality time with my two - anywhere, home or abroad. Holidaying through their eyes and introducing them to new places and experiences really is the best gift ever as a Mum. If someone offered me a week away without them, old style holiday, you couldn't pay me enough ever to take them up on it!