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

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

Def not the relaxing, lay on the beach holiday anymore but better in the fun we have and the smiles and memories made. No more last min holidays, def need to prepare and get myself and family ready.

well we certainly aren't having as many holidays so far, that's for sure

Holidays? What are those?
I haven't had a holiday since before I had my daughter.
I've been planning to take her away for the last couple of years but somehow something more important always comes up.
I'll be saving from September in the hope that I can book something in the school holidays, she's desperate to go to France (no idea why!) So fingers crossed we will get there this century!

I haven't been to Cornwall since having my children! I cannot bear such a long car journey, particularly now we have to go in the school holidays!
We go to Yorkshire now, it's cheaper anyway and we can get there within 3 hours, not sure why I didn't think of it earlier! We stay in cottages now for a holiday as it's cheaper for the five of us. We visit the beach, the park and we're NT members. We also do the pick your own farms and do lots of exploring! We don't spend that much while we're away but we do like our cafe visits and ice creams!
We have been saving a while though so this year we're having a week in Yorkshire then a big family holiday in October to Florida, my dad wanted to go while he's still fit enough to do all that walking!

We still go to the same places but recognise our children don't want to sit still all day so we tend to try and make the days all about the kids and then have some time for us over dinner (still with the children). That seems to work well for us.

No more laying by the beach reading all day! However, I couldn't change it for the world any more :)

We're just gtting ready for our first holiday abroad with the toddler - we used to do self-catering apartments in small turkish resorts, with our enjoyment mainly revolving around long walks in the day and eating out in the evenings. Now we are going all inclusive, with splash pools and cheesy entertainment on tap. It's going to be very different, and I'm sure it won't be as relaxing, but we're looking forward to seeing our son enjoying himself, (and we secretly like a bit of cheesy entertainment ourselves). We deliberately chose a family focussed hotel so that our toddler will be one noisy child amongst many - there's a lot to be said for a bit of camouflage.

Before children: long haul, relaxing, lazy days, the hotter the better, go with the flow kinda attitude.

With children: Dread travelling 😩 Lots of planning, ensuring lots of activities to keep them entertained (happy children = happy parents!), quick easy meals, early bedtimes and mornings 😴. Happy memories

Pre-children: ah, the holidays. From trekking The Inca Trail, to snorkelling in Mexico & sky-diving over the Great Barrier Reef. To climbing on glaciers in Canada, walking along the gorge to Petra, safaris in South Africa & wine tasting in California. I loved my holidays, and did plenty of them. Usually in luxury, although I did backpacking round South America & Australia.

Post DC: If I'm really honest, it's bloody depressing. We've managed a couple of trips abroad, to Euro-Disney & a family resort in Portugal. Mostly we stay in family resorts in Scotland as I couldn't face a long journey with a refluxy child. Or the bickering! Our budget has reduced dramatically as we have 2 sets of childcare costs & are now confined to school holidays, which are so much more expensive.

I have a parallel single life in my head where I am lying on a beach in the Maldives, sans children, reading a book, drinking cocktails & eating sophisticated food. Dream on!!!!

I once was an adventurer, who strapped on a bag and flew across the world. Trekking across cities, beaches, jungles... I wanted to see it all.

Nowadays my idea of an ideal holiday is somewhere with space for the children to play, do some mini adventures, that I can read a book, take some nice walks and maybe see some sights.

Hopefully once DC are teens we will pick up on big adventures again, but for now it's all catered towards their wants and needs.

I'm not sad about it because I want to be able to share these things with them and for now this is adventure enough for them.

The focus of my holidays have changed, from simply thing what suits me, to now travelling with teenagers. Who are super confident and lead the way. Saves me planning, as they love doing itineraries and actually time managing the full trips. Left to me, I like to wonder and hate following preset days out and enjoy a bit of spontaneity. I think their respective school have successfully conditioned them to wanting to know exactly what they doing all the way through-at precise times no less!. Not complaining, left to me and we would only see about half, though I miss just strolling a discovering things by accident!

As a teacher I was always bound by term dates but we always managed somewhere hot, sunny and relatively luxurious. Even with one small child we kept up the foreign travel but now with three little ones the idea of going abroad fills me with dread.

We now do a lot more in the UK. Sun loungers have been replaced by soft play and child-free swapped for child-friendly. We still like to expose the kids to different things (as much as is realistic) and my four year old daughter's favourite foods at the moment are mussels, mackerel and olives.

City breaks are stressful with a pram so we tend to stick to the coast or the countryside. Once we get past the buggy stage we can be a bit more adventurous again!

We still tend to do things last minute but we go closer to home. Once the holiday home is booked I go into a short frenzy of organising the drive, booking somewhere child friendly for lunch and checking out places to stop on the way. I try to find somewhere that is unusual and close to at least three places to visit without the car. I get shopping ordered to be delivered on the first day so we don't have to carry much and don't waste time looking for stuff the kids will eat. We often eat out for lunch or dinner-that's part of the fun, but it's no fun if you have hungry children and they did not want to eat at the restaurant! So I guess the difference now we have kids is extra planning; looking for things that will make the holiday fun even if it rains.

We have to be prepared for all weathers as we now do more staycations!
We need suncream, fleeces wellies and swimsuits!
We need lots of snacks that are easy to transport, bottles of water, mini toiletries, and first aid kits!
Insect repellent, sun cream and wasp spray always at the ready!
Roof racks, roof bars, bikes, helmets, scooters, high chairs, potty's, plans you name it we sometimes take it!
Oh and don't forget your sanity and as always a sense of adventure!
Myself and hubby are big kids also so can never sleep the night before either

Previously did more adventurous activities while on holiday - sky diving, parasailing, quad biking, cliff jumping etc. We still travel to many of the same places, but scout out the family friendly areas and hotels. We spend more time playing with kids and trying new eating places. They are still fun, but not the same by any stretch of the imagination!

What holiday? Every so often we choose a willing relative and decamp to their house for a week... Does that count?

We used to love going to distant places and never went to the same place twice- most of our time would be spent exploring and eating as well as possible. Never worried about potential dangers.

Nowadays it's all about somewhere we know will be kid friendly and low risk. There's no relaxing at the poolside as you're worrying about the children near water and the exploring we can do now is very tame!

In some ways I can't wait for the children to grow up so we can get back to adventurous holidays but for now it's nice to get away from the daily grind and enjoy different scenery with no school worries or housework.

We used to have lots of short breaks away and now we don't. While away we are constantly looking for child friendly places to eat and children's activities. We also get up earlier. When you don't have children, you look at the hotel breakfast times and wonder if they finish late enough and whether you'll make it before the end. When you've babies and toddlers you wonder how you are going to occupy hungry children in the two hours between them waking up and breakfast starting...

Definitely more pre-planning and way more luggage!!! We tend to aim for self catering type holidays now and ones where there are a few nearby activities for children.

Travel wise it's not a problem with long car trips or flights, I just tend to pack enough food for a trip twice the length 'just in case' whereas pre children we'd just stop off somewhere when we got hungry.

Cost is a big factor as only school holidays now. So our holidays tend to be very very carefully budgeted out in order to actually afford to go anywhere!

Before children holidays were to far flung corners of the world. They were adventures. A chance to see the world's wonders and experience other cultures.

With kids, holidays are UK based. And the most exotic destination is Butlins.

Our pre-children holidays went a bit like this;

• A long lie-in.
• Long peaceful walks in the countryside.
• A quiet ramble around some castle ruins.
• A leisurely cream tea, enjoyed in the garden - soaking up the birdsong & bees buzzing..
• A quiet evening in, watching a film in front of an open fire.

Post-children, our holidays go a bit like this;

• An early morning wake-up call at 05.30 if I'm lucky.. If I'm unlucky - it'll be a two-footed jump on the belly & my 4 year old drill sergeant shouting 'MUMMY - TIME TO GET UP!' directly in my face.
• Short, hurried marches around the countryside - either carrying a child, or being shooed along by one when I stop to admire something of natural beauty (i.e not a toy)
• A frantic & nerve-wracking game of hide & seek in some castle ruins.. bracing myself as I turn each corner in case I am launched upon by an over-excited child.
• A cream tea - enjoyed as quickly as possible before sticky little fingers come to pinch my scone having already finished their own.
• Falling asleep during bedtime stories & being prodded awake because I have missed a page.

Love it though, it's all good fun & I am NEVER bored!! :)

We always had UK holidays anyway, but they now involve more planning to ensure they will be cold friendly. WE used to break our horses with stays in b&b's but that is to expensive now that we have kids. The biggest change is that we now have holidays in term time. E have continued to have outdoorsy you're holidays with plenty of walking in fairly remote pasta of the UK and the kids now love the great outdoors.

Pre DC:
Last minute, spur of the moment type holidays - pick somewhere and go!
Whichever hotel room we could get a deal on would do.
Lots of meals out, sightseeing, a few drinks in the evenings.

Post DC:
Pre-planned and booked holiday cottage in the U.K. This allows us to stick to routine (we have a child that doesn't cope well with changes to routine).
Most of the time we cook rather than go out for dinner, but usually have a couple of meals out (usually lunch.)
We still go sightseeing, but have to pick something that little people can cope with, i.e.: no castles with loads of windy stone stairs - shame, because I love that kind of thing.
Evenings are spent relaxing as a couple once DC are in bed, maybe still with a glass of wine or two. Especially if there's a fireplace or wood burner.
Weirdly, I much prefer our holidays now.

Pre-dc we went far and wide, often last minute, often on city breaks where we'd visit museums, markets etc

Post-dc before our dc1 was school age we went on a few trips (often going along with DH on a work trip and tagging some days on the end). Since DC1 is in school we have only had holidays to visit family. Simply can't afford holidays anywhere else during the school hols, particularly with the fall in the pound.

I home educate my three younger children, while my eldest is at college, and holidays are so much better now my two elder ones can help me out!

When I was a kid, it was one week every year to Great Yarmouth, and they were some of the happiest memories I have, so I have tried to recreate this. At first, I tried too hard, and didn't succeed, but then, I started to relax more, and while it was hard being a single mum taking the kids away by train, I soon got quite adept at it!
Now I am remarried and while we haven't bought our first car yet, we still love our holidays with the kids. I think I get more excited than they do! But I love the Fish n Chips by the sea, making sandcastles, the arcades, the swimming, everything is so relaxing, and made better by the fact we can go whenever we like because we don't have school to worry about!
Yeah, we get the odd moan about walking too much lol, or the fact that we can't pack the PC with Minecraft on it, but after a few icy glares from Mum, they soon toe the line!!! No-one DARES to ruin Mums Happy Family Holiday!!! ;-) lol