[Malaya]

Gees lighten up holidayromp! It's just a bit of fun. Childrearing is hard work and this includes holidays.

OP we just came back from the sunshine coast and cancelled our O/S trip scheduled for mid-year. It's just not worth spending so much money when you spend 2hrs trying to get your 2yo to sleep during the day then have to hang around wait for the sleep to be over... Breakfast lunch and dinner is show time of your parenting skills, heaven forbid your Toddler makes a little noise, even though We have to eat at seniors hour. We end up booking really nice but expensive accommodation bc we spend so much jolly time there!! Ahh.

But As I said to dh, if this is as bad as holidays get then we're in for some awesome trips to come!!!

[Luckymum2]

Agree whole heartedly with you, Amity. And this is not something anyone tells you or you really realise before you have kids. Oh well. I told my husband last night maybe we can do a world cruise when the kids are older and out of home and he snorted and said - surely we will be more sprightly than that, esp after the italian cruise boat mishap! We shall see.

[lizardqueen]

Skiing holidays with our kids when they were little were completely draining. I can't believe how much stuff we had to take with us. I had to ski back to the creche every 2-3 hours to breastfeed a baby who didn't like bottles. We had to lug skis, baby bags and children to ski school and creche in deep snow (very slow). We started staying in the snow after a couple of years of driving to and from Jindabyne every day and wondering if we would ever get to ski. And somebody always got sick, either while we were there or as soon as we got home (or even in the car - memorable vomit episode there), probably thanks to the creche, although skiing for mum and dad would not have been possible without creche! We go skiing every year and now that our children are nearly 9 and nearly 5 it is much easier and more fun, especially now that they have learnt to ski. The first years were hard and we wondered why the hell we were putting ourselves through it but it's paying off.

Beach holidays were almost as ridiculous but as a PP said, if you have a willing grandparent, bring them along!! Unfortunately said grandparent never wanted to go to the snow. :S Oh well!

LQ

[hunter4]

I'm with manlou4 and Holiday romp, it doesn't have to be that way for everyone. I don't think I've ever had a bad holiday with the kids.

We just recently did a 2 week driving holiday with out 4 and 2.5 year old. 15 days of at least 2-9 hours in the car (and no there is no DVD player in our car), dinners out at restaurants every night, all of us in one hotel room every night, but do you know what we loved it! yeah there were a few moments of ARGGHHHH!, but they were more than outweighed by the magical moments. getting to see things through their eyes, learning again how a simple bridge over a river can be an exciting adventure.

Don't give up on family holidays!

But then we don't pack much, just the basics in clothing a few nappies and wipes and the baby carrier, we don't set nap times, kids just fall asleep when they can, stroller, car, carrier etc. and I generally suspend most of my "rules" for things like eating, if they want a hot dog everynight of well they'll go back to the veges when we get home....those are just my ways of making holidays as stress free as possible for everyone.

[nlman]

We've just returned from 3 weeks in Vietnam & KL with DD (2 1/2) and DS (5 months) We all had an amazing time.

We have also taken DD to Thailand, Fiji and Bali.

Of course it's not going to be as relaxing as pre-kids but life in general is not as relaxing. Of course we have to supervise them but we would have to supervise them at home too. However, I don't have to vaccuum the floors or cook dinner when we are on holidays. This means much more time with the kids.

We move to the kids' schedule as much as possible. We always try to be back to have lunchtime sleeps and try to go to bed at normal time. This means that the kids don't get overtired (and thus grumpy!)

[dora the explore...]

Good holiday or bad holiday with kids, it depends on our expectations. If you have high expectations, be prepared to get disappointed. I think the best set of mind is to go with the flow.

I did took our kids domestic holiday as well as internatioal holiday. When our expectations for holiday was high, e.g relaxing, peaceful dinner, the kids were just happily crushing on our dreams... But when we lower our expectations, it just felt more manageable and enjoyable for everyone. And if we do have peaceful dinner, we really enjoyed it.

We found that so far, the best holiday is at home.. ..
No packing, unpacking and packing again. Sleep in our own bed. Eat healthy food. Still can have peaceful dinner or nights out, just hire a baby sitter for a couple of hours. Cheapper as well.

We can only learn from past experience hey..