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Europe w/ 4 year old and 2 yr old for the Holidays- Good idea or bad?
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Anonymous
| Personally I do think it can be a great trip for you if you can swing it financially. But you bring up a great point about bringing someone alone to help/babysit. That would definitely help out a lot. |
Anonymous
| Does it have to be Paris? Maybe you could go to Montreal and pretend it was Paris!! It would save you some money and you wouldn't have to deal with the jetlag. Then you could go to Paris in a few years when the kids are a bit older. |
Anonymous
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Bringing someone along certainly helps. We try to go abroad once a year with the kids and we are fortunate that the grandparents (who are young, active and head over hills over our kids) love to come with us. That way, we can do all the children stuff but also do the gourmet restaurants, museums for a whole afternoon, maybe the theater or a concert. We do the bulk of what the children require, but nana and poppy do their fair share of babysitting both during the day and on some evenings while still getting to do all the stuff they want. They have travel everywhere and now mostly just want to spend time with the grandkids. We just love this!
Having two extra sets of hands for airports, planes, metro, buses, etc is fantastic with 3 kids! I fully agree with all the recs from the PP's. the apartment is a must and would simply add that Paris has gorgeous playgrounds and parks. My children just loved staring at the Eiffel tower when in twinkles every hour. It was like magic for them (and for me!) |
Anonymous
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My kids were about that age when we went to Paris, but we were living in Europe at the time. They remember almost nothing for what it's worth (although the older one does remember the twinkling Eiffel Tower). If you want to go for yourself, go for it. It sounded like money was an issue. If it is, I'd go somewhere closer for not and save up for a big European trip when your kids are a little older.
The time change and over night flight also stink as others have mentioned. And it isn't the best time fo year. We went at Easter and it was really nice. What about leaving the kids with family here and going for a shorter trip to Paris with just your DH? You'd see more and your kids wouldn't have the disruption of their schedules, etc. |
Anonymous
| Recommend you and hubby go for one week, and spend the other money on great childcare, if a family member is not available. The kids are way too young to take this in. Go to the National Gallery and get gelato if you want a new experience, hearing foreign languages and culture. We do it twice a month, and kids now have favorite paintings they visit (ours are 2 and 4). We went to Italy for my 40th last year and left kids with grandparents (but in our house, so shock was minimized for them). Renewed my relationship with husband, and returned to very steady, happy kids who had deepend their relationship with grandparents and had adventures all their own (i.e. they went to a different bookstore and could not stop telling me all about it). THe kids will not remember the trip, you will, you will be renewed and reinvigorated and ready to take them in a few years. It's a cost-risk-benefit analysis. Sure you could do it. Is it best for them? Hate to say it, but they're not going to miss you too much for one week.... |
Anonymous
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We've been traveling internationally with our kid since she was 4 mos. old, because as a PP said, we like to do it. I know what she gets out of the trip differs from year to year, but we have no regrets. We've chosen to spend our discretionary income that way, so it's up to you whether you want to, but I think it's certainly one great way to do it. As others have said, an apt. is definitely the way to go and it does help to have another family member/caregiver along.
We've actually found the jetlag isn't too big a deal, especially going there, because you can adjust your schedule to be an hour or two later morning and evening (although ours doesn't sleep much anyway so YMMV). |
Anonymous
| p.s. for stays of a week or longer I find slowtrav.com to be a pretty useful site. As far as apt. locations, St. Germain isn't a bad idea, but you might also consider the Marais, or somewhere around the 5th. |
Anonymous
| We have done this trip a lot to visit family. If you have a choice, though, i would definitely wait another year. 2 is a very difficult age for this, 3 or 4 is much easier, and they will get more out of it. |
Anonymous
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We took our DD to Italy when she was 17 months old, and Thailand when she was 26 months old and had such a great time both times. I definitely think they get something out of it. First of all, it gets them used to traveling. DD was great on the 18+hr flight to Thailand and adjusted with no problems to the 12 hour time difference. She loved all the activity and especially going to the beach. Secondly, she might not remember later but she remembers those trips now at age 3.
I might be biased because my parents traveled with us (3 kids within a 3 year span) a lot when I was young. My passport in elementary school was so full that they had to staple a second one to it for all the visas. I remember going to Egypt when I was 7 and coming back to school and learning about ancient Egypt. It was awesome that I had actually been there and seen the pyramids, etc. in real life. |
Anonymous
| My son is now a seasoned traveler at 5. He has always gotten something out of every trip we've taken and I think traveling regularly makes it easy as they get older, they know all about airplanes, customs/immigration and he's a joy to travel with. My DH and I loved to travel before kids and we vowed that having children we wouldn't stop just modify what we did and how we did it. So far we have had no regrets. You will face challenges but as long as you have reasonable expectations it will be fine. Plus the more we travel as a family the better we have become at knowing what we need (an apartment), what we like (being out doors) and that our DS is flexible, interested and fascinated with the world. My parents installed the love of traveling in me and I'm now passing it on to my kids. |
Anonymous
| Op here with an update. We are going for a little over two weeks with the kids but we are also bringing my sister for extra help. We are going to rent a flat. Any tips on guidebooks on Paris with kids much appreciated. Thanks everyone! We are so excited. |
Anonymous
| Good for you! I will ask my SIL what would be fun things to do from "Parisian" standpoint as she is from there and always is great for native tips. For what it's worth-I never get the "don't do anything" until the kids are older concept. It makes me feel like I am relagated to Bethany for nine years..a scary thought!! Anyway, I will post back later. |
Anonymous
Moron. (yawn). |
Anonymous
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We do it every year, different locations though. Rent an apartment. You'll have a great time. Paris is a great city, lots of fun, and the French are child friendly. It will be wonderful at Christmas!
Try Familhotels if you want something very child friendly, we do these a lot in Germany and Austria. I just looked, they only have them in Italy, Germany, Austria and Hungary. They're great, and we've never encountered an American at any of them, which can make it a fun experience. Worth checking out some time. http://www.familotel.com/hotelliste.html |
Anonymous
| Sounds cold and tiring. I'd wait. My friends took a trip to Rome while they were staying in Cyprus for a long work assignment and their two similarly aged kids HATED it. The little one sat down on the curb at one point and refused to get up. He said "We are just walking from one old buuilding to another! I'm tired!" LOL! Just not ready to appreciate the Pantheon I guess. |