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Travel Discussion
Silly to take young kids to England/Ireland?
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Anonymous
| Modern Ireland is no place for a child. The people have turned their backs on the Church and now indulge themselves in every kind of vice, with a particular prediliction for drunkness. The economic crisis should be seen as God's punishment. |
Anonymous
There's a particular prediliction for drunkness in Ireland? Who knew? |
Anonymous
| OP - for me it would depend on the friend. If it was someone I really wanted to see, I'd go. I lived in the UK for 10 years and would agree that it's not a top destination for kid-friendly. Not bad, just not great. |
Anonymous
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We took our two DCs at 4 and 6. The younger remembers a lot, the older remembers almost everything (10 years later).
One piece of advice - I researched ahead of time and found a lot of great playgrounds in London. Our routine was one tourist-type activity and one good playground each day. Cabbies were no help, family-focused guidebooks a bit better. We also found that many museums had pamphlets available with "kid-tours", which made the museum more interesting and manageable. Their favorite was dead bodies in the British Museum. |
Anonymous
I have to say we found a bunch of playgrounds in London by serendipity (although the Princess Di/Peter Pan playground was pre-planned and a highlight). It made me want to come back to DC and get them to put some playground equipment on the Mall. |
Anonymous
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OP here. Still reading your interesting responses. I have also lived in England so I'm familiar with it. As far as kid-friendly amenities, I not only mean attractions but also a (relative) lack of a language barrier. DH and I were in Korea recently and that was tough- wouldn't have wanted to go with our young kids. We also want to go Croatia but again, not sure we want to tackle the language issue with young kids.
I actually got engaged in a London playground so I have fond memories of all their playgrounds...and will definitely take the kids to find "our" park whenever we get back there! |
Anonymous
| I'm curious why posters are saying Ireland is not kid friendly. What are they basing it on? Lack of playgrounds or kid musuems? Culture? It has been our experience that you can make things kid appropriate by finding things that work for you and your family. We have visited The Netherlands and I wouldn't say they are extremely kid focused the way some countries are (as in they don't go out of their way to be friendly to kids, resturuants don't have kids sized meals etc or many kid musuems etc) And yet we had a wonderful trip. Cobblestone streets, rivers to toss food for birds, open fields or places for the kids to run around = a good trip. Bring a ball or a frisbee for activities, a nice cafe to slip into on a cold day with the promise of a treat, even department stores have given our kids fun memories. |
Anonymous
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"I don't agree that it's only worth it if the kids will be old enough to remember the trips. These kinds of experiences form who they are later."
I agree with this, at least now that DS is almost 5. (At age 2/3 or less, would agree much less so.) We're about to go on our first trip out of the country, and I think DS will get a lot out of it - being someplace where people speak a different language and live a slightly different way, trying snorkeling and seeing fish and other sea creatures in their natural habitat, learning about endangered turtles, different geography, etc. There's lots to talk about at this age - we've already been looking about where we're going on a map, talking about how we're going to get there and what we're going to see, practicing some Spanish. |
Anonymous
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Not silly. I think kids remember a lot more than we give them credit for and why not foster a love of travel early?
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Anonymous
This is one of the funniest things I have ver seen on DCUM -- and that's saying something! Seriously? I kinda thought the Church and the drunkeness went hand in hand. |
Anonymous
What does this even *mean*? I've got a 4 yo DD and she's got a memory like a steel trap--she remembers details of things from a year ago like they happened this morning. |
Anonymous
I agree with PP. Children should never be exposed to anything aside from Disneyland, Disney World, or Hershey's Park until the age of 16. Anywhere else is not a "top destination for kid-friendly." DCUM sure is weird sometimes. |
Anonymous
I'm the OP. I can barely remember anything from when I was that age but this trip is in the future and I don't have 4 or 6 year olds now. I don't know what their memories or enjoyment levels will be like then. I believe in the value of travel. As I mentioned in my pp, my family did a lot of really cool international traveling when I was much younger. Unfortunately, I don't remember most of it- only a few highlights, really. In a way, I wish that we could've waited to do that kind of traveling when the memories would've stayed with me longer. While I hope that we are able to do lots of traveling as a family, this trip will be expensive for us and not one that can be done all that often. |
Anonymous
I think kids are different but I can tell you we have been travelling with our child since 4 months, and while she could remember the details of a trip to London at age 3 for a year or two afterwards, now at age 8 she can't really. Not sure why that would be, but it is. |
Anonymous
Right, but we are the sum of our experiences. It's irrelevant whether your child has perfect recall of some vacation they took when they were 4 or 5 years old. Kids thrive on this stuff. OP: take them. It doesn't matter if every playground in the UK is shut down for your entire trip--they will have an amazing time. And so will you. |