S/O Do you take other kids on family trips?

[Anonymous]

I think it depends a lot on the kids. We do group long weekends with families we are friends so they get that experience but I also like having just time for them to bond together as siblings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was the kid that got invited along a lot on other people's vacations. These are some of my favorite memories from my childhood.

Me too! We do one trip a year that the kids can bring friends. This year it’s the Caribbean for spring break. We also have a vacation home on the West Coast and the kids bring friends there too

At what age does this start? Is this an elementary thing or more like middle school/HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a beach house that we use a lot. We take my kids’ friends all the time. They are with us anywhere from 2 to 11 days.

We pay for everything. We try to accommodate their food preferences and interests. Occasionally we have a kid with medical issues so we sometimes have medications to deal with.

They sometimes need a break from each other. When I see that I just ask one of the kids to help me with something or I set them up in an activity. But they can always also read or play on heir phones. Plus I have three kids and most of our guests will hang with any of my kids.

I’ve take. Kids as young as four and as old as HS. Never had any issues, not even homesickness. I think FaceTime helps with that. A few times it was the guest’s first time seeing the ocean. That is always fun.

This sounds an awful lot like the way we operate, too. We only have had good experiences and positive outcomes. I would do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, we use vacations for family/sibling bonding time.

This.

[Anonymous]

We have a beach house and during the summer, it seems like most weekends we have other kids with us. If we go out to dinner, we pay. The teens tend to bring their own money, so will go out for breakfast or lunch and pay for themselves, but there is always lots of food at home. We have brought friends/SOs on other vacations (Caribbean, etc.), but for college-age kids only.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m an only child, and my parents did this often - but only with 2 very close friends, who were also family friends - all travel within US. We took my daughters best friend for a family weekend trip - adjoining hotel room for tween girls, our younger son in our room. They had a blast - I will do again, but only where we know parents very well. If we had a beach house, I too would invite kids friends over often!

We're one of the poors, and don't have a beach house, and no, we don't take DC's friends on overnight trips. We do, however, invite them to local outings, and it works great for us.

[Anonymous]

12 yo DD's best friend lives with us now after he met unfortunate circumstances. But even before then he joined us for day trips and vacatians quite often. Our daughter's an only child so it was always great having another kid to do things with.

[Anonymous]

My 18 yo son is an only child. His best friend came with us on our spring break vacatian last year and it was a pleasure having her along for the trip. He went on vacatian with her family that Summer and had a blast. She's coming with us again this spring break.

They've been best friends since they were 5 and she came with us on day trips and weekend trips from time to time before that and there were never any issues. I can't say the same for everyone, but for us personally it's fine.

[Anonymous]

This will be the first year I’ve done this. I have a young teenager and he will invite his friend we’ve known since preschool. We will be at the beach for 5 days.

[Anonymous]

No, never. The only way I'd do it is if we were really close to a child who spent more time at our house than theirs due to a bad situation and even then I am not sure I'd want the liability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 18 yo son is an only child. His best friend came with us on our spring break vacatian last year and it was a pleasure having her along for the trip. He went on vacatian with her family that Summer and had a blast. She's coming with us again this spring break.

They've been best friends since they were 5 and she came with us on day trips and weekend trips from time to time before that and there were never any issues. I can't say the same for everyone, but for us personally it's fine.

Do you think anything romantic is happening there? I mean, we're talking 18-year-olds.

[Anonymous]

Yes but it’s always been one specific friend and her mom is my best friend. She also gets along great with my younger daughter and seems to keep them from fighting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was the kid that got invited along a lot on other people's vacations. These are some of my favorite memories from my childhood.

Me too! We do one trip a year that the kids can bring friends. This year it’s the Caribbean for spring break. We also have a vacation home on the West Coast and the kids bring friends there too

+1 I was often invited on others’ vacations, probably because I was a quiet bookish kid that didn’t cause trouble. They were a godsend for me - my parents were divorcing and fighting constantly and I loved getting out of the house for days at a time. Plus my family was too poor to take vacations so I really appreciated being a tagalong.

Now I have an only child and will sometimes allow her to bring (quiet, non-annoying) friends on trips.

[Anonymous]

OP - As a mom, I never took other kids with us. As a child, I was the guest of other families. It was a blast. I was given chores, just like their own children: washing the dishes, whatever. Treated like a member of the family. And some squabbles with other siblings in the family might happen but I was always aware I was the guest and needed to humble myself. This Mom loved having kids around, loved having a houseful. I was never "that" Mom. Though a good Mom , just found it stressful to have others on vacation.

So, whatever works for you!

[Anonymous]

After our last trip with our teen, I totally understand why people do it. We are considering it for our next trip.