When you travel, who watches your kids?

[Anonymous]

Sleep away camp for several weeks.

[Anonymous]

We travel with our kids, and a nanny. Maybe every 2 or 3 years we drop them with my inlaws and spend a night away. But in general we take the kids with us, along with the nanny.

[Anonymous]

Our oldest kid is 8 and we've been away 2x without the kids - each for 1 night. Grandparents watched the kids but they can't really handle more than one night.

Most people I know don't go for away without their kids. I think it's less common than it seems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our next door neighbors sent their kids to sleep away camp for a week this summer and used it as a week away themselves. They’re the only ones I know who have ever done more than a night sans kids.

My kid is at sleep away camp for the first time this week and I can't even imagine traveling right now! What if something happens and they need to come home?

You have to have someone willing to go pick up your child in an emergency.

Well but that's easily solved, you just go somewhere driving distance that isn't further from the camp than your home is.

Or you can go to Europe like we did and just make sure you have a contact that is local for emergencies and that you’ve authorized to pick up in the camp paperwork.

[Anonymous]

Do you have a close friend? I’ve watched 3 siblings while parents went away. no problem. My kids loved it.

[Anonymous]

I dont travel longer than a weekend without my kids. Not even grandparents would keep them longer than a weekend. We usually take a babysitter or grandparent with us when we travel. They get a free all expenses paid trip on exchange for watching my kids.

[Anonymous]

Grandparents watch her for weekends away.

For hotel staycations, etc. we've brought our regular babysitter.

[Anonymous]

Nanny sleeps over. We don’t go away very often however without the kids. A couple overnights at a nice hotel is all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t travel without my kid. I think most people don’t.

Same. You must run in different circles, OP.

+1 when they’re a little older budget for sleepaway camp. That’s what some of my friends do.

+2

We're not interested in sleepaway camp, though, so we just don't vacation with them.

We talk about having a long weekend away for our tenth anniversary, but that would require moving heaven and earth with our families to get any kind of support. I traveled a lot pre-kids, so I don't mind not doing big trips while I have kids. It's one season of my life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sleep away camp for several weeks.

I grew up lower-middle-class and didn't know sleepaway camp was a thing. Now I realize I have something huge to look forward to as my kid gets older! Love being a mom but also LOVE getting time alone with DH and traveling just-adults.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I was in 1st grade my parents teamed up with another family and took turns going away without the kids. So my sister and I moved in with the other family while my parents traveled and then their two kids moved in with us when those parents traveled. All of the kids went to the same 1-8 grade school so I'm sure that helped mage the logistics work. I have great memories of these swaps.

That's amazing, and such a good idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was in 1st grade my parents teamed up with another family and took turns going away without the kids. So my sister and I moved in with the other family while my parents traveled and then their two kids moved in with us when those parents traveled. All of the kids went to the same 1-8 grade school so I'm sure that helped mage the logistics work. I have great memories of these swaps.

That's amazing, and such a good idea.

+1, I would love to do this, and I have an only child who is very easygoing so I'm sure I could get takers!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our families live in Europe and Asia, so every time we fly we take the kids, since we go to visit them and naturally want to do it with the beloved grandchildren. This leaves very little room for non-family travel. We haven't actually done that. Our parents are aging and our kids are teens and tweens, so there will come a time in a few years, when we'll be free to travel just the two of us and not have to worry about childcare.

We have the same situation. We usually leave the kids with the local relatives and take a small 4-day trip by ourselves within each country.

[Anonymous]

We take a few weekend trips every year and we either fly in my mom or we use a nanny/babysitter that we know and trust. When we use a sitter, we usually only go for two days/1 night.

[Anonymous]

We have not taken any trips just the two of us since oldest DC was born (7). I have gotten my mother to stay for one overnight, once, but it was just for one night.