Reply to Experienced parents, what was the hardest age for traveling? When did it permanently improve?

Forum Index » Travel Discussion

Reply to "Experienced parents, what was the hardest age for traveling? When did it permanently improve?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]I can't speak to the teen years yet but agree with the concensus that 1-2.5 yrs was utter hell.

Just remembering the nonstop wriggling on the plane makes me want to cry.

They are too old to sleep in carriers or strollers, but too young to skip naps, so you're stuck hiding in the hotel room hoping they nap (I have a memory of literally camping out in the hotel room bathroom with H for 2 hours while our 1 yo slept in the hotel room. They need to go to sleep by 8 pm and still wake up at like 5 am, so you can't go out late and have fun but you're still tired and sleep deprived.

They can't swim yet so you can't relax at the beach or pool. Mine were both runners so I couldn't relax period, it was just nonstop chasing them. Might sit at a restaurant (assuming it has a high chair, many in other countries don't IME) , but only for 30 min.

It's just relentless. You are never not physically holding or restraining them, and doing it all on less sleep. Not to even mention meltdowns! My kids were both exhausting but happy, so I never dealt as much with that.

Just writing this out is giving me ptsd. One of the most exhausting things I've ever done. I know the teen parents are insisting that it's worse but that is genuinely hard for me to imagine. Like others have said, at least a teen can have some alone time, or sit and pout at the pool without drowning themselves.

Mine are 3 and 6 now. It's still not pre kid travel obviously, but it's night and day compared to younger kids. We can find activities they enjoy, we can sit at the beach, we can walk down a sidewalk without holding one of them or chasing anyone. When we're really in a bind, we can turn a movie on. I actually enjoy and look forward to trips now. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics