Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We almost always travel with our kids, and I love it. I don't ever think about travel as getting away from 'parenting' - that's not my aim. My aim is to see the world.

OP, your kids are so little, and on strict schedules, so I can see how it's not enjoyable for you. When they get a little older it will be different.

+1

Love this!

Hmm my aim is to see the world too and I just can't do that with toddlers who sleep at 7:30pm. Long strolls at night, late dinners and going to bars and clubs in fun cities is my dream. I am always a parent and my 1 week vacation doesn't take away from that.

DP. Do what works for you, but that’s a narrow definition of seeing the world. We traveled to Italy when our kids were 1.5 & 6. We were going from morning until their bedtime seeing tons of stuff. I climbed bell towers and cathedrals with the toddler in a carrier on my back. She napped on the go. The 6 yo was excited by most of what we saw because we’d read a lot of books about it in advance to prepare him. We saw so much cool stuff & got to share it with our kids.

We travel with our kids. They’re 8 & 4 now, but we never stopped traveling after they were born. Sure, some things are less convenient, but it’s really cool to see things through their eyes, share what you love with them, & just spend time with them. Even when they don’t remember, you will. We’ve taken our kids on local camping trips, to visit family, overseas, etc. That said, your kids are really young, & if you don’t feel like traveling with them much yet, that’s fine, too.

We lived abroad when my daughter was one so we almost always had to travel with her. I don't recommend going anywhere with toddlers (!) but we didn't have another option unless we tried to squeeze in a long weekend when visiting family could stay with her. We have made a few short anniversary trips now that we have two kids and they are older but usually prefer to travel as a family. Once my kids were 5 and 9 they were delightful to travel with (still are). It's fun to get away for a few days a year by ourselves but we never would think of making a big trip without them.

We always travel with the kids and those trips have been some of the most enjoyable times we've had as a family. We love to travel and it's instilled a love of travel in the kids, too. Every so often we travel overseas w/ friends who have similar aged kids and that also gives everyone more flexibility and the kids like to hang out together, which gives the adults some more "adult" time.

We have 6 yo twins. Our twins have traveled quite a lot but have yet to spend a night without either Mom or Dad (or both) under the same roof. They have been traveling regularly since age 3 months. They have been to Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington (state), Vancouver BC, by plane. They have traveled to New York, central VA, PA and OH by car. We drive regularly (like 2-4 car trips per year) to Ohio to see a medical specialist and they usually come with us (occasionally my spouse will fly out solo for a check up while I stay home with the kids).

My spouse has taken 4 trips alone. I've had 3 trips alone. For each of those, the kids stay home with the remaining parent. We have yet to take a trip as a couple without the kids since they were born.

We don't have a nanny like pp, but we brought a grandparent along when we took our kids (youngest age 3) to Europe and it was the best of all worlds. We loved being able to have a helping hand to bathe the kids, feed them dinner and put them to bed so DH and I could have a date night in town.

Only with, but sometimes we bring our nanny so we can go out to dinner alone one night, sleep in one morning, etc.

I'm not a huge fan of parenting but also not comfortable having my kids in a different country from me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We almost always travel with our kids, and I love it. I don't ever think about travel as getting away from 'parenting' - that's not my aim. My aim is to see the world.

OP, your kids are so little, and on strict schedules, so I can see how it's not enjoyable for you. When they get a little older it will be different.

+1

Love this!

Hmm my aim is to see the world too and I just can't do that with toddlers who sleep at 7:30pm. Long strolls at night, late dinners and going to bars and clubs in fun cities is my dream. I am always a parent and my 1 week vacation doesn't take away from that.

OP here ... thanks everybody! I would love to try and do some bigger trips with them in the future but right now it seems crazy. Plus we are trying to have another one in the next year or so so the clock keeps getting reset! I love how adventurous everybody here seems. Its awesome! I have traveled and lived abroad as has my husband but we just haven't seemed to get into the travel mojo with the kids yet. Hopefully in the next few years or so!

With kids, always. We have no one to leave them with for more than about 24 hours. (This the most the grandparents seem to be able to handle, despite the fact that kids are ES age and fairly easy IMO.)

Anonymous wrote:Kids clubs OP. They are great.

Are my kids the only ones that don't enjoy them?!?!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here ... I think the hardest thing with little kids is the napping and the early bedtime. My kids are very strict sleepers (and sleep amazingly) but it’s hard to make changes to their schedules. So it seems ridiculous to pay a bunch of money for vacation to just be back in our hotel room or rented house at 7pm every night.

Why is that ridiculous? We are at the beach all day, then have dinner and yes we stay in all night and have drinks. Our kids are older now and we still like this.

NP. When I go on vacation, I like to go out, try different restaurants/bars, or even just walk around the city/beach/etc at night. Being on vacation means being able to do what I want without having to make sure it's kid-friendly. Traveling with kids can be fun but it's a trip not a vacation.

We prioritize family trips over vacation. But time and budget permitting, we make sure that we get at least one kid free vacation a year.