I planned my trips with my kids in mind. Aside from Disney, I made sure there was always kid activities or kid attractions that they would like. I wanted it to be memorable for them, or at least, enjoyable, as it was for me. When they were little, I would never have planned an all hiking trip, or an art and museum heavy trip.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess you haven’t heard of amusement parks or Disney Cruises?

For a toddler? No. I have to say something like that never crossed my mind.

Your subject line and your first sentence mention kids. If you meant to ask just about toddlers, and young toddlers at that, you should have specified. You get what you ask for.

Anonymous wrote:What I'm getting from this is that you want us to think you are cool for taking a toddler to Joshua Tree???

Same. OP wants us to understand how Special she is for not doing child-centric travel.

Anonymous wrote:It never occurred to us to plan trips around our kids - we always just went where we wanted, and took the kids along. I guess it helped that we were never into hardcore third world adventuring or luxury no-children-allowed resorts, but some of our friends act shocked that we took a portable toddler to, say, Joshua Tree in February instead of - well, I'm not sure what kind of vacation a 16-month-old would prefer. Is this kind of thing really that out there?

I don’t see anything wrong with this. Joshua tree sounds amazing. We took our baby to curaçao. Why? Because the baby won’t remember and we wanted to go to curaçao. The baby cuddled with us and played in the water which is what he would have done anywhere. Parents deserve to spend their hard earned money how they want. We’ll involve the kids when they’re older

No one is judging you for doing the travel you want to do with a baby/young toddler! But it does sound like you are judging other families for planning trips around what kids would like. We definitely keep in mind our kids’ AND our preferences and the logistical realities of naps, bedtime, jet lag, and picky eaters. It’s also fun to see what kids love from trips- on one recent trip where we did and saw some awesome stuff my kid’s “favorite part” was meeting some other kids her age in an indoor pool of a meh hotel and playing with them for 2 hours.

If your friends are judging you, find new friends. You are the one who sounds judgmental from what you've posted here. Maybe you're getting that energy back from your friends.

At the 16 month old, it's about what are you willing to do while bringing along the pet rock that poops, eats, naps, whines, and wanders around stuffing random things in his/her mouth. If Joshua Tree was it for you, great. Some pet rocks act different than other ones though, so show a little grace if you're pulling off Joshua Tree no problem. Some pet rocks are much more difficult than others and a change to schedule and scenery goes really poorly.

Yep, absolutely. Once he was old enough to have opinions and desires beyond being held and fed at certain times, he was an important voice in planning vacations.

Last year his passion was minecraft/gemstones/mining. We took a couple really cool trips to places in the country where we could dig for different gems and learn about the geology of the regions. Last summer we did Costa Rica but in a way that was super kid friendly--rafting, animal focused, adventuring (but with lots of pool time and food options he likes).

His current passion is baseball. This summer we are planning to go to an Oriole's game in Seattle before catching a cruise to Alaska.

If I made this kid trek through Europe and look at art museums, we'd all be miserable.

At 16 months old? We did whatever was easiest for us. What did we want to do that would have easy access to napping, snacking, and breaks for mom & dad. By 5, we fully took his interests into account in a way that was enjoyable for us too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As they age you had better take their preferences into account, or your trip will be miserable.

They are not luggage.

Hmm. Interesting. As toddlers, they were perfectly happy to ride on our backs while we hiked.

Sure. My first one never cared and went along. The second one hated the hiking backpacks and would scream. So we had to wait until she dropped naps and was over 4 to do these things. So we stay near beaches, National parks and do shorter outings etc. my oldest is 8 and obsessed with cacti so Saguaro national park is on the list for next year. I take their interests in consideration as they are part of the family too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I'm getting from this is that you want us to think you are cool for taking a toddler to Joshua Tree???

No. I feel really weird and gross now knowing that our friends are judging us for it. It just never occurred to me go to Disney. It wasn't something I cared about. I thought parents who took their kids places like this 1) went with older kids and 2) went because THEY really wanted to go and needed an excuse.

Your kids get one childhood and it shouldn't always be about your needs, wishes and wants. Disney is fun and easy. (Well was, till they made all the changes and increased costs).

Anonymous wrote:It never occurred to us to plan trips around our kids - we always just went where we wanted, and took the kids along. I guess it helped that we were never into hardcore third world adventuring or luxury no-children-allowed resorts, but some of our friends act shocked that we took a portable toddler to, say, Joshua Tree in February instead of - well, I'm not sure what kind of vacation a 16-month-old would prefer. Is this kind of thing really that out there?

You're sounding kind of self righteous but also admitting the trips you want were ones that would work with a toddler. Hiking in Nepal or a week at a spa with massages and fine dining wouldn't work. To a certain extent, you were already defaulting to trips that would work with a child.

Yes, all our trips centered around kids. My parents dragged us on their trips never thinking of our needs or wishes and it sucked. I hated traveling with them. Thankfully normally they'd dump us on my grandparents which was much better.

Your kid is a toddler, for them a trip to the grocery store is adventurous.

But yes, at some point, they may be interested in adventure parks (not necessarily Disney, there are lots of nice ones Hershey, Busch gardens etc) but also you’d modify activities during trips to make it more fun for your 6 or 10 or 15 year old. There are so many art museums or archeological sites a 10 year old can visit in a 1 week trip. So you mix up those with stuff that they find fun.

Kid specific trips? no. Kid specific activities on a trip, of course we do that. I can't think of a single destination that I'd want to go to as an adult where we couldn't find something each day that our kids were excited about. They're in ES, so I realize things may get harder when they're teens and just hanging out with us is a punishment.

Anonymous wrote:What I'm getting from this is that you want us to think you are cool for taking a toddler to Joshua Tree???

No. I feel really weird and gross now knowing that our friends are judging us for it. It just never occurred to me go to Disney. It wasn't something I cared about. I thought parents who took their kids places like this 1) went with older kids and 2) went because THEY really wanted to go and needed an excuse.

Vacations, no. But we have done quick trips to Orlando when the weather was cold here. A day at most at a park and then just relaxing a a resort, pool, spa, some shopping.