Anonymous wrote:I’m grateful for no Disney trips during my childhood. My siblings and I were fortunate to have our magic moments playing in nature, riding rented horses on the beach, fishing, spending three weeks at the beach (parents used to rent a house or condo). Grandma used to join us and play cards with us. Happy memories.

Three weeks on the beach with rented horses isn’t very lower/middle class.

Anonymous wrote:I grew up as a military brat in Fairfax County in the 70s & 80s. Most all of my friends and neighbors in our suburb were career military or feds. I can’t think of anyone who regularly traveled overseas or took exotic in-season or out of season vacations on the regular like nearly all families seem to do now.

My parents took their first-ever cruise (out of Baltimore) in 1988, but this was a budget-friendly, low key experience.

I realize we were considered fairly solidly middle class (some UMC) and our vacations, like our friends’ were maybe to Virginia Beach, Nags Head and so many road trips to see relatives or attend family reunions.

Wonder if hopping on a plane to Europe for a family vacation just wasn’t aspirational- most of our dads (and families) were stationed overseas, took TDY trips and/or were Vietnam vets. My dad had already seen the world well before I was born and wanted nothing more than an attainable, simply beach trip within a 4 hour drive.

The internet has also made it a lot easier to plan overseas trips. If you wanted to you could go onine, conduct some basic researtch, and book flights and hotels in a couple hours. Just totally different than 30-40 years ago.

I grew up MC and my dad didn't get much vacation time. We camped several times until my mom refused to sleep on the ground anaymore- now that I'm in my 40s I can't say I blame her, but as kids we had a blast. Otherwise we mainly went to visit family which was also fun- one of my aunts lived by a beach and when my sister and I were teens my dad would go drop us off to stay with her for the week. Best memories.

I’m grateful for no Disney trips during my childhood. My siblings and I were fortunate to have our magic moments playing in nature, riding rented horses on the beach, fishing, spending three weeks at the beach (parents used to rent a house or condo). Grandma used to join us and play cards with us. Happy memories.

We visited Panama City beach as a day trip from my grandma’s house in the south once a year. No overnight or hotel. Simple but best memories ever. We didn’t know any better.

One time we all packed up in a rented van like the Beverly hillbillies and drove to TX to see my grandma’s brother. That was an adventure.

One year when I was a teen, we visited Daytona beach and it was amazing.

Another year we went to Disney world. Again, incredible to my teenage mind.

That was it. We spent summers at grandparents houses, their farm, churches and the nhood swimming pool. Skating and bike riding down the nhood streets. Playing all day outside with friends, street ball. I worked in high school.

We didn’t travel much but my childhood lacked for nothing and I look back fondly on my summers growing up.

We visited Panama City beach as a day trip from my grandma’s house in the south once a year. No overnight or hotel. Simple but best memories ever. We didn’t know any better.

One time we all packed up in a rented van like the Beverly hillbillies and drove to TX to see my grandma’s brother. That was an adventure.

One year when I was a teen, we visited Daytona beach and it was amazing.

Another year we went to Disney world. Again, incredible to my teenage mind.

That was it. We spent summers at grandparents houses, their farm, churches and the nhood swimming pool. Skating and bike riding down the nhood streets. Playing all day outside with friends, street ball. In high school I worked.

We didn’t travel much but my childhood lacked for nothing and I look back fondly on my summers growing up.

I grew up as a military brat in Fairfax County in the 70s & 80s. Most all of my friends and neighbors in our suburb were career military or feds. I can’t think of anyone who regularly traveled overseas or took exotic in-season or out of season vacations on the regular like nearly all families seem to do now.

My parents took their first-ever cruise (out of Baltimore) in 1988, but this was a budget-friendly, low key experience.

I realize we were considered fairly solidly middle class (some UMC) and our vacations, like our friends’ were maybe to Virginia Beach, Nags Head and so many road trips to see relatives or attend family reunions.

Wonder if hopping on a plane to Europe for a family vacation just wasn’t aspirational- most of our dads (and families) were stationed overseas, took TDY trips and/or were Vietnam vets. My dad had already seen the world well before I was born and wanted nothing more than an attainable, simply beach trip within a 4 hour drive.

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in a southern state, and every other summer, we drove two days each way to CO to visit family. We also did activities in the area, while staying with family. Sometimes we’d tack something on before driving home. We also stayed with family at other locations & sometimes spend a few days at a beach. One time in my childhood, we all flew somewhere for a trip (domestic flights).

For many families, have enough vacation days available is as big a problem as having enough money to travel.

Correct and no one thinks about this. I'm a nurse. Virtually every hospital has a policy of "no more than 7 days vacation at a time" unless the manager gives a special dispensation. They will give it for someone going home to the Philippines but not for someone who wants to sightsee in Europe. I actually quit one job because they refused to give me 2 weeks to go overseas even though I had hundreds of PTO hours banked.

We are definitely considered in the upper class bracket based on income, but I want my children to have modest summer trips like I did growing up. We go to VA beach for a few days and stay right on the water with beach views— pricey but it’s 3 nights max. This is the only travel we do in summer. They’re surrounded by their friends who jet set all over Europe and even go exotic places during the school year, and yes it makes them jealous, but my husband don’t think they are going to enjoy it enough to make the expense worth it. They can travel the world when they’re older if that’s what they want to do. I’d much rather invest our money in things that matter to us now, like house improvements. I think traveling with kids is a huge pain in the butt with very little return unless your kids are truly into other cultures and appreciating history.

Anonymous wrote:We just went to grandma's house when I was a kid.

+1

Mostly road trips to see family in other states. Definitely no international or exotic locations and in any case, one parent refused to fly even if money was plentiful (it wasn't).

We just went to grandma's house when I was a kid.

I grew up in Colorado. We camped my first 10 years. Then did one family reunion in California, one Disneyworld trip and a few nights in a hotel in a mountain town. When my kid was young we couldn’t afford vacations so only went to a family member’s condo in rehoboth

We visited family each summer. I didn't mind this at all because it was 8 hours and very different, with a beach. Once we drove to Orlando for Disney World. That was our big, saved for over years vacation.

I grew up in a southern state, and every other summer, we drove two days each way to CO to visit family. We also did activities in the area, while staying with family. Sometimes we’d tack something on before driving home. We also stayed with family at other locations & sometimes spend a few days at a beach. One time in my childhood, we all flew somewhere for a trip (domestic flights).

For many families, have enough vacation days available is as big a problem as having enough money to travel.

None--- boomer. 8 kids in family. Dad was government lawyer, mom was SAHM