We have only done it twice, but once we had MIL and once we had my sister come stay with the kids. We paid for their flights. Both times it was just a long weekend, but it was pretty amazing to get away just the two of us.

One time our neighbor stayed with them overnight when we both had to travel for work on the same day, but that was kind of an emergency/crisis situation.

I don't understand the "we travel as a family" people. Do you take your kids to every event with you too? Sometimes the adults do things without the kids, travel is the same

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our oldest is 8 and DH and I have been away once for a weekend together without kids in that whole time, which I think is ridiculous. We don’t have family close by, but even so, they aren’t willing to come and stay with our kids for a couple days, so not an option. We have a great part time nanny but she has a teenaged son and isn’t interested in doing weekends or overnights either.

All of our friends have started traveling again without kids this summer and I am feeling incredibly jealous that they can just get away. All have family who comes to help out, even if they don’t live close by they will travel in.

So what do others do, especially those without family support? Are we resigned to just never go away again?

I know we could just find a random sitter to stay, but my kids definitely take time to warm up, especially my younger one who is almost 4.

Depends. If you are my SIL - whenever and wherever you like - because there is always something to "celebrate"! Anniversary? Birthday? Anything! MIL will step in and save you.

If you are DH and I, never. We don't travel without our kids, and we are glad about it, in the long run.

Despite saying you're glad about it in the long run, you sound pretty bitter in the short run. Maybe you should try celebrating more things.

I had children because I want them, they travel with us. It’s called a family and families take trips together.

I'm guessing that a lot of the parents here who say they'd never travel without the kids are ones who are working full time and feel too guilty leaving them.

Then there are the parents with nannies who can't even go on vacation without bringing her. They can't even take care of their own kids for a week! So funny.

Anonymous wrote:

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

Same here. They aren’t kids for that long. We travel with them. My parents never traveled without us, nor do any of my siblings travel without their kids. Plenty of time for that before kids & after they leave home.

Meh. You do you but kids are kids for 18 years. Nothing wrong with taking trips without them if able to.

Do a mini staycation. It's the easiest way. Take a day off when your kids are all at school/daycare, and have your nanny stay for the evening as well. Then get lunch and dinner reservations, go to a museum, see a movie, go to a brewery or vineyard, etc. Do the kinds of things you'd do on vacation with your spouse, just do them locally.

We do this every year for our anniversary and then 2-3 other times just for fun. It's the best of both worlds because you get a break from parenting but you don't have to stress about something happening while you are away and needing to cut short a vacation to deal with it, or worrying about how well your kids are doing with whoever they are staying with. Your kids get to have a pretty normal day, with the one difference that they will eat dinner and do bedtime with your nanny instead of you. Not a huge sacrifice on their end, your nanny gets some extra cash, and you get some kid free time.

I also recommend cultivating friendships with people who have same age kids and seeing if they'd be interested in trading sleepover nights. Though if you have 3 or more that's hard and you might have to work with more than one family to make it work, which is logistically annoying. But with one or two kids, this is such an easy way to get a quick getaway with your spouse. You do, of course, need to be willing to host their kids sometimes too. But with our family friends, this isn't a burden -- it's actually nice because our kids generally behave better when they have guests and are occupied and need less entertaining from us. Win-win.

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

Same here. They aren’t kids for that long. We travel with them. My parents never traveled without us, nor do any of my siblings travel without their kids. Plenty of time for that before kids & after they leave home.

We didn't travel without the kids until the youngest was about 9. They stayed with friends for the two nights.

If you don't have (super accommodating) friends or family, it can cost a lot of money.

We’ve only done it for weddings and funerals. Twice in their lives. Family cannot do it. We paid a nanny. It was about $1000 for 48 hours.

We don’t travel without DC, but do bring our nanny with us and make sure to include her in some fun experiences while also giving her some downtime to enjoy the area.

Anonymous wrote:Our oldest is 8 and DH and I have been away once for a weekend together without kids in that whole time, which I think is ridiculous. We don’t have family close by, but even so, they aren’t willing to come and stay with our kids for a couple days, so not an option. We have a great part time nanny but she has a teenaged son and isn’t interested in doing weekends or overnights either.

All of our friends have started traveling again without kids this summer and I am feeling incredibly jealous that they can just get away. All have family who comes to help out, even if they don’t live close by they will travel in.

So what do others do, especially those without family support? Are we resigned to just never go away again?

I know we could just find a random sitter to stay, but my kids definitely take time to warm up, especially my younger one who is almost 4.

Depends. If you are my SIL - whenever and wherever you like - because there is always something to "celebrate"! Anniversary? Birthday? Anything! MIL will step in and save you.

If you are DH and I, never. We don't travel without our kids, and we are glad about it, in the long run.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet your Nanny would do it if you offered her a lot. You need to make it worth her while.

I wouldn't bet on this. If she wanted a full time job she wouldn't be working part time.

Not necessarily. Our nanny is part time and loves caring for the kids when we go away as long as we give her enough notice. She’s been their nanny since my oldest was born and they love each other!

+1 Our date night sitter is who we use when doing getaways without the kids. She works part-time but is always available for overnighters. Have used her several times pre-Covid, one last Fall and two this Summer. We pay well and make it easy for her with car use if wanting to take kids out, credit card for whatever food, own guestroom.

We don’t travel without the kids.
My parents would sometimes travel while I was at sleep away camp.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet your Nanny would do it if you offered her a lot. You need to make it worth her while.

I wouldn't bet on this. If she wanted a full time job she wouldn't be working part time.

Not necessarily. Our nanny is part time and loves caring for the kids when we go away as long as we give her enough notice. She’s been their nanny since my oldest was born and they love each other!

Anonymous wrote:I bet your Nanny would do it if you offered her a lot. You need to make it worth her while.

I wouldn't bet on this. If she wanted a full time job she wouldn't be working part time.