I thought this was a post about a mom who went on vacation without the other parent, and was regretting it. I was thinking "Of course I wouldn't take my kids on a vacation without my spouse! That would be insane to try to manage them all by myself!"

I've never taken a nanny on vacation. That would seem so .... awkward to me.

I am now wondering if all those posters that criticize people for taking vacations at kid-friendly places like Disney or cruises and making comments about how all their family vacations are to Europe are taking their nannies along. That would explain a lot.

OP, I really don't mean to be mean. But a lot of us are just a little amused that this is just now occurring to you. Most of us plan our family vacations around what our children will enjoy and tolerate. And a 2.5 hour dinner would never even cross our minds. (And that's one thing cruises are great for -- the food just comes! Quickly! And sometimes the waiters sing! And it's awful, but the kids think it's hilarious!)

Well, I never travelled with "help" but we have taken our kids on all our family vacations to include annual international trips since they were very young. We do it by planning around what will work for the kids and then add in some more adult things that you teach them you expect them to come along on and behave. You teach them self-worth by putting them first and how to be considerate of others by slowly (and in short chunks of time not a 2.5 hour dinner for preschoolers) raising your expextations for what they can tolerate. Parenting is for the long haul and you are always teaching. Even when you are on vacation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a joke I hope. What do you do at home? No kid wants a 2.5 hour dinner.

DH and I work full time.

Don't you have dinner with the kids? Don't you spend time with them on the weekend? It sounds like you don't know how to take care of children at all! Do you have 27/7 nannies?

They eat dinner earlier than we do. Generally we eat dinner after they're in bed. We do spend time together on weekends. I do know HOW to take care of the children; I've just never gone on a vacation with them without bringing the nanny before. Our nanny works from 7:30 am to 6:30pm.

OMG: Why did you have kids? Seriously.

+1 OP you SAY you know how to take care of kids but everything you've posted is quite to the contrary ...

FYI this is why kids clubs were invented.

I used to work as a nanny and many families are looking for 24/7 care. They are looking to hire 2-3 nannies for round the clock coverage. Some of them have one nanny per child 24 hrs per day during the week and then the same thing on the weekends. I never wanted to work in situations like this. I did work for a family where I was basically on call a lot. So a lot of the time the parents were with the kids but if they decided to go out or couldn't pick the kids up at school, etc, I would do it. I was a live in nanny. They actually wanted to spend time with their kids as much as possible.

Certain trips we will not do without help. Other trips you can use hotel babysitter or kids club.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of us have never met anyone who travels with a nanny. What you are talking about as if it's a foreign concept is called a family vacation.

Or, a family "trip," if you will. Vacations are kid-free.

+1. Surely this is a troll post, or just a joke.