I have older kids and the trick has been to reframe the trip with things they'll get to do or places to eat. Kids are great but you have to scale things to their understanding.
I think you could benefit from the knowledge that there is a clown motel out in the desert, partially built on an old cemetery. My daughter is into creepy clowns and was a neat place to visit… but I think could make a good threat in your case.
Edit: https://www.theclownmotelusa.com/
And understand if the big attraction isn't what they care about.
We took our kids to Disney every year and combined it with a trip to visit my wife's best friend and his family since they are only about 20 minutes from Disney. One year I asked my kids what they were most excited about for our upcoming Disney trip. They thought about it and my son said, "Swimming with Jacob, Tommy, and Isabella in the pool at their house." We have a pool at our house but swimming with their friends they only saw once a year was what they cared about, not Disney itself. We saw it as the Disney trip, the kids saw it as a trip to Orlando to visit their friends and Disney was just a pit stop we forced them to do.
Last year, we took our three-year-old on a trip to America (from the UK). Trip of a lifetime stuff - we did a road trip of Boston, New York and Toronto, saw the Statue of Liberty, Niagara Falls...
The Airbnb at Toronto had a trampoline in the backyard... So guess what, if you asked our daughter, was her favourite part of the whole trip?
Correct: "Trampoline"
When I was a kid we spent a summer driving across Canada. When our parents asked what our favourite part was, it was unanimous— the water slide in the hotel in Saskatoon.
Yep, my niece and nephew come out every summer from Saskatchewan to Van Isle and their favorite thing to do everyone? Go in the pool.
Long Beach? No thanks pool. Waterfall tour? No thanks pool. Go shopping and get spoilt by uncle? No thanks pool.
We got back from Cancun with a 3.5 year old, a couple of weeks ago. I totally get it :)
The kiddo just does not have a frame of reference or concept for vacation. On the second day, we just realized that we were going to stop asking what he wanted to do, and just start forcing it. First it was the pool and only the pool, and then the sand and only the sand, and then we had to drag him into the ocean, at which point it was the ocean and only the ocean . . .
Expect a significant come-down when you get back home, and likely some behavioral problems. It took our kiddo about 5 days to settle back in to normalcy.
It was fun, we all had a blast, but it is very much the truth that vacationing with kids is just parenting in another location. Good luck.
They also don’t understand all the obvious nuances and implied ideas with your question.
Example: “Do you want to go stay in a hotel?”
Kids don’t know that you obviously mean we’d all stay in the hotel. Their brain is basically hearing “Do you want to go away and sleep somewhere else without us?” So of course the kid is scared and reserved.
You have to frame it in ways that take away those implied sentence. “Do you want to go on an adventure and sleep somewhere fun with mommy and daddy??”
my nephew (4 at that time) when he visited us was adamant that his parents "move their house into our backyard" (from a city thats a 3 hour flight away mind you), so that he could always keep playing with us.
The 5 day cooldown is something we’ve come to just budget into any vacation. There whole schedule is going to be thrashed so we just roll with it. No point in getting annoyed about that.
It's both, really. You are parenting the same problems you would have at home. At the same time, though, watching your kids experience new things, having fun, the wonder that comes along with it... It's one of the best parts of parenting.
My 2yo hasn't had dinner in a year. She loves noodle snacks. Yesterday she really enjoyed the hotdog snack with the carrot and potato snacks. We all sat at the snack table.
My 5yo son is having some troubles. He tried to convince his little sister that we were eating something called "dinner"? Not sure where he got that crazy idea.
I was thinking something similar, maybe don't call it a hotel, call it the big house or the pool house or like another person said, call it a sleepover, not a vacation.
My daughter had to have a mole removed when she was like 7 or 8. She completely panicked and wouldn’t let the doctor do it because she was afraid of stitches. The doc told her that she wasn’t getting stitches, but instead she was getting threads. No problem after that.
My 5 year old has a silver crown on her tooth. I thought she'd hate it and think it would be embarrassing. I was hoping since its in the back no one would see it.
But she thinks it's cool. Now her oldest sister wants one too. If she sees another kid with a crown they show it off and bond over it.
Kids are interesting...
My 6 year old the day we packed up the car to make the drive to Disney and was yelling he hates Mickey Mouse and he just wants to stay home. 5:00 AM was not the best time to try and leave with a happy heart for Disney world
We bought a new minivan when my middle kid turned 8 or so. Figured a good way to break it in would be to drive down to Orlando from NJ. It has a DVD player so we figured if we brought enough movies with us, the kids would be sufficiently entertained for the duration.
Soon found out how wrong we were. My middle kid had sensory issues that we weren't aware of at the time. He absolutely HATED being in the car, and told us so every chance he got. Loudly. At one point we stopped in South Carolina to stretch our legs. We had pulled in to an abandoned gas station just off 95. We all get out, walk around a bit, and now it's time to keep driving.
My middle kid said "No, I'm not getting back in the car." We tried for about 10 minutes to bargain, entice, beg, demand...anything. He wouldn't budge. As a last resort we said "If you don't get in the car, we're gonna leave you here."
"Fine," he said. Arms crossed, the whole nine.
My wife and I get in the car. He still hadn't moved. My wife rolls down the window. "We're really gonna leave you here."
"Fine." Doesn't move. Doesn't even flinch.
I put the car in drive and drove up to the entrance of the gas station (he was in sight of us the whole time.)
Didn't move. Just stood there, arms crossed, watching us drive away. I had to get out and walk over to him and pick him up to put him back in the car.
He won that day.
it's 9:03 am, disney magic kingdom, just took a family pic on main st usa:
*"i want to go home"*
ok, we have to go this way to get out!
*head toward tomorrowland*
hey here's a jammy sammy!
"*yay!*"
My toddler thinks hotels are the greatest thing in the world because she gets to sleep in the same room as us. She general has a chip on her shoulder that mommy and daddy share a bed but she sleeps alone. I feel for her but she also gets way too excited to sleep in a bed with us.
Our kid cried because we were going somewhere new and not where we went last year. Next year, he will have the same reaction and want to go back to where we are going this year.
We had a 24 hour layover in Miami in march so we rented a car and checked out the city. My 2.5 year old complained the entire day about the car.
"I don't like this car."
"This is not my car seat"
"It's not mommy or daddy's car."
lol man I’m kinda dealing with this right now. We traveled to my hometown to visit my grandparents and get out of the city, we also have my 7yr old nephew.
Both boys were excited for fireworks and visiting (great) grandma and grandpa, everything is going great but come 1130pm my nephew is missing his mom, who is two hours away and working her night shift, and my 3yr old is inconsolable “I want to goooooo hoooooooome” which is 3hrs away :(
Stay strong brother .
My kid hated the idea of going on a spring break 'adventure' with her grandparents. Eventually realized it was just too open-ended for her. "Tomorrow Grandma and Grandpa are going to pick you up and you're all going on the ferry together" got a completely different reaction.
I recently took a 4 hour round trip drive with my son. He was actually really good (with the help of the iPad). However, driving home in rush hour traffic while discussing Paw Patrol was a tough finish for me.
Prior to this, the longest both had been in the car was 3.5 hours.
Day one was 8.
The iPads stopped many times for similar conversations (8 and 9 here) and lots of “can we get to the hotel already”
I was starting to type out advice to tell him that you're allowed to jump on beds when you stay in a hotel until I saw the inside of your post. Hilarious.
Mine said she wanted me to open a tin with her picture cards today then cried because the now opened tin didn’t then have the lid on.
She cried for like 5 mins and I couldn’t reason with her in any way 😂 putting the lid on then made it worse because she couldn’t see her cards
Sometimes it’s best to not let them know exactly what’s happening. It gives them time to decide if they want to cooperate. For example I stopped asking for them to go brush teeth, and just bring them up and hand them the toothbrush. It’s just what’s happening.
We call ours adventures. Kids never want to do anything but rarely say know if they genuinely think an adventure is afoot.
This weekend, our 4th of July trip turned into a (true) tale of a pirate shipwreck at the town we were going to & how we’ll have to look for it and I shared a map with an X on it.
They were stoked (twins: 3.5) & 2 older sibs.
When our oldest was younger it worked better to refer to the hotel room as "home base." We also called our trips "adventures." Helping him think of it as a journey really let him enjoy the experience more
Exactly. There are some things you just don't ask kids. My kid gets choices, from the options I present him. It isn't, "What do you want for lunch?" It's, "Do you want beans or chicken for lunch?"
I have older kids and the trick has been to reframe the trip with things they'll get to do or places to eat. Kids are great but you have to scale things to their understanding.
We are calling ours a sleepover.
We call ours exterminating feet eating clowns. He’s always had that fear and this works
But what happens when the feet eating clowns are still there when you get home?
[удалено]
Killer klowns from outer space 2: don’t look under the bed
Leave some old XXL bowling shoes around to show it worked.
I think you could benefit from the knowledge that there is a clown motel out in the desert, partially built on an old cemetery. My daughter is into creepy clowns and was a neat place to visit… but I think could make a good threat in your case. Edit: https://www.theclownmotelusa.com/
Ours are called adventures.
And understand if the big attraction isn't what they care about. We took our kids to Disney every year and combined it with a trip to visit my wife's best friend and his family since they are only about 20 minutes from Disney. One year I asked my kids what they were most excited about for our upcoming Disney trip. They thought about it and my son said, "Swimming with Jacob, Tommy, and Isabella in the pool at their house." We have a pool at our house but swimming with their friends they only saw once a year was what they cared about, not Disney itself. We saw it as the Disney trip, the kids saw it as a trip to Orlando to visit their friends and Disney was just a pit stop we forced them to do.
Last year, we took our three-year-old on a trip to America (from the UK). Trip of a lifetime stuff - we did a road trip of Boston, New York and Toronto, saw the Statue of Liberty, Niagara Falls... The Airbnb at Toronto had a trampoline in the backyard... So guess what, if you asked our daughter, was her favourite part of the whole trip? Correct: "Trampoline"
When I was a kid we spent a summer driving across Canada. When our parents asked what our favourite part was, it was unanimous— the water slide in the hotel in Saskatoon.
Yep, my niece and nephew come out every summer from Saskatchewan to Van Isle and their favorite thing to do everyone? Go in the pool. Long Beach? No thanks pool. Waterfall tour? No thanks pool. Go shopping and get spoilt by uncle? No thanks pool.
Well that’s like a looot of driving, no shit
We got back from Cancun with a 3.5 year old, a couple of weeks ago. I totally get it :) The kiddo just does not have a frame of reference or concept for vacation. On the second day, we just realized that we were going to stop asking what he wanted to do, and just start forcing it. First it was the pool and only the pool, and then the sand and only the sand, and then we had to drag him into the ocean, at which point it was the ocean and only the ocean . . . Expect a significant come-down when you get back home, and likely some behavioral problems. It took our kiddo about 5 days to settle back in to normalcy. It was fun, we all had a blast, but it is very much the truth that vacationing with kids is just parenting in another location. Good luck.
They also don’t understand all the obvious nuances and implied ideas with your question. Example: “Do you want to go stay in a hotel?” Kids don’t know that you obviously mean we’d all stay in the hotel. Their brain is basically hearing “Do you want to go away and sleep somewhere else without us?” So of course the kid is scared and reserved. You have to frame it in ways that take away those implied sentence. “Do you want to go on an adventure and sleep somewhere fun with mommy and daddy??”
>vacationing with kids is just parenting in another location This. So much.
I read somewhere once… would you rather change diapers at home or Costa Rica. I choose Costa Rica.
Home. Because at least at home you have all your shit and all your space etc.
Felt that. Also I’m not overwhelmed with the anxiety that I’m disturbing other guests when the kids start crying
my nephew (4 at that time) when he visited us was adamant that his parents "move their house into our backyard" (from a city thats a 3 hour flight away mind you), so that he could always keep playing with us.
The 5 day cooldown is something we’ve come to just budget into any vacation. There whole schedule is going to be thrashed so we just roll with it. No point in getting annoyed about that.
This. I was like " why is this a post?" 😅 use redirection and focus on the "fun" part lol
Which was it; a blast? or just parenting in another location?
It's both, really. You are parenting the same problems you would have at home. At the same time, though, watching your kids experience new things, having fun, the wonder that comes along with it... It's one of the best parts of parenting.
Introducing my kids to new experiences or locations for the first time in their life is my favorite thing as a parent
Mine too
apropos of nothing my toddler wanted snacks instead of dinner last night so we had snacks for dinner. i cooked up some burger snacks on the grill.
My 2yo hasn't had dinner in a year. She loves noodle snacks. Yesterday she really enjoyed the hotdog snack with the carrot and potato snacks. We all sat at the snack table. My 5yo son is having some troubles. He tried to convince his little sister that we were eating something called "dinner"? Not sure where he got that crazy idea.
I was thinking something similar, maybe don't call it a hotel, call it the big house or the pool house or like another person said, call it a sleepover, not a vacation.
Can you do me a nice t-bone snack with some mushroom snacks?
My daughter had to have a mole removed when she was like 7 or 8. She completely panicked and wouldn’t let the doctor do it because she was afraid of stitches. The doc told her that she wasn’t getting stitches, but instead she was getting threads. No problem after that.
My 5 year old has a silver crown on her tooth. I thought she'd hate it and think it would be embarrassing. I was hoping since its in the back no one would see it. But she thinks it's cool. Now her oldest sister wants one too. If she sees another kid with a crown they show it off and bond over it. Kids are interesting...
My 6 year old the day we packed up the car to make the drive to Disney and was yelling he hates Mickey Mouse and he just wants to stay home. 5:00 AM was not the best time to try and leave with a happy heart for Disney world
It’s not a hotel, it’s a holiday house. With breakfast pancakes everyday!
>holiday house Taylor Swift's Rhode Island mansion?
We bought a new minivan when my middle kid turned 8 or so. Figured a good way to break it in would be to drive down to Orlando from NJ. It has a DVD player so we figured if we brought enough movies with us, the kids would be sufficiently entertained for the duration. Soon found out how wrong we were. My middle kid had sensory issues that we weren't aware of at the time. He absolutely HATED being in the car, and told us so every chance he got. Loudly. At one point we stopped in South Carolina to stretch our legs. We had pulled in to an abandoned gas station just off 95. We all get out, walk around a bit, and now it's time to keep driving. My middle kid said "No, I'm not getting back in the car." We tried for about 10 minutes to bargain, entice, beg, demand...anything. He wouldn't budge. As a last resort we said "If you don't get in the car, we're gonna leave you here." "Fine," he said. Arms crossed, the whole nine. My wife and I get in the car. He still hadn't moved. My wife rolls down the window. "We're really gonna leave you here." "Fine." Doesn't move. Doesn't even flinch. I put the car in drive and drove up to the entrance of the gas station (he was in sight of us the whole time.) Didn't move. Just stood there, arms crossed, watching us drive away. I had to get out and walk over to him and pick him up to put him back in the car. He won that day.
it's 9:03 am, disney magic kingdom, just took a family pic on main st usa: *"i want to go home"* ok, we have to go this way to get out! *head toward tomorrowland* hey here's a jammy sammy! "*yay!*"
Sounds like it will work out. You'll be too busy having a vacation to have a trip, and you don't need a hotel to stay at since you'll be at the hotel.
My toddler thinks hotels are the greatest thing in the world because she gets to sleep in the same room as us. She general has a chip on her shoulder that mommy and daddy share a bed but she sleeps alone. I feel for her but she also gets way too excited to sleep in a bed with us.
Our kid cried because we were going somewhere new and not where we went last year. Next year, he will have the same reaction and want to go back to where we are going this year.
We had a 24 hour layover in Miami in march so we rented a car and checked out the city. My 2.5 year old complained the entire day about the car. "I don't like this car." "This is not my car seat" "It's not mommy or daddy's car."
lol man I’m kinda dealing with this right now. We traveled to my hometown to visit my grandparents and get out of the city, we also have my 7yr old nephew. Both boys were excited for fireworks and visiting (great) grandma and grandpa, everything is going great but come 1130pm my nephew is missing his mom, who is two hours away and working her night shift, and my 3yr old is inconsolable “I want to goooooo hoooooooome” which is 3hrs away :( Stay strong brother .
Toddler logic is amazing lol
The tough part about toddlers is letting them know they don't get all the choices and decisions. And tantrums don't get them anything.
My kid hated the idea of going on a spring break 'adventure' with her grandparents. Eventually realized it was just too open-ended for her. "Tomorrow Grandma and Grandpa are going to pick you up and you're all going on the ferry together" got a completely different reaction.
Just got back from a 7 day, 38 hour (driving time) trip down through New England to LEGOLAND NY. And yeah. It was a lot.
I recently took a 4 hour round trip drive with my son. He was actually really good (with the help of the iPad). However, driving home in rush hour traffic while discussing Paw Patrol was a tough finish for me.
Prior to this, the longest both had been in the car was 3.5 hours. Day one was 8. The iPads stopped many times for similar conversations (8 and 9 here) and lots of “can we get to the hotel already”
Here's the neat thing. They have to do it regardless.
I was starting to type out advice to tell him that you're allowed to jump on beds when you stay in a hotel until I saw the inside of your post. Hilarious.
Mine said she wanted me to open a tin with her picture cards today then cried because the now opened tin didn’t then have the lid on. She cried for like 5 mins and I couldn’t reason with her in any way 😂 putting the lid on then made it worse because she couldn’t see her cards
Toddlers just tend to say "No, I don't want to" about anything that isn't the thing they are wanting to do in the moment.
Why are ypu negotiating with a tiny terrorist? . Unless it is paying for the trip it gets no.opinion.
I think you missed the joke.
Sometimes it’s best to not let them know exactly what’s happening. It gives them time to decide if they want to cooperate. For example I stopped asking for them to go brush teeth, and just bring them up and hand them the toothbrush. It’s just what’s happening.
Well good thing it's not a democracy and the adults can overrule the oppinionated toddler 😆
We call ours adventures. Kids never want to do anything but rarely say know if they genuinely think an adventure is afoot. This weekend, our 4th of July trip turned into a (true) tale of a pirate shipwreck at the town we were going to & how we’ll have to look for it and I shared a map with an X on it. They were stoked (twins: 3.5) & 2 older sibs.
When our oldest was younger it worked better to refer to the hotel room as "home base." We also called our trips "adventures." Helping him think of it as a journey really let him enjoy the experience more
Or how about actually getting them on the trip but not wanting to leave the hotel room. You now become a prisoner of your own vacation 😂
Is it the four seasons Orlando?
Yeah to bad. You don’t ask you say we’re doing this, and maybe give them some info on things they would enjoy. You’re the parent.
Exactly. There are some things you just don't ask kids. My kid gets choices, from the options I present him. It isn't, "What do you want for lunch?" It's, "Do you want beans or chicken for lunch?"
Exactly. I didn’t raise picky eaters, because it was “ This is what’s for dinner”.
Sorry for your toddler bro. They do what you tell them.
And they decide what you’re doing?