If you could, would you leave 1 year old home?

[1sttimereasterweek]

My mom has offered to watch our 14 month old for the week when we go to Disney. We have 5 and 7 year old boys. We'll go to all the parks with a break day in the middle of the week. Our plan is to come back to the resort for naps each afternoon. What would you do?

 

[eeyore29]

We took DD when she was 13 months and she LOVED all the sights and sounds. I loved that she slowed us down, it was a more relaxing pace than trips prior. Granted, she's a single child not slowing down older siblings, and you know your kids better than anyone, but I vote for taking him/her along.

 

[amsyw]

No

We took our then 12 month old. He is now 7. He loves looking at the pictures of himself when we were there. He had a blast and even though he doesn't remember it, we do!!

 

[Malakaiii]

No way!

Little ones are free, don't eat much, and will usually nap anywhere. Sure, the baby won't remember it, but YOU will remember him there! And like someone else said, I'm sure he'd love to see the pictures when he's big.

 

[Upon a Star]

We would and have. I don't think it's fair to bring your baby and throw him or her off their schedule. If you only had the baby then you could it would be fine. You'll get much more out of your trip this way. Plus it gives you a reason to go back in a few years!

 

[amomma23]

Nope. Our kids were 7, 3, and 15 months on their first trip. Our youngest LOVED it. She was also the easiest to travel with. As others said, she was free, she napped as needed in her stroller, and we easily shared our meals with her. The only time she was fussy was when we had to get off of a ride. We still joke about how we had to quick get off and find something else to see before she cried!
I would be really sad looking back at all of our pictures if we had our whole family without her.

 

[mom_of_2]

No! We took our 15 month old and also had our 4 year old. It was so great watching her get excited to go on rides and see the characters. As the pp stated she will not remember it but we will. She also loves looking back at pictures of our trip. I couldn't imagine not having her with us. With that said, you know what would be best for your family.

 

[tjmj9801]

Nope. We travel as a family.

 

[Kae]

Yes. when we took DS on his first trip DD was 1 & she stayed with her grandparents.

kae

 

[TwinkleKS]

My in laws offered the same for my two year old and we said no. Granted, he was older than your DS, but we had a blast with all of us being there.

 

[corneredbycorn]

We are leaving my daughter with grandparents when we go in a month and a half. She will be 15.5 months at the time. Bringing her was never even under consideration. It would just be more trouble than it would be worth for us. She loves mascots and we would love to see how she would interact with the characters and I know she would like all the music and lights, but the idea of having to bring a stroller, keep her cool, keep her warm, change diapers, have snacks, have drinks, have milk, and deal with naps and meltdowns because her schedule was thrown off just sounded like a nightmare. We will happily take her when she is older.

That said, if I was already taking kids, I would be more willing to consider it, but it would depend on the baby and how much it might impact the trip for the others. For example, if it was a first trip and the other child was tall enough to get on all the rides, it would be a no. If the other child is three years old, can't ride everything, and I already have a double stroller, it would be much more likely.

 

[SCmom3]

I have a 1yr old now and there is no way I would leave him to go on vacation. He would not understand where I was or when I was coming back. My oher children would have been miserable left behind at that age.

 

[RachaelA]

I have never seen DD have as much fun as I did on our trip this past October (she was 11.5 months). I could not imagine leaving her at home even if we had older children.

 

[RollTide1017]

Been a while since I've posted here but this thread is making me feel bad.

We have a 5 year old daughter and 3 year old twins.

We are going to Disney at the end of April to take my 5 year old DD for the first time. She is just at the age where she is all about Disney princess and we really wanted to get her to Disney before she out grew this phase. We have decided to leave the 3 year old twins with there grandparents, mainly because the are such a handful, especially when all 3 of them are together. We feel like we need an extra person to corral them all at times when we are out doing things. The grandparents considered coming along but decided they couldn't afford it right now and offered to babysit.

Money is the other issue and another reason they are not going this time. This trip has really been kind of spur of the moment after getting our tax refund. My wife and I use to live in Orlando and had AP so we now the lay of the land. This is going to be a quick trip with 3 days in the parks (we only recently decided to go park hopper, was going to be only a MK trip). We are staying with one of my friends to save even more money.

I do feel bad that we are leaving them behind and we thought long and hard about this and in the end we decided that my 5 year old would enjoy it more and we'd get more done if the twins stayed with the grandparents. Our kids are also all on the small side (my 5 year old DD is just now 40.5" tall) so we knew there would be many things the twins wouldn't be able to do that my older DD could and, that would cause some major meltdowns (my 3 year old DD is going through a very bad major meltdown phase about everything that doesn't go her way). We are already planning a return trip to WDW in 2 years when the twins are 5. That trip, if we save up enough money, will be a whole family stay on property type of trip, hopefully. The grandparents are even planing to come on that trip.

This is a surprise trip for my 5 year old, we haven't even told her yet. We plan on telling her once we are on the highway, she is going to go nuts! She starts kindergarten in the fall so I guess this is a "we are proud of you for growing up" gift, I guess. I just hope the twins aren't to mad at us when they find out where we went.

 

[Aliceacc]

I couldn't. I just wouldn't want to go without all my kids.

It's a killer, because I could put in to chaperone the Senior trip at school. But I won't go to WDW without my kids.

 

[auprincess]

Nope, we've taken a 12 month old and 13 month old and they had so much fun!! The baby was always the easiest (compared to our other kiddos), too! Slept in the stroller or in a wrap when it was naptime (so we never had to go back for a mid-day break unless we all really wanted to)!

 

[MSSANDRA]

No.

 

[geraghty]

We are leaving my daughter with grandparents when we go in a month and a half. She will be 15.5 months at the time. Bringing her was never even under consideration. It would just be more trouble than it would be worth for us. She loves mascots and we would love to see how she would interact with the characters and I know she would like all the music and lights, but the idea of having to bring a stroller, keep her cool, keep her warm, change diapers, have snacks, have drinks, have milk, and deal with naps and meltdowns because her schedule was thrown off just sounded like a nightmare...

Could not disagree more. My greatest memories of WDW, is watching the enjoyment on my kids faces. One of my favorite mornings was when a cm was blowing bubbles at the entrance of Barnstormer and my ds (1) laughed and chased the bubbles while my dw and dd were in line.

With rider swap, you can take turns on the big rides. Sure your infant will slow you down , but I would not want to do it any other way.

 

[dsnycrzy]

This was funny because I thought about my DS who is now 17yrs old. My very 1st trip he was 1 and my DD was 3. With no experience of being so far away from home alone (I was 23yrs old and living in DE but from NY,2hrs away), I thought if I got lost or something it would be alot easier to deal with a 3 yr old then a 3yr old and a pamper wearing, bottle drinking 24hour diaper bag dragging baby along. I got there and although I missed him so bad and cried everytime I seen a child his age, his carrier, stroller, etc. I was glad I left him with my mom. With no experience with WDW I booked a room at an offsite hotel that put a $300 hold on my acct leaving me with $200 for a whole week. There was no refrige in the room so where would his milk have gone? Being lactose intolerance he was still on prosobee formula. Buying a can of formula a day would have broken my now very small budget. my DD & I shared meals while there and made it home by having the cab pull up to my moms job so she could pay the fare. Because of this case I would surely say NO DO NOT BRING A 1 yr old.
Fast forward a few year and I had another DD who's now 10yrs old. Her 1st year she went twice! Since she was born 6 weeks early in August, our usual August trip was cancelled that year so I thought. We went that same year in November, she was 3 months then again when she was 1 that next August. She loved the music, lights, pool,etc.
Fast forward yet again! With all the new Disney Jr shows that my new DS watches, it was a no brainer that he was going that next year. Also born in August, he was 1yr,3 days old when he 1st experienced WDW. Loved the show at HS and all the Disney Jr characters. My big kids as well as myself loved watching his responses to everything and cant wait to see his reaction this year being a little older.

Take the baby! He's only 1 once

 

[Disney10]

Take all the kids!

I was just looking at my Disney scrapbook today. It made me smile when I realized how young they all were and what a great time we had. We took a 2year old, 4 year old and 6 year old for our first time to Disney. It is alot of work but I would not change taking all of them. My youngest would sleep anywhere. Have a great time!