shm_helene
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2010
Ohana means family, and Family means nobody gets left behind...
I didn't take my parents to Hawaii on my honeymoon. I guess that means they are not family.
Ohana means family, and Family means nobody gets left behind...
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?
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.
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.
We took our twins at 9 months and then again at 2 1/2 and believe it or not my son still remembers things from the second trip. We are going again in May. I would be miserable without my kids at Disney.
That is awesome. I wonder how long he will retain those memories? One of the things that makes me the saddest about parenting is knowing that they won't remember much of anything of their early childhood.
I didn't take my parents to Hawaii on my honeymoon. I guess that means they are not family.
Not sure.........but the reason I know he remembers is because we got "stuck" (delayed for 30 minutes) on POC on our last trip, and we have been watching you tube videos of Disney stuff. As we were watching the POC ride my son says mommy we got stuck on there and you took our picture making silly faces. I was amazed
In other words I know my daughter would love it BUT I can't be bothered to go through "the trouble" of taking her on what could be an amazing family trip. Bringing her was never under consideration?? Taking your own daughter to Disneyland sounds like a nightmare? How sad..
DisneyRegulars said:I haven't read all the replies, but I am going to offer a different perspective. When I was 3 -4 years old, my parents went to Disney with my big brother who was 9-10 years old at the time. I was left at home to stay with my grandparents. I knew where they were going, they brought me back a mickey mouse stuffed animal. I was not harmed in any way by not going with them. I knew someday I would be big enough to go. I loved the time with my grandparents. The trip also gave my parents some special time alone with my brother which they had not gotten since I was born. How awesome for my brother to be able to be the center of attention again, even for just a week. How awesome for my parents to be able to reconnect with their first born. I'm sure the OP's daughter will relish her parents full attention for a few short days. It will be wonderful for her and her parents.
corneredbycorn said:Just because you would take your young ones doesn't mean people are somehow wrong for not taking theirs.
I know my daughter and I know us. You do not. I know how trips with my daughter go because we've taken them. You do not. For us, the trouble of taking her would outweigh the benefits and we would all have more fun if she stayed behind, including her.
I know this may come as a shock to you, so you may want to sit down for this one:
Not every family is like yours. What works for you will NOT work for everyone else. Period.
The fact that you seem to think so is, oh, what was it you said? How sad...