Anyone else have big age gap between kids. How did you plan?

[mommymanda]

We are heading out in August. There is a 6 year age gap between my first two children. So I am going to be travelling with an 11,5 and 3 year old.

I also have my parents joining us on the trip and my father has called me a number of times now since booking worried about my oldest. They are actually trying to find one of my nieces or nephews who are all around the same age to join them. Of course the problem is everyone in my family has 2kids and no one wants to agree to send just one (and my parents can't handle two kids).

So now he has me worried about my 11year old. I had just figured my hubby and I can take turns riding with her on the rides the little ones don't want to go on. I know it will be somewhat frustrating at times for her...but we're in Disney! I had also figured with my parents joining us, she could wonder with them at times to get away from the boys, or my parents can take the boys for a few hours so she can have one to one with DH and I.

Either way I wasn't too worried until my father brought it up. Now I'm wondering.

Has anyone else travelled with an age gap similar? How did you make sure the trip was magical for all of them?

 

[karatemom2]

I have a 6 year gap also. It will be fine. We just did rider swap for the rides the little guy wouldn't do. I am going alone with them this time so I had to talk to my 13 year old and try to make a plan. We have to rider swap and ride some of the big ones alone or skip some of the bigger rides this year.

 

[AmyBWV99]

We have 8.5, 6, 3 & 19 month olds we just came back and there's no worries the only gap is pool time for us but otherwise it's not noticeable since everyone can do most everything.

 

[wdw4rfam]

You will be fine. Our kids are 16,11,5. We have gone every year since the middle child was 9 months old. There was 2 of us, so we split up for a few things, but the main reason we live Disney so much, most things everyone can do together.

 

[DVCmom4]

We have 4 kids 16, 13, 7, and 3. We are heading to the Mouse in 24 days! We also travel with my 80 year old dad who acts like he is 16 when he is with my kids! We just divide our time. This will be our 5th trip and never had a problem with the kids. They understand the trip is for everyone to have fun and sometimes you have to do things to make others happy. Now for traveling with my dad...

I sure it you have the kids help with the planning they will see they all get their time for fun!

 

[amomma23]

You will be fine. Our kids are 16,11,5. We have gone every year since the middle child was 9 months old. There was 2 of us, so we split up for a few things, but the main reason we live Disney so much, most things everyone can do together.

Couldn't agree more! We love Disney because it's truly a family vacation. There are very few rides that we split up for. (Our kids were 10, 6, and 4 on our last trip.) If we go to any other theme/amusement park, my DH has to take the oldest to the big rides, while I take the younger 2 to "kiddie land". It's so nice to actually spend the day TOGETHER at Disney.

 

[nugov2]

We have a similar situation and riding was fine. The problem we ran into was the little guy(2) was tired and wanted to leave the park by 2 everyday. Luckily we did have my parents with and my mom took him back to swim so we could stay until the park closed.

 

[JillyBean1899]

We didn't have a huge age gap (my nieces are 3 years apart), but we did have a huge adrenaline junkie gap. The oldest was too scared to go on most of the rides, while the youngest was too short. We took colored markers and make marks on the maps next to "Kiddie", "Family" and "Adult" rides. Then we just took turns. If there were 2 "adult" rides near each other, we'd do those with kid swap, then we'd do a few "kiddie" and "family" rides, then back to the "adult" rides. On the last trip to Busch Gardens Williamsburg, for example, the oldest (12) one rode the swings and bumper cars over and over while me, my mom, and the youngest (9) rode Big Bad Wolf a few times. Since the kids had been the park MANY times (to the point where they didn't even need a map to know where to go), we were OK with the oldest walking across a sidewalk to get from one ride to the next, plus she had a cell phone just in case.

At 11, your oldest would probably be able to go on some rides by himself, depending on his height. If one of the adults decides they need a break, they can sit at the ride he's on while the rest of you take the younger ones on the "kiddie" ride across the way. That way you're not completely split up all over the park, but he doesn't feel like he's at the mercy of the rug rats.

 

[SEA333]

We have just about the same age gap as you - 13 1/2, 9 1/2, and (next month) 8. There is 5.5 years between the youngest and oldest. We went to DW the first time when they were 11 1/2 (6th grade), 7 1/2 (2nd grade), and just-turned 6 (Kindergarten). We pretty much did everything together so the 11 year old was just fine. The things he wanted to go on that the little ones didn't want to (or couldn't), one of us went with him. But honestly, pretty much everything at DW is good for the whole family. The one thing we didn't do a whole lot of was baby/preschool stuff since DS6 was on the old end of that stuff. I'm sure that if the little ones were a little younger (like 3 and 5), I would have probably done some of the younger stuff with them while DH and older DS spent some time together doing tween stuff.

We rented a stroller for small DS just in case he ended up with leg cramps that plague him about once a week or so, but he was fine. DD even used it a time or two. We just left it in each area while we did whatever we wanted, and brought it with us when we moved to a new area.

When you are doing something for the little ones that the older one isn't into, we try to enlist the older one's help - little DS LOVES his older brother and loved the attention, so we would pair older DS with little DS so the older one would be occupied with the adoration of little brother.

 

[powellrj]

My kids are now 30,22 and 17 so when they were small, we had a big age gap.

What we always did at WDW was split up in the morning. I loved the bigger rides, so I would take the older kid or kids on the big rides while DH would take the smaller ones on the tamer rides. We would met up for lunch and then spend the rest of the day together.

We had a big age gap between all the kids, so we did this for several years and at several different parks.

 

[worm761]

There are 13 years between my two. They were 15 and 2 when we went the last time. It is not anywhere near as bad as your dad thinks it will be. There is baby swap. And even better...Disney does a great job of having something to keep the littler ones occupied. Near Splash and Big Thunder there is a playground. There is an indoor play space at Mission Space. Just go in the gift shop entrance while the bigger kids are riding Test Track and Mission Space. Just to name a few.

With kids with a huge age gap, one of the reasons I love Disney is that I can keep both entertained at the same time.

 

[sk!mom]

11 year age gap here. DD17's first Disney trip was for her 5th birthday so DS was 16. Every family vacation since she was born has had us doing things together or splitting up as required for everyone to have a good time. It's never been a big deal. As long as you are fine with splitting up, everyone can have a good time.

 

[MSSANDRA]

14 year gap here and it has never been a big issue. There is soooo much everyone can do and we do a lot of that together. Sometimes, oldest DS and I will go to do a thrill ride the youngest one does not want to do and sometime little guy and I will repeat to kiddish ride while older DS and DH do something. Many times two adults will slip out at night after little guy is asleep...mostly DS21 and I and we LOVE this time. We are taking our first trip without DS21 this week and I am sooo sad, but he just could not make it work. It's a surprise last minute trip for little guy and I know he will be sad that his older brother is not along.

 

[dsneygirl]

My boys are 5.5 years so our first trip they were 6 and 10 months. We just took turns. I like it actually because it gave us one on one time with our ODS. When DS would nap in the stroller one of us would wait with him while the other took ODS on something he wanted to do.

And of course like others said most you can do all together.

 

[tina.tina]

Honestly, with it being you, your kids, and the grandparents, I would prefer a family trip without an extra cousin. But I would be selfishly wanting my kids to have the special vacation grandparent time rather than the cousin who is staying with the grandparents to have the extra time...

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Honestly, with it being you, your kids, and the grandparents, I would prefer a family trip without an extra cousin. But I would be selfishly wanting my kids to have the special vacation grandparent time rather than the cousin who is staying with the grandparents to have the extra time...

Agreed, plus I just don't think it's necessary.

Ours were 11 and 6, and we just switched off a few times as necessary. Truth be told, the bigger problem was stuff the 11 year old wanted to do that my WIFE did not

 

[minnie1012]

I wouldn't worry about bringing a cousin. There are so many things at Disney that everyone can ride together no matter what age. My kids are 5 years apart, 10 & 5 and that is one place we actually don't have a problem with my oldest being difficult! If need be my husband takes her on something and I take my youngest to see something like Playhouse Disney live or something like that. Most stuff she still wants to do even though she is 10! MK has that card game thing which we are going to look into next trip as well as the Agent P thing in Epcot which is supposed to be good for older kids.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

My kids have a 6 year gap and it's never been a problem.

My son isn't a big thrill rider as of yet. When DD was 2 and 3 we just did rider swap.

Last trip DD was 5 and rode everything she could. She rode EE and DS refused. So he waited for us to ride it with her. He was 11 and hung out at a seat having some ice cream. It was rope drop so it wasn't a long wait. When we waited for princesses or did BBB we would just split up. We did "torture" him with things that weren't so much his style but it is a family vacation.

Next trip they will be 15 and 9. I think we may split up for some things but by this time I think we will all be on the same page most of the time.

 

[mommymanda]

Thank you everyone. I am sure it is all going to work out fine Especially knowing that some of the rides the little ones can't go on have a play area. It will be deciding whether DH or myself get to ride with DD (or of course grandparents can watch the younger ones).

What is nice, is that DD (my 11 year old) has hit the tween stage and for the longest time whenever I would talk about planning the trip I'd get a "whatever" or "oh" or eye roll. It was one reason I booked this year, I was worried we were losing that magic with her. Yet now that I have actually booked and she knows it she is constantly asking questions and wanting to look stuff up. I guess she just didn't want to get her hopes up, I don't blame her, I've tried to plan this trip every summer for the last four years.

 

[ErinTwinmom]

So did disneyland last June with a 13 year old and twin two year old. One of the nice things about ride swap is the second parent gets to take someone with them so every time we did a thrill ride the 13 got to do it twice. After which we would do something babyish which the 13 took well because he knew it was their turn.