Big Age Gap Between Kids

[themouseandme]

We are planning our first trip for this fall. My girls will be 13 and 4. The 13 year old has been to Disneyland a couple of times and and is a thrill-seeker. The 4-year-old is pretty timid in general but loves all things princess.

I don't want it to turn into me waiting in lines for princess meet & greets all day while DH rides with ODD. I want us to all fit in what we we each like, while having lots of family time. I know we will have a great time no matter what, I just like to have the best plan possible.

How have others handled this age gap and how did it work out for you?

 

[powellrj]

We have 3 kids who are now 32,23 and 18, so I know what its like to have a big age gap! What we use to do was DH would take the younger kids to the tamer rides in the morning while I would do the thrill rides. We would meet for lunch and then spend the rest of the day together as a family. It was worked out best for us.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Maybe do a princess meal & agree to one in the park M&G per day.

 

[worm761]

There is an almost 14 year age difference between my son and daughter. What we did was either do baby swap so both DH and I got to ride with DS or I just hung out with DD while DH and DS rode what I didn't want to. But we never split up our parties and did different things.

There is usually a play area around the bigger thrill rides. DD played at those, I rested my feet.

 

[themouseandme]

There is an almost 14 year age difference between my son and daughter. What we did was either do baby swap so both DH and I got to ride with DS or I just hung out with DD while DH and DS rode what I didn't want to. But we never split up our parties and did different things.

There is usually a play area around the bigger thrill rides. DD played at those, I rested my feet.

Good to know about the play areas. She will love those. Last trip to Six Flags she spent 2 hours on the playground. I was like "Why did we spend $60 bucks when we could have gone to the local park for free??"

Thanks!

 

[themouseandme]

Maybe do a princess meal & agree to one in the park M&G per day.

Good idea! Thanks. We are from Missouri too!

 

[StirlingSilver83]

My kids are 8 and 18 months. We are going to Disney world in April and I have evenly split things between characters and kiddie rides to more thrill rides with my older son. We will also be utilizing the child swap for the thrill rides so my hubby can do the bigger rides as well with my older son. My older son also understands that we are doing stuff he wants to do that it's only fair if we do stuff his younger brother will want to do.

 

[Mousemommy1]

My kids are 8 and 18 months. We are going to Disney world in April and I have evenly split things between characters and kiddie rides to more thrill rides with my older son. We will also be utilizing the child swap for the thrill rides so my hubby can do the bigger rides as well with my older son. My older son also understands that we are doing stuff he wants to do that it's only fair if we do stuff his younger brother will want to do.

This will be our strategy for our April trip. We have 3 kids, who will be 10 (turning 11 on the trip), 8 and 3 months...

 

[Thing 1]

Mine are now 8 and 22. We have done several things depending on the little guys age and trip. We did spend the majority of time together as older DS was old enough to understand and truly want to see little guy enjoy things from his very first trip. Sometimes when he was little we would split for maybe one or two rides and then get back together. Sometimes, DH and little guy would head to bed early and oldest DS and I would hit a PM EMH park to do the big rides. A few trips little guy and I would hit AM EMH and DH and older DS slept in and little guy and I would do all the "kid rides". Not an issue at all now that he is 8 and can ride everything and can stay out later than I can!!!

 

[akl2004]

I read on this board somewhere that the group is only as happy as the least happy member of the group. That may not be the exact wording but it is so true. We kept that in mind for our last trip. Our oldest was 13 and our youngest was 7 and did not have the stamina for a grueling day at the parks. After lunch I would take the younger one back to the resort to swim, watch tv or some other down time and then we would meet up for dinner. It was a tough decision to split up because being together as a family is important to us on vacation, but it was the right decision because both got to do what they wanted and nobody "melted down". Each family is different, but if it isn't quality family time it doesn't really matter any way.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

I read on this board somewhere that the group is only as happy as the least happy member of the group. That may not be the exact wording but it is so true. We kept that in mind for our last trip. Our oldest was 13 and our youngest was 7 and did not have the stamina for a grueling day at the parks. After lunch I would take the younger one back to the resort to swim, watch tv or some other down time and then we would meet up for dinner. It was a tough decision to split up because being together as a family is important to us on vacation, but it was the right decision because both got to do what they wanted and nobody "melted down". Each family is different, but if it isn't quality family time it doesn't really matter any way.

We did this on our last trip. My husband and I practically spent the whole trip a part. At the time my youngest was 8 months and my oldest was 7 years old. The baby needed naps and time out of the sun. We were so afraid he would get sunburn. So we would have breakfast together, then spend an hour or so in the park together and my hubby took the baby back to the hotel and we would meet up for lunch he would stay like an hour or so again and then head back to the hotel and we would meet up for dinner. My hubby didn't mind bc he's not that into theme parks and he still got to do what he wanted like seeing the oldest meet Anna and Elsa for the first time and going on small world (that's his favorite ride). It still stunk that we were apart for most of the trip but it kept the kids happy. Anyways we are going again this year, and the baby will be 20 months and my oldest son will be 8, so I had to do a little different touring schedule and fit stuff in that the baby will want to do along with more of the thrill rides for my older son. It should be more fun this now that the baby is older

 

[Mikeb1892]

I read on this board somewhere that the group is only as happy as the least happy member of the group. That may not be the exact wording but it is so true.

Love this saying. Thanks for posting.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

I read on this board somewhere that the group is only as happy as the least happy member of the group. That may not be the exact wording but it is so true. We kept that in mind for our last trip. Our oldest was 13 and our youngest was 7 and did not have the stamina for a grueling day at the parks. After lunch I would take the younger one back to the resort to swim, watch tv or some other down time and then we would meet up for dinner. It was a tough decision to split up because being together as a family is important to us on vacation, but it was the right decision because both got to do what they wanted and nobody "melted down". Each family is different, but if it isn't quality family time it doesn't really matter any way.

This is such a great point and I really like your strategy. We have five kids that are spread out in age (14 months old up to 13 years old) and with having a young toddler again I can see us planning our days how you did which is very similar to our very first WDW trip back when my DS6 was a toddler. I think Disney makes it easy to split up when you have a multi-age group with their rider switch policy, longer park hours during certain times of the year, and offering frequent transportation to/from your resort if you stay onsite. One of the reasons we love WDW is that there is so much that all ages can do together as a family/group without having to worry about height restrictions a lot or having to split up a great deal of the time.

 

[themouseandme]

I read on this board somewhere that the group is only as happy as the least happy member of the group. That may not be the exact wording but it is so true. We kept that in mind for our last trip. Our oldest was 13 and our youngest was 7 and did not have the stamina for a grueling day at the parks. After lunch I would take the younger one back to the resort to swim, watch tv or some other down time and then we would meet up for dinner. It was a tough decision to split up because being together as a family is important to us on vacation, but it was the right decision because both got to do what they wanted and nobody "melted down". Each family is different, but if it isn't quality family time it doesn't really matter any way.

I love this. Thanks for sharing that! I am thinking we may do this one or two days as well because I can see the 4 year old not making it all day but the 13 year old would be bored stiff back at the room.

 

[akl2004]

I love this. Thanks for sharing that! I am thinking we may do this one or two days as well because I can see the 4 year old not making it all day but the 13 year old would be bored stiff back at the room.

The other benefit was that the oldest, now 14, was going strong all day and my wife and I would take turns trying to keep up with him. As for splitting, the 14 year old has been there 4 times now to his brothers one time, so we have done much of the attractions with him already. We try to remember that this is everyone's vacation, so it is important to do some of what everyone wants to do.

And yeah, the older one would go crazy spending time at the resort, we stayed at POFQ, so there were plenty of things for the little guy, just not for him. This is why we are in the process of buying a DVC contract at the Boardwalk. There should be plenty to keep him entertained there.