did you take only family vacations? and Now?

[Deesknee]

DH & I were talking to friends this past weekend. Somehow got on the subject of vacations without the kids. Although I desperatly wanted a weekend away when the kids were little, dh was against it, and we have never had one. We had somewhat unusual circumstances, as we had triplets it was difficult to find volunteers to watch them. They will be 20 soon, wo could watch their younger sister if we decided to do an "alone" trip. Here's my dliemia, While talking to our friends it seemed the parents who went away for "alone" trips when the kids were little, that, their kids don;t want to go on vacation with them now as adults. Maybe that is normal. Maybe once the kids are adults they do their own thing & the parents do their own, atleast until the grankids come along. What do you all think?

 

[Cee]

My DH and I would do an alternating thing where we would go on a family trip and then it would just be the two of us. We tried to do that all along. Now the kids are grown and they still come with us about every other year. It's nice to have us all together again occasionally.

 

[dbs1228]

Have been doing "alone trips" with DH since my DD's (3 daughters in 4 years) were babies and always had at least 1 family trip a year (sometimes 2 on lucky years). DD's are now mid to late teens and still say when we plan a trip without them "what do you mean we cannot go"! Even had my DD in college take 3 days off from college in Feb (talked to all her professors 1st, brought work with her) to join us for 5 days in Disney! It was sad putting her on the ME knowing we still had another 5 nights after she left but that is what growing up and different schedules will do. Heck last year we took3 vacations and all 3 MY PARENTS joined us and or we joined them! lol

 

[Brian Noble]

Kids grow up and out. That's just what kids do. I very much doubt that it's because Mom and Dad didn't take them on every trip.

We don't do "no kid" trips very often, but we do do them. In the nearly 11 years since we've had kids, my wife joined me on a business trip to Lausanne in the foothills of the Swiss Alps, and we've taken a long weekend at Disney for Flower & Garden. We're thinking that a Food & Wine long weekend in another year or two might be fun. In the same time, we've taken tens of "family" trips, to all sorts of places. And, sometimes, Maureen and the kids will take off somewhere without me if the kids have the week off but I don't.

We do sometimes get together with extended family. But, our parents aren't really willing to travel like they once were, so it's been more with siblings, first cousins, etc.

 

[cvjw]

DH and I have always tried to take alone trips - just us, since the boys were babies. We always do at least 2 family trips a year also. Our boys don't like missing out on the adult only trip, but they are always ready for a family vacation. They are 14 and 11 now, and can't understand why we can't go to Disney 3 times per year, instead of 2.

 

[Donna M]

We are finally able to take trips without the kids since they're in college now. They grow up and as teens, hanging out with mom and dad isn't on the top of their list. I'm sure that once they have kids or a full time job, the vacations with family will become important again.

It saves a lot on air fare too!

 

[adminjedi]

Remember....all kids are different and so are family dynamics.
We have taken 1 family vacation each year, and 1 or 2 just us vacations. Although the kids are sometimes "jealous" of our vacations without them, they are thankful for the family trip. Our kids are older, and at different times they have not been as excited about the family vacation. However, being at DW helps as it offers them fun and entertainment for them and we don't have to be with them all the time.

 

[Sammie]

Everyone in our family has done both. Family vacations with kids, adult vacations without the kids.

It has had no affect on the kids as they have grown older, they still want to come if they can due to college and jobs and especially if the parents are paying.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

We have taken "just us" vacations since our kids were little. My DH insisted- that we always have time to make it be "just us". Since one day it will again, be just us! We take probably 2 family vacations a year. We have one adult-only vacation as well, usually. Sometimes it's just a weekend in Vegas, sometimes it's been cruises or Hawaii.

Our kids are sad when they don't get to go with us- but "our" vacation means that they get a week alone with the grandparents. Our family vacations are almost always with one set of grandparents or the other. So even as adults, my DH and I still travel with our parents!

 

[ToddyLu]

DH and I do not have children. I can remember being fine when Mom and Dad went places without us...we understood and had great family vacations. MIL or my parents have gone to Disney with us yearly since 2006. Next Spring I want just DH and I to go alone....I wonder if MIL and my parents will have a problem with this?


I think not...

 

[nolanboys]

DH and I are taking our first trip as DVC members alone for his 40th birthday in Ocober. We went to Mexico last year, and the year before that it was Vegas. We need that alone time. That being said, we've taken our boys to Disney World 3 times, the Smokies twice and the Rockies once. Two of our trips to Disney included taking my in-laws with us. I hope to be able to have big family trips to Disney World, but I also realize that it will be hard with 4 kids and I'm sure different schedules when they get older. We're hoping to do more trips one on one with one of our sons and their family and then switch it up the next year. We also want to go by ourselves. Some one said above - it starts off as just the 2 of you and ends up that way. Luckily. DH and I are still best friends!So we're looking forward to that! And I don't want to be that scary mother-in-law. (Love my mother-in-law dearly, so I have a good example)

 

[ACDSNY]

Everyone in our family has done both. Family vacations with kids, adult vacations without the kids.

It has had no affect on the kids as they have grown older, they still want to come if they can due to college and jobs and especially if the parents are paying.

Sounds like us, especially if we're paying, thank goodness for DVC. Even now that our kids our grown and married we still get in some family vacations and some with just the two of us.

Even my sister (that's 14 yrs younger) and her family and my Dad travel with us.

 

[kikiq]

This got me thinking, my DH and I didn't take an adults only vacation until our 25th anniversary trip. We went on a cruise with my DH's BF and his wife. We didn't take a Disney vacation without our DDs until recently AND my DH had a hard time telling the girls that they were not coming with us. We leave on Tuesday for our second WDW trip this year without our DDs. But ever since we added on VGC, they seem to be quite happy going to DLR.

 

[DVC-Don]

My wife and I do about 4 vacations per year (not all WDW) and only 1 will be with our 2 kids. They are 18 & 19 now. Not long ago every trip involved all of us together.

 

[AirGoofy]

As a only child, I went on vacation every year with parents. But, as I got later into 6,7,8th grade, we would go to the beach, and with older parents, my dad only wanted to lay on the beach and my mom stayed in the hotel room. So, I had fun swimming in the pool and playing with other children. We now have two dds (8,6) and have not been to WDW without them. We have went on a weekend trip (3 hours away max) and left the children with family. They thought it was a vacation for them as well.

 

[rentayenta]

One of the most important relationships my children will see is the relationship between their dad and myself. We have always taken time to vacation without the kids.

 

[tjhsr]

Its only been in recent years that we have done trips with just the two of us.
Now when they were growing up we did one real trip a year and that was to the beach for a week in the summer. We still talk about those trips and how much fun we all had. Now its like when they were kids again we all go together at least once a year to WDW or this year to VB. But there are 3 DGC that go with us. Its all good

 

[eliza61]

Dh & I are both very lucky in that we had our parents alive for most of our kids younger years.
My dh's parents are from Portugal so we constantly joked that the kids had better passports than some people on travel channels. Grandmom & pop-pop would often send for them during the summer.
We got a lot of time sans kids due to this.
Now that they are teens/young adults we can leave them home for a few days and be fairly confident they won't burn the house down. Although any thing longer and all bets are off.

 

[Deesknee]

Thank you to everyone who has responded. Seems like most take "alone" trips. And judging from this thread it doesn't have an effect on the kids wanting to take family trips as they get older. hmm. Makes me wonder why our friends kids don't want to go on vacation with their parents once they are older. (btw by older, I mean 19+, some are in college, some have graduated college, some haven't gone to college.)

DH & I have never had the opportunity to leave our kids with any family for the most part. Absolutely not for more than 1 night. But now that our oldest are "adults'" the could technically take care of their younger sister for a couple of nights. hmmm

 

[jodifla]

We almost always go away for our anniversary for one or two nights.

DH does on some trips alone, reunions, conferences and the like, as do I. And I do a girls' trip each year with pals.

But we do two or three family trips each year.