Have you or would you take your child's friend along on a Disneyland or World vacation

[Disneyland1084]

I'm going to Disneyland this June with my DH and two DD's. My older DD (almost 9) has a bestfriend with a really rough home life. Her parents are mean to her and don't let her do much. DH and I are thinking of asking her parents if we can take her to Disneyland with us. This would probably be the only chance she'd ever get to go, as a kid anyway. Her parents I'm thinking will most likely say no, or they may surprise me and say yes. What are your thoughts on this?

 

[okeydokey]

I think it's a lovely thing to do if you think the parents will work with you. I am glad to see you are asking the parents first before saying anything to the girl.

Will your other daughter feel left out though?

 

[Mizzoufan]

I'm going to Disneyland this June with my DH and two DD's. My older DD (almost 9) has a bestfriend with a really rough home life. Her parents are mean to her and don't let her do much. DH and I are thinking of asking her parents if we can take her to Disneyland with us. This would probably be the only chance she'd ever get to go, as a kid anyway. Her parents I'm thinking will most likely say no, or they may surprise me and say yes. What are your thoughts on this?

I think it very nice that you are going to ask her. I think there a lot that going into taking someone kid on vacation. Who will pay for what? Getting something in writing that if something happend and the child need medical care that you had permission to get her care for her. Would she get homesick being away from her parents.

 

[JanaDee]

Have we? No.

Would we? No.

 

[LBIJim]

I'm going to Disneyland this June with my DH and two DD's. My older DD (almost 9) has a bestfriend with a really rough home life. Her parents are mean to her and don't let her do much. DH and I are thinking of asking her parents if we can take her to Disneyland with us. This would probably be the only chance she'd ever get to go, as a kid anyway. Her parents I'm thinking will most likely say no, or they may surprise me and say yes. What are your thoughts on this?

How well do you know the parents? Would this offer be out of the blue?

I'd think long and hard before asking the parents. They may take offense. How many days do you plan to have the girl with you? Why not try a test run first, by asking the parents to take the girl to the mall or an afternoon out somewhere else? Their reaction to that request will give you an idea if a Disneyland vacation is feasible.

To answer the thread title question. No, I've never taken my child's friend on a vacation, nor would I. A day trip or an overnight is fine, but a whole vacation, forget it. Not no way. Not no how. Out of the question.

 

[Tinkerdreams]

No, not a friend but we have invited family members - nieces and nephews. Too much "unknowns" with friends.

 

[stsomewhere]

We are taking my daughter's friend (15 yrs old) on a cruise with us over Easter. I spoke to the mother before hand to get permission. She thought that it was a great idea. It is something with 7 kids that they just can not afford. We are paying for her.

The thing that i would be be concerned about is the age of your other daughter. Will she be upset that she can not bring a friend?

A family of four is to accommodate. The only reason that we are bringing a friend this time is that my son will be in Greece on a high school trip. It gives my daughter someone to hang out with.

 

[SamRoc]

Yes we took my daughters best friend for a week when they were in 8th grade. We rented a house near Disney and the kids had a blast. I have also taken my nieces when they were younger. Then took one niece when she was in high school. Have also taken my nephew 3 times. My brother calls me Barney!

 

[MickeySP]

Done it several times when my DS was young. Most of the times it worked out well, couple of times I was soooo glad to hand the kid back to parents.

Only thing I advise is not to mention this in front of the child or your DD, until you get an answer.

Also I always foot the bill for the extra kid, exception spending cash. Heck even then if I knew parents were not as fortunate as us, spending money miraculously multiplied.

 

[Colleen27]

I have, and it was one of our best trips. DD has had the same best friend since kindergarten and her friend has a rough home life too. Her mother is a sweet woman who is very close to her daughter, but she has terrible taste in men and a very hard time making ends meet on her own. When we went to WDW they'd recently moved in with family to help care for the girl's grandmother and disabled uncle because they were on the brink of eviction following the mother's 3rd divorce. It wasn't the first time we'd taken her someplace with us - she joins us for so many daytrips that she's listed as one of the kids on our zoo and museum memberships, and we'd taken her on a couple of weekend trips (and DD goes up north with her friend's family every summer) - but it was the longest trip we've taken her on. I wouldn't have done it if we didn't have that experience taking her other places, though. Michigan to Florida is a long way to go without having some basis to believe it would work fairly well.

We frequently take the kids' friends along on various outings, but we do always start smaller - daytrips or waterpark resort weekends, Cedar Point, stuff like that. Depending on how big a deal a Disney trip is to you (I hate not being able to see posters' locations on the new boards!) I would suggest doing the same before you decide to take this friend on a big vacation.

 

[Divah]

We have taken our daughters best friend with us a few times as they were growing up.


We had our eldest daughter's boyfriend go once with us . She was 17 at the time and had graduated high school that May ( was June when we went) we took him and our other DD 's best friend same trip.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Have we? No

Would we? Doubtful

 

[MomRN]

We took my stepdaughters best friend when they were 16. That friend passed away in a car wreck a few months ago at age 19.

While I might have had slight misgivings at the time I am so glad I did it now.

 

[klo1335]

I actually went with a friend's family when I was in high school (I think we were juniors - so just turned 17). I thought it was great because my friends family was loaded and I would've never been able to stay at the Wilderness Lodge Suite with my family. And we were able to go around and do what we wanted. Granted we were pretty well behaved and not obnoxious kids...at least I didn't think we were. In hindsight would I let my kids bring a friend? At the price everything is these days probably not.

 

[Nennie]

I might consider it if I had an only child. I wouldn't consider it with multiple children, as I'd want my children to spend time with each other on vacation.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

Personally, I wouldn't do it. I don't think I would be able to truly relax knowing I was responsible for someone else's child. It just wouldn't feel like a vacation to me. We've taken friends on day trips, to movies, bowling, etc. But I would never take a friend on a vacation. That's just me.

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

If you like the friend and know they are well behaved and will listen to you then I think it is a very nice gesture for your daughter and her friend. My only concern would be that 9 is young and many kids get homesick at that age. If you do decide to do it I would look into a medical consent form in case there were any accident or illness where she needed medical treatment.

 

[lurkernj]

I haven't. I have two sons and if it was just the 4 of us, then no, I wouldn't want the other son to feel left out (they are pretty close, so a friend would greatly change their dynamic unless it was someone they were both friends with). If I had an only child or if only 1 kid could go (they are 17 and 20 now), then absolutely.

 

[Disneyland1084]

Thank you everyone for your responses. If we did take this friend, we would be paying for everything. We would be gone
A week. I doubt the friend would get homesick. She can't stand her parents.I don't think my younger DD would feel left out. We're actually going on this trip with DH's sister and her three boys. DH is going to ask his sister what she thinks about us possibly bringing this friend. But I think for the most part, we're just thinking out loud. I told DH I'd rather just take her on a camping trip, which we've done before.

 

[IndyRnRfan]

I'm going to Disneyland this June with my DH and two DD's. My older DD (almost 9) has a bestfriend with a really rough home life. Her parents are mean to her and don't let her do much. DH and I are thinking of asking her parents if we can take her to Disneyland with us. This would probably be the only chance she'd ever get to go, as a kid anyway. Her parents I'm thinking will most likely say no, or they may surprise me and say yes. What are your thoughts on this?

We did when they were 17. We are his second parents(sometimes first parents) We felt it would benefit him and make us feel like we are doing something nice for another person. He was delighted we asked him to come along. We did get some help from the grandparents as they insisted on helping.

I think it is a great idea and you should ask. Our sons friend still talks about that trip from 2013 and what a great time he had.