How do you explain DVC membership to your kids?

[disney0210]

We went to WDW last year and just two weeks ago, we bought DVC . In DD5's school, she is the only one that has ever gone to WDW. In October, we are staying at OKW and AKV for 9 days. DH and I both try very hard in trying to raise a good human being and we don't want to give DD5 a sense of entitlement. I don't want her to go to school parading that we're members and we could go at least once a year. Although we're DVC members now, I still have not told her the October trip was a sure thing already. What I told her was if her grades in school continue to be good and if she continues to do the things listed in her "Responsibility Chart" like brushing her teeth, finishing her food, feeding her pet, doing her assignment, minimizing her trash/garbage (you get the picture), then we would go. She was so happy to hear this. As a result, she said she is going to help us save for the trip and make sure she's got stars on her chart.

How did you tell your kids? I'd like to hear how you did it... If you can write how old your kids were too, that would be nice. Of course how you would explain to a 12-year old would be different for a 4-year old...

Thank you!

--Disclaimer: I do not pass judgment on others as I don't want others to do that to me either. We all have our reasons of doing things the way we do. All I'm asking is how you did it. If you did tell your kids you're DVC members now, I do not in any way imply that they must be brats now boasting at school. I had to specifically say this because some threads get so intense in arguments. My thread only asks for your stories...

Cheers!

 

[DVCLiz]

We went to WDW last year and just two weeks ago, we bought DVC . In DD6's school, she is the only one that has ever gone to WDW. In October, we are staying at OKW and AKV for 9 days. DH and I both try very hard in trying to raise a good human being and we don't want to give DD5 a sense of entitlement. I don't want her to go to school parading that we're members and we could go at least once a year. Although we're DVC members now, I still have not told her the October trip was a sure thing already. What I told her was if her grades in school continue to be good and if she continues to do the things listed in her "Responsibility Chart" like brushing her teeth, finishing her food, feeding her pet, doing her assignment, minimizing her trash/garbage (you get the picture), then we would go. She was so happy to hear this. As a result, she said she is going to help us save for the trip and make sure she's got stars on her chart.

How did you tell your kids? I'd like to hear how you did it... If you can write how old your kids were too, that would be nice. Of course how you would explain to a 12-year old would be different for a 4-year old...

Thank you!

--Disclaimer: I do not pass judgment on others as I don't want others to do that to me either. We all have our reasons of doing things the way we do. All I'm asking is how you did it. If you did tell your kids you're DVC members now, I do not in any way imply that they must be brats now boasting at school. I had to specifically say this because some threads get so intense in arguments. My thread only asks for your stories...

Cheers!

I told my daughters, who were then I think 10 and 15, that we were taking a "mystery vacation" over fall break. We went to Hilton Head and I told them I had bought DVC and we would be able to take vacations to WDW every year, and sometimes we could take their friends. They were thrilled!!!! We have enjoyed many trips since then, and both DD19 and now DD14 have had a "friend" trip, which is so much fun. We are leaving Sunday and taking
DD14's best friend for her first ever WDW trip.

If you saw the list of places where my daughter's schoolmates are going for Spring Break, you'd know that WDW, while nice, is not the top of the heap for most of them - it seems that everyone is going to some small private island, skiing, or out of the country.

My daughters were old enough to know better than to flaunt our DVC, and honestly, enough of their classmates have vacation homes that a timeshare - even a nice timeshare - just wasn't anything to brag about. So our
circumstances were different, I suppose - I didn't really think about not telling them to talk about DVC, but I knew it wouldn't come off as bragging when the person they were telling had a 6 bedroom house on the ocean at Figure Eight.

As far as your daughter, unless you leave her at home, she will be going to WDW almost every year. You can continue to do what you are already doing - raise her to be a nice girl, and teach her the concept of keeping certain things private. In our house we call that "PFB" - which stands for private family business. Things like how much money we make, how much Mommy weighs (!!!) etc. are PFB. They understand and respect that concept because it applies to them, too - they have "secrets" they want to keep private within the family. It all works out.

Enjoy your DVC - it has been wonderful for my family!!!!

 

[Tink-n-Belle]

I just told them that we bought a time share which will let us go to Disney every year. My kids were 5 & 7 at the time. We were going to Florida every year so it is really no different for them.

IMHO, kids that age cannot grasp the fact that they get to go back every year. They only live in the now. My DD7 has been to Disney 6 times and she knows she will be going back but she really doesn't talk about going back. The kids in my childrens class have traveled other places, some have gone to Hawaii, Europe and on cruises etc, so noone really thinks its a big deal that my kids go to Disney every year. Pretty soon my kids will be saying "Do we have to go to Disney? can we go some place different?" (You can't win)

Enjoy your membership!!!

 

[JerJan]

Why say anything at all???? We just go on vacation once a year and right now it happens to be to WDW because it's age appropriate for the kids at this time.

 

[disney0210]

If you saw the list of places where my daughter's schoolmates are going for Spring Break, you'd know that WDW, while nice, is not the top of the heap for most of them - it seems that everyone is going to some small private island, skiing, or out of the country.

DD's classmates parents also opt for Mexico or Dominican, but the kids want to go WDW and can't, maybe for financial reasons or maybe for personal choice. I guess it's not that her classmates or friends can't afford WDW, I think I'm just not comfortable if she ever flaunted it and we were there and there were other people there too... At least if she ever spoke about WDW amidst people whose personal choice is to not go there and go somewhere else, then it's okay. But to say that in front of people that can't go due to money, yikes, that would be a little awkward...

teach her the concept of keeping certain things private. In our house we call that "PFB" - which stands for private family business. Things like how much money we make, how much Mommy weighs (!!!) etc. are PFB. They understand and respect that concept because it applies to them, too - they have "secrets" they want to keep private within the family. It all works out.

I love this concept of PFB and will incorporate this in ours too. Thanks so much!

And yes we will enjoy WDW - and other places too. Enjoy your weekend!

 

[edk35]

My dd who is 17 has been to WDW 13 times.....and we have a 14th and 15th trip planned this year and we just became DVC members Jan. 07 but we only took our first DVC trip in Aug. 07. Our kids were 16, 13 and 8 when we bought and THEY WERE WITH US. They totally understand how much this cost us, how big a deal it is to be able to go and we are lucky that they don't flaunt it, brag about it....but embrace it and now they know that they will each get one of these three contracts one day. My kids have plenty of friends that do HUGE mega bucks vacations each year and more than once a year...so really it is no different and most of their friends say "you are going again?" Some people just don't get Disney but all that matters to me is my family GETS IT, LOVES IT, WANTS TO ALWAYS GO each and every time. My kids work very hard in school, play hard at their sports/dance and are in my book....pretty darn good kids....most of the time.....so we feel we all deserve this DVC vacation each year or even twice year. In 2007 we went Jan. Aug and Nov. Then we went again this Jan. SO for two years in a row our kids will have been 3 times. They are not snobby kids, they are well rounded and DVC ownership will not change them. Enjoy your DVC!!!!!

 

[DVCLiz]

DD's classmates parents also opt for Mexico or Dominican, but the kids want to go WDW and can't, maybe for financial reasons or maybe for personal choice. I guess it's not that her classmates or friends can't afford WDW, I think I'm just not comfortable if she ever flaunted it and we were there and there were other people there too... At least if she ever spoke about WDW amidst people whose personal choice is to not go there and go somewhere else, then it's okay. But to say that in front of people that can't go due to money, yikes, that would be a little awkward...



I love this concept of PFB and will incorporate this in ours too. Thanks so much!

And yes we will enjoy WDW - and other places too. Enjoy your weekend!

There are going to be lots of things that separate your daughter from her classmates along the way. Some kids will have more and some will have less. You just have to make sure she understands that talking about what she has or doesn't have is one thing, but making others feel bad is another thing entirely. If she's brought up to be a compassionate child, she'll understand that pretty quickly.

Yes, we love PFB - I made it up one day when I blabbed about something in front of the chidlren and realized it should stay private (can't even remember what it was now!) They had their little secrets - almost always some embarrassing story - that I would tell to friends and chuckle about, and they decided those stories should be PFB, too. We've used it for a long time and it works great - one of my best parenting moments!!!

 

[MinMouse]

Yes, we love PFB - I made it up one day when I blabbed about something in front of the chidlren and realized it should stay private (can't even remember what it was now!) They had their little secrets - almost always some embarrassing story - that I would tell to friends and chuckle about, and they decided those stories should be PFB, too. We've used it for a long time and it works great - one of my best parenting moments!!!

Thanks for sharing PFB. Sounds like something we're going to need to incorporate at our house.

 

[DVCLiz]

Thanks for sharing PFB. Sounds like something we're going to need to incorporate at our house.

The nice thing about PFB is that if you are in public and you or your kids are beginning some story that someone wants kept private, or your kids are getting ready to say something like "My mom and dad have a house in Disney World and we can go any time we want!" you can just quietly say, "PFB" and they know it means "Stop talking - we don't want that shared with anyone." After the fact I always explain to my girls why something is PFB and they usually understand perfectly.

 

[Sammie]

Why say anything at all???? We just go on vacation once a year and right now it happens to be to WDW because it's age appropriate for the kids at this time.

I agree. I don't think frequent vacations gives anyone a sense of entitlement. I would think that your kids would not even think of it that way.

If you begin to see problems then you deal with it then.

 

[3DisneyKids]

We live in an area where most folks have a condo or summer house somewhere, so a timeshare is not that huge a deal. However, we still are the only ones who seem to go to Disney all the time. Most of their friends have been just once and that is it.

Our kids were very young when we bought in...2,3, and 5 I believe (maybe 3, 4 and 6?) in any case....too young to understand what a timeshare is. So we just told them that we have a "vacation condo" in Disney. They all understood what a vacation condo was,having visited many over the years.

Our oldest is now 7 and he understands that it is not a condo like what his friends' families have (with their own furniture and family pictures around, etc. and where you stay in the exact same unit each time because you own it) but he still feels that we have our own place in Disney World.

And they all absolutely know not to brag about how many times they go to WDW.

 

[loveswdw]

Our DS4 doesn't understand the whole DVC thing yet but does he ever LOVE his vacations! He is always "packing" for vacation. In fact, just tonight he was going to Grannie's to spend the night and he already had a bag packed when she asked. He was packed for Disney of course! He's always ready to go at a moment's notice. And he's very generous. He is constantly inviting people to Disney. "We're gonna take you to Disney World"...to all the kids in his preschool class, to his teachers, to the cashier at Wal-Mart, to anyone he meets. He has no concept of how much it costs, he just knows he likes to go. And to anyone who says, "He's only 4, why are you taking him to Disney, he won't remember anything." Oh ha ha. He remembers it all!

And he knows all the resort pictures from everybody's signatures on this board. He can recognize all the DVC resorts already.

We've created a monster!!

 

[Kurby]

Why say anything at all???? We just go on vacation once a year and right now it happens to be to WDW because it's age appropriate for the kids at this time.

i totally agree.

our dd is only 2.5 years old and has no concept of vacation so it's not a problem

the other thing with us is that we won't be going every single year but rather every other and sometimes we'll opt for a cruise over wdw (i know the horror)

and even when she does get older i don't think we'll feel the need to explain what a "timeshare" is just that we're going on vacation.

that really great thing is that with DVC your vacation isn't the same room every time. being able to choose form 7 different resorts gives us lots of options even not going to wdw at all but like i said a cruise or HH and VB (though somehow even if going on a cruise i think we'll end up at WDW)

sometimes you don't have to tell the whole entire truth to your kids until they are old enough to understand and ages 6 or 7 isn't old enough yet (imo)

i work with school age kids (age 6-12) and while most of them have been to wdw more then once only 1 has parents who own DVC and when she told me they were going to VB for spring break no one else knew what she was talking about

 

[Kathi OD]

Why say anything at all???? We just go on vacation once a year and right now it happens to be to WDW because it's age appropriate for the kids at this time.

I agree! At 5, DD doesn't need to know that you bought anything that will allow her to see Mickey every year. After a couple of years, she'll just figure that WDW is where you choose to vacation.

 

[NYMomof4]

The funny thing about kids is that they often don't equate money with happiness (if you work to instill that). I take the kids camping a few times a year to a rustic cabin (think opposite of DVC with no utilities) and it ranks up there with DVC--loved for different reasons.

I do try to show them the value of hard work and have the good grades rule for my oldest DS12 and DDS15, one of which missed a short trip for not reaching his academic goal last year. I also have my oldest 3 (9, 12,15) save some of their money to go towards their passes/spending money etc...

We also stop to appreciate "Disney moments" when we are there--those times when you just pause and appreciate being there or some little thing that happened.

 

[Reginak]

Our kids all know about it but they never talk about WDW really; I think that it is "out of sight, out of mind" for them. They also know that it costs a lot of money to go and we have a flour canister that I got at Walmart where we are saving all of our loose change for our next trip. That way, if it does come up, then they can also talk about how we are all saving because it is so expensive.

Regina

 

[tomandrobin]

There are some excellent posts here. We have the "family" rule in our home too. What is said and happens in our home, stays in our home. Its one of the first lessons of family respect that we taught our kids.

Reading the ages of your kids, I'm not really sure they will understand the concept of timeshare ownership. I agree with some of the above posts, why say anything at all about DVC. Just keep planning your trips and vacations. Eventually in a few years, either they will stat noticing that they are staying in a vacation club or asking questions about your trips to Disney.

Don't treat it as a prized object, just approach your trips like you would any other vacation trip. Everyone goes on vacation, you just choose to spend yours at WDW. There are people that will look at your trips to Disney with a jealous eye, but with DVC you are probably dpending less then they are on thier vacations.

 

[disney0210]

I do try to show them the value of hard work and have the good grades rule for my oldest DS12 and DDS15, one of which missed a short trip for not reaching his academic goal last year. I also have my oldest 3 (9, 12,15) save some of their money to go towards their passes/spending money etc...

Hats off to you for this!

Reading your post, I think DH and I made a good decision to not tell DD5 (will be DD6 in a couple of days) about the ability to go every year (twice a year if we wanted). She still is too young to grasp the subject anyway and she'll just know that we choose to vacation at WDW, that's all. By the way she loves camping too. Probably just as much as she loves going to WDW. I think she's mature for a 5-year old. There was one time that DH and I just finished shovelling the driveway (after what was probably the 6th snowstorm in a month) and I was catching my breath and I said "I hate snow", and to my surprise she told me "Mommy, pls don't use that word. Martin Luther King doesn't like that word." She did have a point and boy, was I told!

Have a great weekend, folks!

 

[Grandbuddy]

At least if she ever spoke about WDW amidst people whose personal choice is to not go there and go somewhere else, then it's okay. But to say that in front of people that can't go due to money, yikes, that would be a little awkward...

I think it's great you are sensitive to the feelings of the other kids, as you are obviously in an area where the school includes several socio-economic groups. For now, why not just say your family has joined Mickey's fan club, and you will try to go see him as often as you can. She can pick up on the economic aspects as she gets older.

 

[TinksDH]

Our kids were 6, 4, and -2 months when we bought DVC. Prior to that, we had gone to WDW twice before, so I guess you could say that our kids have grown up with WDW. We've averaged going to WDW twice a year since then, so they don't know any different.

We live in a fairly affluent area of the Kansas City metro area, and to be honest, we are probably on the low end of what is considered average income/housing/cars/etc for the area. That is important to understand, as kids base their "place in life" on what their friends have or get, what their friends' houses look like, or what kind of cars their friends' parents drive. We drive cars that are 7 and 8 years old, live in a fairly modest house by local standards, have 10 year old living room furniture that has seen better days, and limit the "out of home" meals that we partake in. What we HAVE stressed to them is that we view family vacations as very important to us, and that is what we have chosen to spend our disposable income on. So all in all, they understand that we have DVC, but other families have their "luxuries".

We try to keep all of this in perspective by continually reminding them what we choose to do with our money and time. Through our church and with our money and time we support mission projects, we provide meals and clothing to local shelters, and we "adopted" a child in Peru that we help support financially and by writing to him. I volunteer in our church, where DW is a staff member, and the kids volunteer as well. We want them to understand that while we may be "above average" in US income and "average" for the area, we, as middle-class Americans, have way more than the overwhelming majority of the rest of the world, and it is our responsibility to help those who don't have what we have. Hopefully all of that will make them understand just how lucky they are to have DVC, and to not get too caught up in the "one-upsmanship" that tweens and teens get into.