How soon is too soon to tell the kids?

[Mamato2cutekiddos]

I know the opinions will vary GREATLY. I also know that it really depends on each family/child(ren).

Help my husband and I decide when to tell our kiddos. As you can see in my sig, we are about 2 months out from our WDW trip. Our kids do not know we are going. We always talk about WDW and often have then "who would you like to meet" conversation (last time we went DD was 3 and DS was 1 and so they have little memory of it all).

My daughter will be a month shy of turning 7 and my son a month shy of turning 5. My husband wants to wait until literally the day before. I already know that for my anxiety ridden 6yo that would be more stress for her (she would worry about everything). His argument is that they won't have long to wait and they won't drive us crazy.

My argument is to tell them now (but I do know they would drive us crazy). I think part of the fun is the anticipation. I'd also like them to help us make decisions and join in the planning.

I'm guessing the ideal would be somewhere around 2-3 weeks out but I am curious to hear of the experience of others. What worked? What didn't work? What would you do differently, etc.

 

[WuvEeyore]

We have been talking to our 4 yo that we are thinking about going, been asking what rides she might want to do and which characters she wants to see, but I might wait until the week before to tell her. If we tell her any earlier, she'll ask everyday if we are going today! lol

 

[amerikiwiroo]

We are 2 months out from our first trip and we told our 5 and 3 year olds last weekend!

My parents surprised me when I was 6 and it wasn't the great surprise moment that they had envisioned and planned on. Looking back on it 30 years later and I have no memories of the first couple of days of that trip as I think I was still in shock and didn't really relax and soak it in until towards the end of the trip (I'm assured I still had a great time--just don't remember it). My DD has some anxiety issues with surprises as well, so we just felt more comfortable letting them know ahead of time. Now we're enjoying watching youtube videos of some of the rides, reading about disneyworld with them and including them in the planning. I figure some of our favourite parts of Christmas as a family are the preparations and build up and to us, Disney is like a really big Christmas!

Good luck whichever way you choose.

 

[juliekzp]

I've found that a 20 day countdown is great. That gives plenty of time to talk about it and get excited, but not too much time where it seems likw forever from now. My kids love to cross off the days every morning. We've tried surprising the morning of, and it did not go over well.

 

[Kelly014]

We have been talking to our 4 yo that we are thinking about going, been asking what rides she might want to do and which characters she wants to see, but I might wait until the week before to tell her. If we tell her any earlier, she'll ask everyday if we are going today! lol

We do this too. DD knows we're going back some day so we watch the Disney parks series on Netflix and talk about rides and meet and greets she'd like to do. We surprised her the day of last year though (at the airport), and plan to do the same thing this time. It really depends on the kid though, DD requests everything be a surprise, even her lunch LOL. It's exciting for her to find out that way and I don't get a million questions beforehand.

 

[sara1215]

We are planning a trip with similar aged kids as the OP. I was thinking of telling them about a month before. Making a paper chain type countdown. Any longer and I'm sure I'll hear "when are we going" a thousand times before we actually leave. But I don't think they could handle the "morning of" surprise either.

 

[Mamato2cutekiddos]

There is a Disney Parks series on Netflix

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

I'd say 30 days. That seems like ample time to prepare the kids and would be less stressful for your 6yo.

 

[kimieko]

We told our 4 year old nephew a year before. I will NEVER do that again! We took him into Boston for the day and he got out of the car all excited screaming "is this Disney World?!"

 

[Paigesmom2013]

I told my 4 yo about our February trip and she's been okay about it. We started a piggy bank to save money for a few character meals and souvenirs. I don't see how people keep it from their kids until the morning of.

 

[Rosebud123]

I vote tell them now! The anticipation of an actual, planned trip is so fun!

 

[Dramatic Muffin]

At that age I would say two weeks. When you're that young, two weeks seems like forever!

I would make some sort of visual countdown for them as well. Either crossing off days on a calendar or maybe cutting out a big Mickey shape and stapling a long strand of 14 candies and having each kid take a turn removing one each day--something like that.

 

[Mousemommy1]

We are annual passholders and go at least once a year, so our kids always know there is a trip coming. We always tell them
as soon as we book the next one - even if it's a year out.

 

[22Tink]

I've always told my kids right away. They love being part of the planning process!!

 

[GillianP1301]

Our first trip with DS was when he as 4 and we told him as soon as we booked it, which was about 3 months out. All the other trips since (going on our 4th soon) he's known when the bounce back was booked the year prior. He's still young (now 7), but really enjoys being part of the planning. We do a countdown in the house all year and he gets to earn some Disney spending money by doing over and above chores/help around the house. We've never had a problem with it being too much of a wait for him, but he is a really patient kid in general.

 

[Tondee]

I always make a countdown calendar for my son. (Great practice with counting, too.) He last year he was 4 and I had it about 45 days out. We added it to our bedtime routine-crossing out a day and counting how many days were left. Closer to the trip, he started going back and counting the X's.

 

[100AcreWood]

We tell our kids in advance because they like to save up their money for souvenirs and it's fun to think about and imagine what we'll do. My oldest (almost 13) has an anxiety disorder. Surprising her would be a mess.

 

[Shmily01]

We tell our kids as soon as we book a trip. Mine are a little older than yours are so I don't have the issue with the "are we going today" questions. For them, the older they get, they love to be a part of the planning process. From the places we eat to the Fastpasses, the planning for them is just as fun. They do research on their own and are always telling me new things they have learned about their favorite place. I would have loved, though, to be able to surprise them at least once but they are like me and the anticipation would do them in!

 

[IrishNYC]

We didn't tell our 5 year old that we were going, because it would have been an endless "Are we going are we going are we going?" and I didn't want her bragging to other kids in school. She figured out where we were going when we landed in MCO and were checking in to DME.

 

[IrishNYC]

...and for those who want their kids to be part of the planning process... even though we didn't tell DD we were going, she did help us plan. We had told her long before we booked our trip that we would go "when she turned 7." She had seen commercials on Disney, Jr. for CRT and kept telling me "When I'm 7 I want to eat with Cinderella!" so I knew that was a must-do. I also booked Akersush for the princesses, and Chef Mickey, just because I knew she'd love it, and DH and I wanted to eat breakfast there. The summer before we went, we took a trip to a small amusement park (Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, PA) to see how she liked rides, because when she was younger, she hated all rides, even carousels. She loved everything, including the big roller coaster, so we knew it was time to book Disney. I would occasionally watch videos of the rides she was tall enough for, and when she heard them on my laptop, she'd come look and tell me she wanted to ride whatever I was watching, or that it was too scary. I knew from this little trick that she didn't want to have a meal with the Pooh characters or Stitch, and that she really wanted to ride POC and TT.