If you could, would you leave 1 year old home?

[wallawallakids]

Personally, no. But I actually have never taken a trip without my kids and my oldest is 11 so maybe I shouldn't be weighing in! I have just always felt like my time with them being little is so short. I never want to miss a second. I enjoyed vacationing with my babies. I didn't feel like it was a hassle. We went to Seattle when my twins were 5 months old. It was a different trip then if we went with just our 4 and 5 year old (at the time) but it was fun in a "family" way. We go on vacations as a whole family and that is just our way of doing it.

However, I do not have family that can or would be able to watch our children nor do I have someone I trust to watch them, so maybe I would be in a different position if I did. I certainly would not judge someone else for doing it. I can see how it might be freeing to go with just your oldest two. It certainly will not harm the baby to not go. Your mother will be there and taking care of every need. So I really think it boils down to what you are comfortable with and what you want out of the trip. I am still working my way up to that solo trip with hubby! Maybe when the youngest is in college. Only 12 more years.

 

[PlutosMommy]

I guess I'm kinda of answering from the other point of view- my parents took my brothers (9 & 5) to WDW when I was 13 months old. I stayed with my grandparents. I don't feel bad or left out looking at old pictures from that trip. They had a great time, and I'm sure my grandparents spoiled me too. We all took another trip to WDW when I was about 8, and then when I was in high school I went back with just my parents (my brothers were either married or in college at that point). All that to say, my memories of WDW, and family vacations in general, are very positive. That experience didn't leave me resentful in anyway. Do whatever you think is right for your family.

 

[6disneykids]

I have been with kids of all ages, newborn, infant, toddler, preschooler, school aged kids, middle school age, and now a high school aged kid. I couldn't imaging going on vacation without any of my kids and I have 6!

On our last trip I had one afternoon in Magic Kingdom with DD2, DS4, DDS7 and DD9 while my husband and DS13 went golfing.

 

[corneredbycorn]

Could not disagree more. My greatest memories of WDW, is watching the enjoyment on my kids faces. One of my favorite mornings was when a cm was blowing bubbles at the entrance of Barnstormer and my ds (1) laughed and chased the bubbles while my dw and dd were in line.

With rider swap, you can take turns on the big rides. Sure your infant will slow you down , but I would not want to do it any other way.

How on earth can you disagree with my post? Those are MY reasons for not bringing our daughter (and that was before I even thought about the plane ride and the giant lovey blanket we have to bring everywhere). I'm not speaking for you or anyone else.

I'm sure she would have fun and we would enjoy it, but, for us, the hassle is more than its worth. It's not like I'm leaving my daughter at home with a pile of food and some water and leaving her to fend for herself. She will be left with loving grandparents who have already planned all sorts of fun things to do with her (parks, zoo, visiting family she almost never gets to see, etc.) and we will be checking in with her twice daily through Skype.

rider swap = my husband and I can't go on rides together = not nearly as fun for us

 

[kandb]

NEVER. Family vacations are for families, I don't believe in leaving one of my children out because "they will be more work then the others", that is what having children is about. Also, younger children are easier. We took my 10month old son when my twins were 6 years old and we loved watching him interact with the characters. We have such great memories (and photos and videos) of that trip.

 

[Zooshoveller]

It depends. Only y'all can make this decision.

DD would have been great at one, but DS hated being off his schedule. They both feared certain "mascots" at that age. DD hated fireworks, DS loved them. They are twins so we waited until they were both ready (and then had to wait until we could afford it! LOL)

Just weigh your pros and cons. You'll make the right decision for y'all!

 

[Lazor460]

Hi! Personally I would bring them, but we havent went on vacation without the kids. For us it is our family time together. I just know they are only small for so long and I hate missing a moment! I just wouldnt be able to enjoy myself without all of my children there. We are actually bringing our will be then 8 month old in sept, our other 2 will be 8 & 5. With that being said we have reasonable expectations. It will obviously be a different vacation with a baby. We are going to go with the flow and enjoy ourselves. We do have plans but arent going to obsess over everything being perfect. We did decide to stay at CR since it is connected to monorail to help eliminate some stress. I think if you are bringing a 1 yr old you have to go into it with the mentality of things arent going to always go smoothly but you are there spending time with your family and hey thats is what its all about! Seeing the smiles on their faces is priceless!

 

[FortForever]

I would have never done that. My kids all went since birth. Not only would I not leave them that long, but babies enjoy WDW too.

Vacation is about spending time as a family, not getting thingd done. Caring for children is parenting, not a hassle.

My 10-month-old grandson has been 3 times, and the 3-month-old once. We go JUST to take the 3 and 4 year olds. If we grandparents can handle taking little ones then surely young parents can.

 

[Blessedwithboys]

Could not disagree more. My greatest memories of WDW, is watching the enjoyment on my kids faces. One of my favorite mornings was when a cm was blowing bubbles at the entrance of Barnstormer and my ds (1) laughed and chased the bubbles while my dw and dd were in line.

With rider swap, you can take turns on the big rides. Sure your infant will slow you down , but I would not want to do it any other way.

I agree my youngest DS was 1.5 last year and he had a BLAST!!!
These days are absolutely priceless. I would not leave one of mine behind! The vacation is for our whole family. Yes it is different going with younger ones but they are not an inconvenience they are part of the family

 

[Kristian]

Nope!!!

I couldn't have left my dd at 14 months to go to Disney. I see absolutely nothing wrong with doing it so long as you are comfortable with it, I just couldn't have done it at that age.

Dh and I have talked about doing an adult Disney trip together without our dd in the future, but there is no way that I could leave her behind for a week to go to Disney right now, even at age 4...she loves it too much.

I totally agree that if any kids are coming on a trip that it automatically turns into a family vacation, which should include everyone. That is my opinion, but I couldn't take one child while leaving the other at home. No kids or all kids, that's my motto, but I personally couldn't be gone an entire week without them.

 

[geraghty]

How on earth can you disagree with my post? Those are MY reasons for not bringing our daughter. I'm not speaking for you or anyone else.

I'm sure she would have fun and we would enjoy it, but, for us, the hassle is more than its worth. It's not like I'm leaving my daughter at home with a pile of food and some water and leaving her to fend for herself. She will be left with loving grandparents who have already planned all sorts of fun things to do with her (parks, zoo, visiting family she almost never gets to see, etc.) and we will be checking in with her twice daily through Skype.

rider swap = my husband and I can't go on rides together = not nearly as fun for us

I disagreee that it would be a nightmare to feed, clothe, basically care for your own child on vacation. For the op there will be other kids to ride with. I agree, Your situation is different.

 

[Srbright]

I disagreee that it would be a nightmare to feed, clothe, basically care for your own child on vacation. For the op there will be other kids to ride with. I agree, Your situation is different.

Then I'm just as bad as her. We took DS when he was 18 months old and I swear that had he been 6 months younger (and had grand parents that would have kept him) I would have left him at home!

As it was, we had a great time but there were points where it WAS a nightmare. Like him exploding through his diaper while waiting for"it's a small world". We had plenty of clothes for him but never thought about clothes for me. I ended up going through a half a container of wipes for he and I (I couldn't really dunk him in the sink). I wrapped his clothes in a plastic bag, tied it off and just threw them away. I ended up in the gift shop getting a crappy T-shirt (no pun intended) because I wasn't going to spend my souvenir money on a shirt.

Stacy

 

[CraftyMommy]

OP, I asked this same question last fall and it turned into a heated debate. Some people wouldn't dare leave a child at home with family. Others like having a little freedom to enjoy time with the older children and do things they couldn't do with a baby.

My son was 9 and my daughter was 1. My son had been an only child for most of his life. Although he was happy to have a little sister it took a lot of adjusting for him and he had to change a lot of his routine when he was no longer the only child. We took him on a trip to WDW last December so he could be with Mom and Dad. We wanted to thank him for being so loving and accepting of his baby sister and being ok with the huge change in our lifestyle when we had a new baby in the house.

My son loved being the center of attention again for just one week. He thanked us over and over for letting him go on a big people trip. And he knows the next trip will include his little sister and he is fine with that. He's looking forward to showing Disney World to her. But it created such wonderful memories for my son and made him feel so special. I'm so glad we chose to leave her with family.

While we were gone I'd call and check on my daughter and was constantly reassured by my family that she was very happy and not in any type of distress. She got to sleep in her own crib every night and was able to continue with her regular schedule.

Before we left I felt very guilty about leaving my daughter behind. While we were on the trip I was reassured she was doing fine and was able to relax and enjoy time with our son. Whenever I realized how special that trip was for him I was so glad we had chosen to leave the baby at home.

In the end, do what your family decides it best for you. Don't let the opinions and judgements of strangers decide what you do.

 

[AMT826]

There's no way I could, I'd just feel so bad leaving them out. They wouldn't remember it, but I would. Plus, babys usually always sleep in the stroller, and might even really enjoy seeing the characters, and riding rides with you.

 

[Dominion]

My son loved being the center of attention again for just one week. He thanked us over and over for letting him go on a big people trip. And he knows the next trip will include his little sister and he is fine with that. He's looking forward to showing Disney World to her. But it created such wonderful memories for my son and made him feel so special. I'm so glad we chose to leave her with family.

This. Seems like a lot of people are flaming the OP for considering leaving the baby at home to make her life easier, but sometimes I think it is so nice for the older children to have their parent's full attention again. It happens so rarely when there are little ones around, especially babies, and they deserve special time with their parents too! OP, if you plan to go again in the future when your DD is older, I wouldn't think twice about leaving her home with a loving grandparent...there's a lot to be said for the special bonding they will get to do too! My friends did this just last year and she felt it was the best thing they could have done for their older daughter (alone time with mom and dad at WDW), and they know they will go back when their son is older.

Do what feels right for you and your family!

 

[indimom]

I would leave the baby with grandma. No qualms. My parents did this a couple times with both myself and my baby sister. We stayed with godparents or grandparents while they took vacations with older siblings. Doesn't bother me in the least today.

DH and I never actually did this with our kids, but mainly because we only had two kids, close in age, and (other than visits to my sister in Florida) we did not vacation when they were in the baby - preschool years.

We held off on a Disney vacation until our kids were 5 and 7 because we just aren't fans of theme parks with babies. This is simply our style. I'm aware that many people take babies and have a great time. I've read their trip reports and saw the smiles on their little one's faces. I still wouldn't do it myself.

OP, do what works for you. The baby will be fine.

 

[anniemck]

We did both, we took the girls and other times we left them with mom. Then there were times that mom took only one of the girls on a trip with her. Heck, in 2000 I went to Ohio with the older two for 5 days and the youngest (8) at the time stayed home with mom, it was the older two's first time on a plane, youngest said she wanted to stay... was very glad she did also because the week after we got home mom had a massive heart attack and passed away a month later... she had that last week with mom on her own and to this day says she wouldn't trade it for the world.
It is alright to leave a child at home, the child will not hate you for it later... unless the child is told about it they won't remember.

 

[sunnydays28]

It would depend on if there were older/other children to consider and if the trip was for a special occasion if I were to consider leaving any children home at any age, but in general no. And while not WDW, my daughter did a 14 hour road trip and 5 days tour of DC at 12m2w, 7 hour road trip and 3 days touring Chicago at 13m3w and 2 weeks away from home at 18 months with no problems. Babies are way easier than preschool and grade schoolers.

But at that age I would not for the fact that my 15 month old was still nursing. I would not like the idea of taking my pump around the parks and dealing with storing or dumping milk, or my child having to wean that early because I was gone so long.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Ds has gone to WDW at 6mo, 13mo, and 15mo and did great each trip. He seems to really have fun and enjoy himself. We've been traveling with him since he was 3mo, he's used to being out and about and adjusts very easily.

I genuinely enjoy seeing his reaction to everything and wouldn't at this point choose to leave him behind, even though he adores his grandparents. I'd rather forgo a handful of rides than miss having him there.

 

[tjmj9801]

This. Seems like a lot of people are flaming the OP for considering leaving the baby at home to make her life easier

It's not flaming when they asked for your opinion. I've learned in 6 1/2 years as a mom, if you don't want other people's opinions, don't ask. If you don't want any of your parenting choices criticized, don't tell anyone what you're doing. I'm sooo over the "mommy wars". Do whatever you want and don't care about the opinions of others. OP asked, we told. Next time, if OP (or anyone else) doesn't care what others think, they won't ask.