"kids still too young" too "expensive"

[Queen2PrincessG]

geez were you HERE this weekend...

sil #1 , her kids ooh and ahhh cause we're going AGAIN..(btw i have invited the kids to come with us, parents want to be there for the first time)...waiting till older they are 6 and 9....i personally wish i'd taken mine younger to see the magic in dd's eyes when she saw princesses and ds when he met mickey..its still awesome but of course they know that it's all playacting..

sil #2 kids are crying cause we are going AGAIN....his dad says too expensive and that the youngest is too young...thing is my youngest is younger..so that was fun to explain..sort of , talk to your father...i told sil that we value different things and spend our money differently...just the booze consumed by the inlaws this weekend would have paid our hotel for the week...seriously...best guess..booze for the year would cover 2 trips to the world ...

so i say we value different things...we choose to spend our dollars there..and leave it at that...for the age..i say i regret not taking them younger and leave it at that..


and btw


WE LEAVE IN 8 DAYS FOR A 10 DAY TRIP
dd 10, ds 8 and ds 1

JEALOUS!

 

[luvmy2babies]

I had people tell me that when we went for the first time last year. But my children are pretty spread apart in age. My son was just 10 months old. But my daughter is 7, so if I waited until he was say five, she’s 12 and while she would still have fun, she would not likely be the same princess gazing, kiddie ride loving child she is now.

Then it was, “Well, leave the baby.” But we would have missed him too much, I was nursing at night and heck, you couldn’t beat the price.

Then on top of that I got the “You’re crazy to get on a plane and go to WDW alone with two children.”

Boy was insanity fun. Crazy as it is, we got on a plane again last month and went to Orlando to visit Sea World and ended up spending the last day at MK-gasp! Dd is now 8 and ds is 22 months. We had a blast.

Are we done? Heck no, going back in June for 10 days. Ds will be just under 2.5 so free again.

I understand you feel bad for your siblings’ children, but you can’t help what they do. And as far as peoples’ opinions about your daughter, you’ll forget them when you remember that light in her eyes that shows up when she’s there or anywhere else you take her.

I just close my eyes and see my son laughing while my daughter spun us around on the Mad Tea Party ride.

 

[sbell111]

My cousin had two basic rules for when it would be time for a WDW trip for her family:

1. No one is in diapers
2. Everyone can get around on their own two feet (no strollers)

So she waited until her kids were 7 and 10 and they had a truly fantastic time. Would I have said she probably could have taken them earlier and had just as good of a time? Sure. But it wasn't my decision to make for her family. Some people just have a set idea of what parameters make for a good vacation for their family and that is totally their prerogative just like it is your prerogative to take your kids now.

I agree. Those are perfectly fine rules, for her. Of course, we took our daughter on a Baltic cruise and trip to Paris Disney when she was about six months old. She likely won't remember it, but I'll forever remember daddy and daughter day in Helsinki, the family kicking around St. Petersburg, Russia, and my little baby's face when she looked up at her Minnie Mouse balloon in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle.

Plus, I'm not particularly interested in not going to WDW for years and years simply because my kids are young.

 

[mom2maggie]

I got this a lot when I was preparing for my first trip. My daughter had just turned 2 the month before, and everyone said that it was a waste, and that she wouldn't remember it, so why were we wasting our money? I told the critics that she won't remember me staying up rocking her at night, singing her lullabies, taking her to the park, going to the zoo - heck, even just LOVING her - but I still do all those things, because that is what you do with your kids. You let them experience new things, even if they won't remember them!

My 2nd daughter was 6/7 months old when we took her last time - and no, she doesn't remember going (obviously!) but she had a great time, and I'm looking forward to taking her in March at 2.5 years.

And of course its expensive - any good vacation is

 

[~Kristina~]

I explain it this way:

When they are smaller everything is still magical. It's not a man/women in a costume or with makeup on to look like a princess - it's the REAL thing to them!

Then when they're older and know how it works, they have the fun and excitement of being old enough for the big kid rides.

My kids have been 6 months - 2 yrs old their first time in Disney.

 

[tinkbell13]

We had the same response (too expensive and too young) when we invited my BIL, SIL and two nieces to come with us in 2008. Nieces would have been 7 and 4 on that trip. We said okay, to each their own, and planned our trip anyway. They regretted not coming after we came back and our DS (7 at the time) told them all about the trip, all the fun we had and showed them all our pictures and videos. And when they found out the price we paid, they realized it wasn't expensive at all for everything we got.

They asked us to go during March break this year as they thought their youngest was old enough now. We couldn't go as we were already booked to go on a cruise in January with a bunch of friends but told them to have a great time. They didn't go because "we don't know anything about WDW".

This summer, they asked us if we would go during March break 2012 and we happily said YES! So now we have a family trip planned, including MIL and FIL too. I laughed at my BIL on the weekend though when he said he hoped his girls weren't too old for Disney now.

 

[mandypta]

I've gotten similar reactions when people find out we're taking a 6 year old and a 3 year old.

I'm excited because I think it will be a truely magical experience for them at these ages. People say "but they won't be able to do everything."

So? There is a crap ton of stuff to do at Disney, and we won't have time to do it all anyway. I figure we'll go back in a few years when they're both tell enough to experience the thrill rides.

 

[amylynne01]

I got this a lot when I was preparing for my first trip. My daughter had just turned 2 the month before, and everyone said that it was a waste, and that she wouldn't remember it, so why were we wasting our money? I told the critics that she won't remember me staying up rocking her at night, singing her lullabies, taking her to the park, going to the zoo - heck, even just LOVING her - but I still do all those things, because that is what you do with your kids. You let them experience new things, even if they won't remember them!

THIS EXACTLY! My kids won't remember anything I've done for the first 3ish years of their lives. Does that mean I should not do anything like snuggle them, bringing them to the library, visit family, etc? NO. We had such a magical time - I seriously cried when they saw Mickey for the first time because he was real to them. Now if we were a family that went once in a lifetime, I'd wait for sure. But that wasn't our plan, so we went and enjoyed time as a family.

As for expenses, we saved for 15 months for our trip in January. I'm already saving for our trip in 2013. If you want to make it work, you will.

 

[luvmyprincesses]

Babies are free, including food, they can always eat off your plate. If bottle fed, I always carried powdered formula to the parks and used bottled water to make up the bottles in the park. Breastfed babies, well nuff said. By the time my little ones are 4 or 5 they are used to the noises and smells and love the characters. No fear of any rides because we have always taken them on most rides. Disney is considered their happy place. The best reason of all is the one that they are free until they are three.

 

[luvmyprincesses]

I've gotten similar reactions when people find out we're taking a 6 year old and a 3 year old.

I'm excited because I think it will be a truely magical experience for them at these ages. People say "but they won't be able to do everything."

So? There is a crap ton of stuff to do at Disney, and we won't have time to do it all anyway. I figure we'll go back in a few years when they're both tell enough to experience the thrill rides.

I just laugh when someone says my little ones are too young because "your little one is only seven years old"

Yes she is only 7 years oldand she has been going since she was 7 months old.

 

[AZMermaid]

I think for me the hardest part of this reaction is the implied notion that I am nuts and wasting my money. I know it is MY family and MY money, so I shouldn't really care, but it still sort of stings when close friends and family react that way.

But, I still reply with "Well, why did you bother taking your kids to San Diego (or wherever) last year?" Usually they say something like, "We wanted to go" or "we like the beach." Exactly. We like to go to Disneyland. So we went and had a great time. Will the baby remember? No. But we will.

As for expensive, that one is harder to fight. I think if I was inviting them, I would tell them my cost so they have an actual figure, which may or may not be expensive depending on their situation. If not, I'd probably just say, "It isn't really that expensive compared to other vacations."

 

[katibosch]

Like others have said, it depends on who is saying it what your response is.

I would say that if it's someone directly involved in paying for the trip, either partially or completely, then they have some say. For most of us that's going to be our spouse whose agreement we need. Other people can butt out as far as I am concerned.

My mother didn't believe in taking vacations when I was a child -- she thought things like having a nice house and nice car were more important I guess. She was a single parent and I'm sure it was hard for her financially but I look back at some of the things she spent money on, now that I'm an adult, and wonder why she couldn't have come up with the money for some trips (not to WDW or anywhere "fancy" even, just a road trip somewhere fairly close or whatever). We just didn't go anywhere for vacation. I was 20 when I visited WDW for the first time and that was only because I'd joined the College Program and gotten there myself.

My husband's family took vacations every single year when he was a kid, and he has been so many places that I always wanted to go and haven't yet been able to. His parents, although there were two of them, weren't really too much wealthier than we were, and they managed fine.

He and I decided when we got married that we were going to try to make a yearly vacation a priority, and so far we have managed it every year except one. We do have to give up some luxuries and things we might want, but is worth it to me.

My mother's reaction to the news that we are taking DD to WDW was BOTH of the mentioned things -- worries about not big enough and also cost. I just pretty much blew her off. She isn't paying for it or doing without anything to pay for it, so none of her business.

 

[Queen2PrincessG]

I got this a lot when I was preparing for my first trip. My daughter had just turned 2 the month before, and everyone said that it was a waste, and that she wouldn't remember it, so why were we wasting our money? I told the critics that she won't remember me staying up rocking her at night, singing her lullabies, taking her to the park, going to the zoo - heck, even just LOVING her - but I still do all those things, because that is what you do with your kids. You let them experience new things, even if they won't remember them!

My 2nd daughter was 6/7 months old when we took her last time - and no, she doesn't remember going (obviously!) but she had a great time, and I'm looking forward to taking her in March at 2.5 years.

And of course its expensive - any good vacation is

Love that. Can I steal it!?!?

 

[okeydokey]

Yes, you guys are right.



I know Disney can be expensive and at least SIL asked if I could look into prices for her and she can see if they would work. I just don't understand how you can't save 3000 in 11 months? It just boggles my mind.

Either way WE ARE GOING BACK!!!

Seriously? Wow.

 

[discnewbie]

I know Disney can be expensive and at least SIL asked if I could look into prices for her and she can see if they would work. I just don't understand how you can't save 3000 in 11 months? It just boggles my mind.

I guess it matters how much money you make. We're a single income family and it's taken us years to save to go. And it will take us years to save for the next trip.

 

[Colleen27]

It depends who it is coming from. A couple of my neighbors have made the "too expensive" comment and really appreciated me pointing them in the direction of Mousesavers, the DIS, AllEars, etc. because they were genuinely interested but had no idea how to make a trip affordable. But I know some of the people who comment on our frequent trips are just providing unwanted commentary on our financial status/decisionmaking and those I just ignore.

As far as the kids not being old enough I'll admit that one bugs me. Sure, my youngest most likely won't remember her first few Disney trips but the older kids will and our trips are for the whole family, not just the baby. We're not going to stop traveling until she's old enough to remember, nor are we going to leave her out of fun experiences just because she won't recall them 10 years from now.

 

[Colleen27]

They basically did! I invited them to come with us. All of them DH's parents and DH brothers family. That was the grandparents response, "the grand kids are too young to go". Unless maybe I'm being stupid and they just don't consider DD their grandchild and are only speaking of the other two kids.

Sometimes I think people use those two lines because they have no interest in going but don't want to come out and say so. My nephew would love WDW - he's obsessed with Cars and Toy Story and gets jealous when my kids talk about our trips. BIL always has some reason not to go, whether cost or weather or age or whatever, but what it really comes down to is that he doesn't want to go and isn't interested in spending any amount of money on it. We've taken trips that cost less than his home theatre setup, but in his view we're wasting money because his big-screen TV will last years while our trip only lasted a week. It makes me a bit sad for DN, but it is what it is and it is really none of our business.

 

[luvmy2babies]

I just want to say that them saying it is too expensive doesn't necessarily mean they can't save the money. It could be that it is more than they want to spend on a vacation.

They could just as easily say they don't understand why you, me or anyone else here spends $3,000 on a vacation. I do it because it is where I am right now with what I want to do with my family.

It's where you are and where a lot of people who post here are with what they want to do. It may just not be where the rest of our family is, and that's really okay as long as no one is trying to dictate what another family does with their vacation funds or savings.

Now if you vacation at Disney and then come home and ask them for help with your mortgage because you spent it there, then they can criticize. If they think it costs $8K when it costs $3K you can tell them the truth.

Outside of any of that, IMHO, it's a to each his or her own situation.

 

[duffy]

I would just say that I disagree. No need to explain further.

 

[jennyjinx3]

I got this a lot when I was preparing for my first trip. My daughter had just turned 2 the month before, and everyone said that it was a waste, and that she wouldn't remember it, so why were we wasting our money? I told the critics that she won't remember me staying up rocking her at night, singing her lullabies, taking her to the park, going to the zoo - heck, even just LOVING her - but I still do all those things, because that is what you do with your kids. You let them experience new things, even if they won't remember them!

My 2nd daughter was 6/7 months old when we took her last time - and no, she doesn't remember going (obviously!) but she had a great time, and I'm looking forward to taking her in March at 2.5 years.

And of course its expensive - any good vacation is

I totally agree...they may not remember any of the things we do with them under the age of 3 BUT all the things we do with them and for them shape them into the people they will become. We took our first WDW vacation in 2010 when our girls were 6,4, and almost 2. We knew that our 23 month old would probably not remember, but we were not going to let our six year old miss out on the "magic" of it all. Our 4 year old was at the perfect age and as soon as we got home we planned our next trip. I kid you not, our youngest talked about it all until we went again in Sept 2011 and of course they are all still talking about WDW everyday.
Our next trip is planned for Sept 2012, and as far as the expensive part goes, we prioritize what is important to us. New clothes for DH and I when we don't need them OR family memories. A new car when we really don't need one yet OR family memories. For us its a no brainer and that is how we afford it. It takes a long time to explain all this to people, but at least five families we have explained it to have gone or are now going to WDW! :