Pros and cons of going with another family

[mommiepoppins]

we go with other people and it can work fine... they can watch your kids while you go out at night.... the other hand they are in your face all the time and you really do not get your own family time

 

[disnutt]

Wow! Thanks for all the help!

We've decided to talk to them about our desire to stay on-site and be free to do things independently. I thought we could plan to do Candlelight Processional and MVMCP together (not same day of course) and then I'll give them my DIS-er's schedule to follow as they will.

Wish us luck!

 

[NotUrsula]

The two most important things are: 1] no one waits (see post above), and 2] No transportation interdependency. The absolute WORST is being dependent on others for your transport. Obviously, you don't want to stay offsite, but for anyone who reads this who would share that offsite house, sharing a vehicle is a BADDDDDD idea.

Also, I would say that shared meals should be decided in detail before leaving home. You don't want to just say "we'll have dinner together on Tuesday", but "we'll have dinner together at Whispering Canyon at 7 pm on Tuesday." Failing to do this results in long meandering discussions of who wants to eat what for dinner, and then finding yourselves waiting for hours to get into whatever restaurant you finally settle on. People will get hungry and cranky while the decision is made.

If the prime focus of the togetherness is letting the children spend time together, I wouldn't spend that time eating. Kids tend not to get the group meal thing; they want to move on to the fun and be active. Switching off minding them at these times can work very well, especially when touring, so that you don't get conflicts in terms of parenting decisions. For instance, we don't snack and we don't buy souvenirs, so if we were trying to tour with a family that did, there would be constant conflict with the kids getting the gimmes. If we just take charge of the other children for a few hours, we can simply say "no" and that is that; they can shop and snack when their parents take them.

 

[Desnik]

Our trip in Nov is going to be with our close friends, husband, wife and their DS who is 4 months older than our DS. We all are DVC'ers and have been to WDW many times. We agreed to stay at SSR but they will have their car. They are driving down. We are doing the MVMCP together, it's their DS's Bday. We have agreed that we should go our seperate ways whenever we wanted and try to meet up for dinner. Our DH's want to spend some down time at the pool so we will then go to the patks together with the kids. She has left the planning of ADR's up to me and the touring plans too. They are up for anything and trust my judgement. They are really making it easy! They are so great. I have to admit though that at first I was alittle nervous because I like to do WDW my way and I didn't know what to expect. Luckily we are really close so we can be open and upfront with eachother and I'm really looking foward to the trip.

 

[suffolkprincess]

when we went this past fall with my MIL, SIL, BIL, and their two DD... my DD8 drove her mother crazy (really very crazy) because she was constantly comparing the way we do things with the way they do things. My DH and I are big planners and into being prepared, we're the ones with the bandaids and water bottles and chapstick-- they like to go free and buy what they need as the need it. It was nonstop "Why don't you have wipes/ sunscreen/ lip balm for *me* Mommy?" from my niece whenever I did something for my DD. And then there was the clothes thing-- we were much more dressed up pretty much at all times than they were and my niece was upset by that, too-- because her mother had packed what their family wears to the park (tshirts and shorts) and I had sort of overdone it a bit because I wanted super cute pictures (plus my DD is a sundress girl, and often refuses to wear shorts anyway.)

I mean-- who really cares? Not me, and not my SIL-- but her DD made her NUTS. And the shoe could have EASILY been on the other foot with my DD whining over eating a granola bar from Mommy's backpack instead of a Mickey Ice Cream or whatever.

And then the waiting around for the other family while they dealt with the overstimulated/ whiny child was a bit of a damper because, for whatever reason, it seemed that the meltdowns never coincided-- my DD would get cranky when my nieces were raring to go.

Just give lots and lots of space. The highlights of the trip, togetherness-wise, were the unplanned times we ran into each other in the parks, rode a couple times together, and went our way.

 

[disnutt]

when we went this past fall with my MIL, SIL, BIL, and their two DD... my DD8 drove her mother crazy (really very crazy) because she was constantly comparing the way we do things with the way they do things. My DH and I are big planners and into being prepared, we're the ones with the bandaids and water bottles and chapstick-- they like to go free and buy what they need as the need it. It was nonstop "Why don't you have wipes/ sunscreen/ lip balm for *me* Mommy?" from my niece whenever I did something for my DD. And then there was the clothes thing-- we were much more dressed up pretty much at all times than they were and my niece was upset by that, too-- because her mother had packed what their family wears to the park (tshirts and shorts) and I had sort of overdone it a bit because I wanted super cute pictures (plus my DD is a sundress girl, and often refuses to wear shorts anyway.)

QUOTE]

This stuff happens here at home, too! My friend is more of a packer than I am. I take the survival stuff like sunscreen, water and ponchos. We went to Six Flags together for the day. She was like a magician pulling things out of her oversized backpack. I swear she had a roll of duct tape in her bag when the sunshade on her stroller broke! I've got to admit that until that moment I never would have thought to pack duct tape but it did come in handy!