I’m putting this here in hopes of actually getting answers and not a bunch of “OMG you horrible child hater you” posts…
Anyway, just returned from my first ever visit to Hawai’i and was amazed at the number of fellow tourists who had tiny babies with them, six months or less babies. It’s possible that a few of the ones I saw were locals, but for the most part the rest had to be tourists. And they were essentially every where - airport, on the snorkeling trip, at the luau, at the volcano, etc.
My question - why would anyone bring a being on vacation that requires frequent feedings, naps on a schedule, frequent diaper changes, a huge amount of stuff just to go on a day trip, extreme protection from the elements and other things I’m forgetting? I can see “mom doesn’t want to be separated from child” - OK, then wait until its a bit older and doesn’t require so much care. What kind of vacation is mom getting?
Given how much everything costs in Hawai’i, bringing a baby that is in no way going to remember (and maybe not really notice) the experience didn’t make sense to me, especially since I have to imagine that mom wasn’t getting much out of it either. Ideas?
We went on a great vacation when my first child was exactly 6 mos old. We hiked through Colorado and Utah. He ate his first cheerios in Dinosaur National monument. I fed him baby food next to petroglyphs in Nine Mile Canyon. We all had a blast together. Babies can be hard, but by six mos it’s become a comfortable routine. You just accommodate their schedule, be flexible and anticipate where the tricky parts will be. The memories can be priceless, even if the baby doesn’t remember. They are some of my favorites. Plus, if the baby is a later child, you don’t want to miss uot something fun the older child might really enjoy. You learn quick that having a baby shouldn’t make you put your life on hold.
In other words- don’t assume mom and dad weren’t getting anything.
In some ways a baby can be much easier then when they’re 2-3 years and opinionated and getting potty trained etc. Theyre hungry? Nurse them wherever, dont need to find snacks. Diapers are way easier then finding a clean bathroom in the middle of nowhere.
Maybe they brought them just to annoy you? Seriously, why not? Some people really enjoy their children. I know, strange, but true. I can’t understand why anyone would want a dog, and yet, many people have them. Some even take them on trips. I guess they just like them.
Anyways, if the mom is nursing, it’s easy enough to tap a titty periodically. About all she’d have to carry around is diapers and baby butt wipes, they fit in a purse.
I can easily imagine a more disagreeable travel companion.
Travelling with an infant is easy, compared to travelling with a toddler. Trust me; I’ve done both.
What kind of vacation is Mom getting? She’s getting the only kind of vacation she can get right now, and it’s better than the vacation she can get in six months’ to a year’s time. And, sure, it’s not your carefree adult experience, and it requires work and planning and the acceptance of significant constraints. But that doesn’t mean she’d be better off to stay at home, which also involves work and planning and the acceptance of significant constraints.
Oh poo, I can’t seem to get my posts in the right place!
I hadn’t thought about any older siblings so I don’t know if that was why.
For the other, one of the reasons why I noticed this was because the moms didn’t seem to be having anything approaching a blast. There were some jogging with a stroller, so I suppose if they like jogging they were having fun… But the one on the snorkeling trip spend the whole time below on the boat, the one at the volcano spent the whole time we were there in a car (it was really cold), the one at the luau was back and forth the whole time because the baby kept, I guess getting scared by the entertainment as it started crying when it started. I suppose I wouldn’t have noticed these babies if I hadn’t seen them with the mothers “out of place” for the activities we were at.
Well, yeah that’s true! Tho I don’t think I’d take a toddler to Hawai’i either. It isn’t just that they were on vacation, it was the fact that they had spent all this money to get and stay there, with someone who wasn’t going to enjoy it and had a good chance of negatively affecting at least the mother’s trip.
They didn’t annoy me, they perplexed me.
OK, I guess if the parents don’t want to travel without their child(ren), then the bitty baby months are the best.
Well, I guess I was wrong about being able to get an answer to a simple question without someone making wrong headed assumptions…
Seeing as how that baby will need to be taken into account in family vacations for years to come, you might as well take the trip you’ve planned now. It sure beats waiting until the kids are all grown up.
Any travelling my family does is with the entire crew, however many there are and however tiny the youngest. We flew to Hawai’i with a six-month old because the flight was insanely cheap and we knew we’d never get that kind of opportunity again. She was no trouble at all. We’ve vacationed with babies as young as two months - a drive/ferry trip to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador.
You can play coy all you want but the fact is that you despise kids. I provided a few links in a past thread for child free vacations/living arrangements but you had a million reasons that it wasn’t feasable.
That brings up another point - apparently it is far more common for all children, no matter what the age, to go on vacation with their parents than when I was growing up. When I and my next born brother were babies, my parents couldn’t afford vacations, but when we were 7? 8? they would take long weekends and leave us with our grandparents - the first family vacation we took was camping when we were about 10 and 11, and then to Disneyland when we were about 12. Those last two, my parents left my last two brothers, ages a few months to a couple of years, with the grandparents while we were gone.
This seemed to be the norm among my friends back then as well. Children simply didn’t go on vacation until, I guess, they were old enough to appreciate it?
Oh. and the simple answer is that we choose to spend our money and time in Hawaii with our children because we love them and we have disposable income. Even with 2 kids below the age of 4.
Eh, I’ll be 54 next month, and my parents always took ALL of us on vacations. They didn’t take long weekends. We went where they went, period. We went to New England, we went to the South Texas beach, and we were rarely left at home with a babysitter, even. Of course, I started BEING the babysitter when I was about 10, but that was just for a couple of hours at a time.
Heh, I suppose it depends on if she would get anything out of going on vacation! If she isn’t really aware of her surroundings and wouldn’t get any enjoyment out of being elsewhere rather than at home, is there any reason to do it to her?
For example, I’d really like to be able to take my cat with me when I travel, and I miss her a lot when I’m gone, but there is no way I’m going to put her thru that stress and danger for something she wouldn’t enjoy.
But the one on the snorkeling trip spend the whole time below on the boat, the one at the volcano spent the whole time we were there in a car (it was really cold), the one at the luau was back and forth the whole time because the baby kept, I guess getting scared by the entertainment as it started crying when it started. I suppose I wouldn’t have noticed these babies if I hadn’t seen them with the mothers “out of place” for the activities we were at.