Holiday without the kids?

[Jamesgt]

Does anyone else here go abroad leaving the kids at home? Since having kids life has slowed down massively. I travelled a lot with work and my wife would join me often. Now I'm beginning to miss the sunshine and travel. My wife feels guilty, I feel less guilty. Both sets of grandparents would relish having the kids for a while.

Would a week or two away be selfish of me?

[OscarIndia]

We do it once a year, His Granny loves having him and he doesn't mind. We do it during school time so that she has the days free.

[Puggit]

We've done one or two big ones, but a fair few weekends and nights away. Longest was 10 days away to Mauritius for our 10th anniversary.

It's critical to your relationship to do this, and relatives love to look after them.

[Adenauer]

Depends I think, how old are they?

Now that ours are at the age where they'd rather gone on holiday with their friends, or boyfriends, I cannot wait until our next holiday, WITHOUT THEM

And without having to take the holiday during school holidays!!

[ascayman]

my kids are 4 and 6 and Ive just booked a six day trip away for mine and the mrs 10 year anniversary, will be the first time we have both left the kids at the same time.

I feel absolutely no guilt whatsoever the Mrs does though.

[Jamesgt]

Adenauer said:

Depends I think, how old are they?

One is a few weeks and the other is 18 months. Sounds terrible! We are looking at going at the end of the year. If they were older I'd take them with us.

[The Curn]

My kids are aged 6 and 4. We've done quite a few nights away in the UK and a a few long weekends abroad without them, Verbier, Venice, Mallorca, etc. They stay with their grandparents. The kids love it, we love it, the grandparents love it.

Works well, although I always do feel slightly guilty and make sure we do plenty of holidays focused around them!

[Puggit]

Jamesgt said:

One is a few weeks and the other is 18 months. Sounds terrible! We are looking at going at the end of the year. If they were older I'd take them with us.

Keep it to weekends

[Adenauer]

Jamesgt said:

One is a few weeks and the other is 18 months. Sounds terrible! We are looking at going at the end of the year. If they were older I'd take them with us.

Woah there Tiger, a few weeks, WTF???

[Vaud]

Jamesgt said:

Since having kids life has slowed down massively.

Would a week or two away be selfish of me?

A whole 18 months of change to your life?

Yes. Selfish. Wait until they can enjoy a time with their grandparents / aunt / uncle / etc - at that age any separation from parents for 2 weeks is pretty unhealthy in my view as they don't understand. A night maybe.

[crankedup]

Jamesgt said:

Adenauer said:

Depends I think, how old are they?

One is a few weeks and the other is 18 months. Sounds terrible! We are looking at going at the end of the year. If they were older I'd take them with us.

You are having a laugh, you must be!

[Driver101]

Holidays are experiences and educational to kids too. They also develop the family relationship and bond.

It would seem wrong to me to exclude the kids from a family activity.

[Ciaran]

ascayman said:

my kids are 4 and 6 and Ive just booked a six day trip away for mine and the mrs 10 year anniversary, will be the first time we have both left the kids at the same time.

I feel absolutely no guilt whatsoever the Mrs does though.

Similar here as well, heading away for our 10th wedding anniversary - twins are nearly 4 and eldest is nearly 7 and we cannot wait to get away lol No guilt here!!

[TaRD]

We do every year, but then again we don't have kids so taking someone else's would be a bit weird.

[TotalControl]

Jamesgt said:

Adenauer said:

Depends I think, how old are they?

One is a few weeks and the other is 18 months. Sounds terrible! We are looking at going at the end of the year. If they were older I'd take them with us.

Quite the reverse. When they're older, you can leave them with relatives. Not at such a young age.

It's only been 18 months man! Do you have panic attacks if your car petrol gauge hits reserve?

[voicey]

All the time for us. We even left my 18 month old daughter with the MIL for 10 days whilst we went hooning around the Alps.

Mind you, the wife did draw the line at leaving her (now 4) behind for a one month trip to Australia and New Zealand...

[Hasbeen]

My lady won a company marketing competition, a week for 2 at a couple of Thailand resorts. I could not be away, fortunately as I hate staying in resorts, so she offered to take our eldest daughter.

She declined. She reckoned she'd miss her 2 kids, 6 & 8 too much.

She didn't believe me when I told her I would have paid half my annual income to get away from her & her brother for a week, when they were that age.

Women are strange.

[Hub]

My daughter is a year old. We haven't been away without her yet... I agree that she wouldn't understand yet. However the idea does appeal, but I think the reality might be different - do you miss the kids and feel guilty when you are away?

[Jamesgt]

TotalControl said:

Quite the reverse. When they're older, you can leave them with relatives. Not at such a young age.

It's only been 18 months man! Do you have panic attacks if your car petrol gauge hits reserve?

It's been less than 18 months!! We had the oldest abroad with us for the first 6 months of her life so we've only had 12 months of being in the UK. It's my first full year back here in almost 10 years and I think the grim weather has got me down.

I guess it's a daft question to ask as some people frown upon it and others are all for it. I do think a week is a long time to leave the kids. I just wanted to see if I was being a bit wet for not wanting to leave them.

[smifffymoto]

We have teenagers and only spent 2 nights away without them.When we go on holiday we all go or no one goes.Mrs S. would not have it any other way.

My sister travels a lot with work and hubby tags alongs quite a bit,kids are always left with granny when not in term time.The family holiday is Menorca every single year,usually with another family in tow to keep the kids entertained.

Like Mrs S. says,we didn't have kids so we could leave them with others.