Currently on vacation with our almost 3 years old daughter in Costa Rica. I feel like I haven’t really gotten to explore this country as I usually like to on my own terms. The activities that we do find for her, often are a failure resulting in a melt down and she just wants to go back to the hotel. She doesn’t even want to play on the beach or at the pool. This trip in Costa Rica she’s been a complete home body, trips outside have been a melt down. So this leads me to the main question.
Does it get easier as they get older? Please tell me it gets easier…
We’ve done a fair bit of traveling with her already. Cabo when she was 10 months old, visiting family members in NY, MA and SC multiple times per year. She’s a great flyer, so no worries there. But when we’re at the destination, everything is very much centered and catered to her. I get it, she’s a toddler.
Photography is a hobby of mine, but it’s impossible to do any sort of composition with a camera while a wiggling child is hanging off my shoulder. We have grandparents traveling with us this trip, and they’ve sometimes been helpful for an hour or two but…man kids are a lot of work. I may need to work with my partner on building in a solo vacation for myself occasionally because traveling to new places with a kid kind of sucks.
Rant over.
As another commenter mentioned, it does get easier. You may want to put off big trips for a few years (or arrange solo or couple trips with just your partner if you can). Otherwise, you’ll need to go into it with different expectations for the time being–vacation with a toddler is often more work and stress than being at home. You can work with your partner to ensure each of you has some actual vacation time, but most of the trip will feel like work.
For a toddler, most things in the world are new. New sounds, smells, sights, people… it gets overwhelming for them very quickly. As adults, there’s less “new” for our brains to process, and we’re better at relating to things from a broader range of experiences. But if you’ve ever gone somewhere you don’t speak the language for an extended time and felt the weariness that comes with that, you’ll have an idea of how your toddler feels any time you leave the hotel (which is likely the most familiar place to them).
Try to keep that in mind when planning vacations. Going with familiar people, like their grandparents, can be very helpful–both for having them watch the kids here and there, and also to have additional familiar faces. Bring a box of their favorite snacks, and some familiar toys and activities they enjoy at home. It’s still a lot of work, but it might be marginally better.