Would you take your preschoolers on vacation without school age dd?

[Octobermommy]

I have an opportunity to take my 2 youngest children to WDW for a few days with my mom. My dh would stay home with my dd, who will be in her 3rd week of elementary school.

My dh says go but I feel guilty not taking my dd. I will miss her and hate that she won't get to go! I don't know if it matters but we are thinking of taking our dd skiing over the holidays while the little kids stay with grandparents.

More info: dd is in 3rd grade. Taking her out of school isn't an option for me for that week of school. My dh asked her what she thought & she was excited about going on a ski trip solo. She went to wdw this year in April & last September if that matters.

[Zansu]

How old is elementary DD? Will she understand the delayed gratification aspect?

[Binkandabee]

No, I wouldn't do that. Not to WDW.

[traciann]

I wouldn't. While little kids wouldn't understand being left behind to go skiing, an 8 year old would understand going to Disney.

[abh5e8]

why not take her with you?

[JBaxter]

No I wouldn't do that to mine.

[Blue Hydrangea]

I would not, WDW is a huge deal, skiing doesn't equal WDW.

[MMMommy]

I wouldn't go without her. WDW is such a big impact, "wow" type of trip that I would never think of going to WDW without the entire family to enjoy it.

If you live nearby WDW, and it is some place you can easily go to (like someone who lived in So Cal might easily go to Disneyland on a weekend), then maybe. But it doesn't sound like that is the case.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

I voted other. While I wouldn't think it's such a bad thing to do if someone else does that, I think for me personally i wouldn't be able to enjoy it at all bc as you say the whole time i would feel bad that she couldn't be there.

I guess if it were me if I really wanted to go I would seriously consider taking her with you to WDW and skipping a couple days of school. Yes, i know it's not great to purposely have your child skip school for vacations and stuff, but I don't think missing a few days of school to enjoy some fun bonding time with family members is such a bad thing.

[kristenk]

I'm an other. I think it depends on how old your older DD is and how excited she is about WDW.

DD is 8yo and she's not a big WDW fan. When asked if she'd like to go to WDW or a nearby-ish hotel with a lazy river, she picks the lazy river hotel. We took her to WDW when she was almost 3yo and she only remembers the experiences that she didn't like. She's not a huge fan of most disney characters. If your DD is like mine, skipping WDW for a ski trip wouldn't be a huge deal.

With that said, I think I'd still have a hard time going without an older child.

[ha98ed14]

Depends on the age/grade. You say elementary, but there is a HUGE difference between K/1/2 and 6th. If they were under 9 or 10 and were still a Disney fan, no way would I do that. I'd either not go, or take her out of school for a Friday & a Monday and make it a very quick trip!

[HannaAddict]

No way. My soon to be third grader would be devastated and would never forget that slight, and skiing isn't comparable IMO.

[Pyrodjm]

I would take all of the kids. A few days in the beginning of the year shouldn't put her too far behind.

[roseyloxs]

Yes. I think it sounds perfectly fair. Go have fun!

[KrisM]

Has she been to WDW before? If she has and she is saying skiing is fine, I'd do it. If she hasn't, I'm not sure. Will you all go there as a family sometime relatively soon?

[TwinFoxes]

Reading your further details, that she's been to WDW recently and is excited about the ski trip, I voted yes. A ski trip is pretty cool.

[KrisM]

Reading your further details, that she's been to WDW recently and is excited about the ski trip, I voted yes. A ski trip is pretty cool.

I missed that part, somehow. I agree. She's been there to know what she's not going to and wants to ski.

[gamma]

Family trips are where memories are made. When the DC are older and reminisce about their childhood, one child will be left out of the experience. I would take older DC out of school.

[gatorsmom]

Not to WDW. That would be too big of a trip to miss. But last year I did let DH take Gator, our oldest child who was 8yo, to see his cousins in Texas. That was a big deal for him (and me!) but the younger kids didn't care much. DH brought them back gifts so it was all good in the end.

[ahisma]

I would, given that she's been there twice in the past year and has a solo trip coming up that she's excited about.

We have an older DD with younger DS's and have done similar things. She's 13 now and has no qualms about letting us know when things bother her, but these sorts of things make sense to her...and she knows that she gets to do things that they don't as well. I wouldn't take my DS's to WDW and leave her home, but that's because she's never gone and would be crushed. If she had been there, it wouldn't bother her a bit.

[anonomom]

As a general policy, I'd say no. But reading your specific set of facts, I voted yes. She's had a WDW vacation recently, is going to be getting her "own" trip soon and is old enough to understand that not everybody gets the same things all of the time. Go and enjoy.

[AnnieW625]

I am usually not a fan of taking my kids out of school for vacation, but I would not take two kids and not the other esp. if WDW was involved. I would be more inclined to miss a week early in the school than one later on in the year when it might be harder to make up work or miss something.

I say take her and have a good time because if you don't I think you will all regret it. I also think that you would also regret not taking the whole family on a ski vacation as well. Vacations IMHO are meant for family.


.....Taking her out of school isn't an option for me for that week of school.....

I think we need some reasons here to explain this.

[Octobermommy]

I am usually not a fan of taking my kids out of school for vacation, but I would not take two kids and not the other esp. if WDW was involved. I would be more inclined to miss a week early in the school than one later on in the year when it might be harder to make up work or miss something.

I say take her and have a good time because if you don't I think you will all regret it. I also think that you would also regret not taking the whole family on a ski vacation as well. Vacations IMHO are meant for family.



I think we need some reasons here to explain this.

It is actually the second week of school & I don't want to take her out that early while they are still getting used to the new routines. We took her out the 4th week of school last year and didn't have a problem.

As far as the ski vacation goes, I actually posted about that also and it was recommended not to take my newly 3 yr old b/c none of us have been skiing before.

[kbud]

Not for a WDW trip, something else, yeah probably.

[belovedgandp]

As a general policy, I'd say no. But reading your specific set of facts, I voted yes. She's had a WDW vacation recently, is going to be getting her "own" trip soon and is old enough to understand that not everybody gets the same things all of the time. Go and enjoy.

Exactly that. We did in fact take the two older kids and left the younger one (20 months at the time) with Grandma for WDW.

I can totally see us doing something similar in a few years. With a six year span from oldest to youngest, there will be chances for the youngest to do some things that the oldest won't be able to do. But the oldest went on trips and did things before the siblings came also.

[megs4413]

I think your oldest's personality is the key factor here. If I did that to my oldest she would have an absolute cow.

[lalasmama]

That's a tough one!

My DD is also heading into the 3rd grade, and, originally, I thought, "Gee, I would never take 2 siblings without the 3rd!"

But, when I started thinking about it, I remembered a few months ago at our house. My DD loves Disneyland, but loves the beach more. I'm the opposite :) When we were talking about me taking a weekend trip, she looked right at me and said, "You should go to Disneyland instead of the beach." I asked if she would be sad if I went to DL without her. She said, "No, you love DL more than the beach, so you should go there." I made it up to her by doing a mommy/kid trip to the coast later. To me, beach trip doesn't compare to Disneyland, but for her, it was fair.

So, like I said, my first thought was "No way!" but I've seen my DD make a similar choice--that she was fine with me going to DL without her, knowing that something she likes even more would be coming up after that. Sounds like your older DD has made a similar choice. I think, at 8-9 years old, they are old enough to make that choice, within reason.

[c914]

since she's been there twice already and by 3rd grade the "princess" stage is over for most, I would say go if you have the chance. Younger children deserve to have some attention.

[ellies mom]

since she's been there twice already and by 3rd grade the "princess" stage is over for most, I would say go if you have the chance. Younger children deserve to have some attention.
:yeahthat:

Plus, it could be a great opportunity for some serious spoiling from Daddy.

It seems pretty win-win to me. The little ones can go on rides that they can ride on without waiting for big sister to get off the rides they can't. Big sister can have some one-on-one time with her Dad. And she still gets to look forward to a fun "just the big people" trip with you guys later on.

[Globetrotter]

After reading the details, I would say go for it! It's not like she is missing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.