Family Days – share yours

For the Family Days Linky for 9-14 August, click here. This is a weekly Linky to share your posts on family days out with children.

I can’t believe we’re going to Florida this summer for a full on theme park family holiday. We usually go to quiet spots in the UK, Spain or Italy. We seek out small museums and places where the locals eat. We try to avoid the crowds. We shop around for deals on flights, car hire and accommodation and book everything ourselves.
But last summer the kids rebelled. We’d dragged them around Malaga’s excellent Picasso museum when all they wanted was a football shirt shop (the youngest saves his pocket money to buy one wherever we go on holiday) and a tan (the eldest goes very brown). When we came out of the museum, the youngest had a mini meltdown, demanding to know why we couldn’t ‘go to Florida and have fun.’ The eldest joined in.
My husband and I explained indignantly that they were lucky to be taken on holiday, that Florida would be too expensive, too hot and too crowded. But I knew that those were just excuses. The truth is, we didn’t want to go to Florida because it just didn’t appeal to us adults. When I realised this, I felt bad. I felt bad because I love going on holiday as a family, the four of us together, but that won’t happen forever. Before I know it the children will be grown up and won’t be coming on trips with us. In the meantime, I want them to enjoy our family holidays, and have happy memories from them. We talked about it and promised the kids that in future we’d plan our family holidays together.
So last August we used my husband’s accumulated air miles to book four return trips to Florida for this summer (at least there’s one good thing to be said for his travelling for business so much). We’ve booked an apartment near Walt Disney World and have been researching which theme parks to go to on which days. I’m not sure if we’ll find a football top for the youngest, but I think the eldest will definitely get a great tan. I hope that we’ll have a lovely time together as a family and I’ll have some great family days to write about. And in a few years’ time my husband and I can go back to holidaying as a couple, choosing where we want to go, unrestrained by school term dates or our children’s preferences. We’ll be able to take as long as we like in museums and we’ll have some wonderful memories of the holidays we had when our children were young.

So, have you had any good days out with the kids recently? I’d love you to join in with the Family Days Linky below and share your experience. The Linky will close on Thursday evening and then another will open next Friday. It’s a great place to look for inspiration for days out too – click on the links at the end of the weekly Family Days posts (from this and previous weeks) to see what families have been up to. This is how to take part:

1. Write a post about a family day out that you’d recommend, or find a relevant post you’ve already written.

2. In your post include a link to this Family Days post so that your readers can be inspired by everyone else.

3. Enter your post on the Linky below. For the Family Days Linky for 9-14 August, click here.

If you’d like the Family Days badge then grab the code below it and paste it into your blog: