With small children, is a family vacation a true vacation?
An exasperated mom is asking herself this question after her latest family trip left her needing “another break.” The parent shared her frustrations in a post on the U.K. community forum Mumsnet, and asked one of the platform’s most popular questions, “Am I being unreasonable?” (“AIBU,” for short).
“AIBU to think holidays with kids aren’t really holidays at all?” she questioned to kick off the post, before sharing the situation that led her to think this in the first place.
“We’ve just come back from a week away, and honestly, I feel like I need another break to recover from it,” wrote the tired parent. “Between packing, cleaning the Airbnb before leaving, managing constant squabbles, and trying to keep everyone fed and entertained — it didn’t feel like a holiday at all.”
Plus, she went on, appearances are deceiving.
“Every photo looks lovely, but behind the scenes it was chaos,” she wrote. “Tantrums, forgotten essentials, someone always hungry, and the endless ‘what are we doing next?’ made it more stressful than work.”
“It got me thinking — are family holidays just an expensive change of scenery rather than actual rest?” she said before concluding the post, “I can’t be the only one who secretly prefers staying home at this point.”
There was also a poll on the Mumsnet post with two options, one declaring the mom “unreasonable” and the other calling her vacation gripes “reasonable” — and the vote was quite split. Responses to the frustrated parent were also divided, with some echoing her qualms and others saying she should change her perspective.
One person disagreed, stating that while they “may have a very different tune next year when the second [child] arrives,” they “loved holidaying with” their 14-month-old. “It was so lovely, we saw family, no work, no stress rushing around in the morning, no house renovation stress, just slow mornings and lots of family time,” they wrote.
“We leave next month for another one, and I can’t wait. Not gonna pretend that the flights aren’t a little stressful, but it’s all worth it in my eyes,” the same user added.
Another wrote that it all “depends on the kids.”
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A different person, meanwhile, said they “don’t relate” to the mom’s original post and dilemma at all.
Mom Prefers Staying at Home to Vacationing with Her Kids
