Hellobee Boards

Haha this makes me nervous, we are taking our 2.5 year old to Disney in 2 weeks. We're leaving our 6 month old at home with her grandparents, but maybe I should be taking her instead LOL

I think for 2.5 year olds, those "big, exciting days" can be overwhelming for them, and they tend to act out. They are out of their usual comfort zone, surrounded by a million people and sights and sounds. Nothing is familiar. They are expected to do a lot more sitting and waiting than they normally would (in a stroller, in a line, on a ride, in a restaurant).

We as adults think we're doing them this giant favor by taking them fun places, but then they repay us by tantrumming--but it's the only way they have to express that they are overwhelmed.

I took my 2.5 year old to see Elmo Live last weekend, and it involved going into the city and eating lunch and she had a giant, major, HUGE meltdown on the way home. And my first instinct was to be mad and think she's being a brat and not appreciating what I planned for her. But then I realized how stimulated she'd been for hours, and we were an hour past nap time, and I learned the lesson that sometimes, these "fun" things are not as fun for our kiddos as we'd like them to be. So now I've really changed my expectations. It's not that you can't do big trips, but I think you have to try doing fewer things at a slower pace, and having a lot more downtime, etc. And even with all the downtime, they might still be overwhelmed. They are just 2.5, so you just have to chalk it up to the fact that they are learning and aren't very good at change.

Yes, we took our 2.5 year old to Costa Rica this past Thanksgiving and vowed to never travel with her again.

I'm not kidding.

In all honesty, here's what I learned about vacations with a kid that age: kids are SLAVES to routine so literally just being out of the house is going to throw them off. We did our best to make as much familiar to her as we could - food, her sleep comfort objects (yes, we packed a blanket, pillow, puppy, duck, and lovey), and "stuff" like a playground that she would normally do. Even so, she was so easily overwhelmed that we just sort of resigned ourselves to daily massive tantrums. But going forward, if we do travel again, we'll be sure to plan it differently (more kid-friendly activities, availability of a kid's club/center with a playground, maybe a pool, buffet as an option instead of just restaurants, lots of snacks on hand ALL THE TIME, and no 'all day' activities).