Do you and your other half or friends feel like getting away for a little break? When is the right time to consider a jolly without your little ones in tow?

If you’ve been invited away for a hen/stag party, a wedding held abroad, a business trip, or perhaps your partner and you would like a little romantic time alone, it’s worth remembering that you absolutely are allowed a breather here and there. However, it’s not as simple as just finding childcare, booking your trip, and off you go, is it? We need to consider some really important factors, and make sure that our little one would be happy because that’s what’s most important at the end of the day.

Factors to consider…

• Your individual child and how they’d cope
• How long you plan to go on holiday
• How far away you plan to go
• How long your available childcare is able to look after your little one
• How you think you’d cope emotionally away from your little one
• If you’re breastfeeding or not – could you pump? Would you have access to somewhere to freeze expressed milk? Or would you need to pump and dump?

We asked the parents in our online community for their insight…

The response was pretty mixed, and even at times quite contentious as clearly some parents feel quite strongly about this. Ultimately, this isn’t a black and white subject – there are so many factors at play that what might be right for one family, might not be for another, for so many different reasons!

The poll results;

Younger than 1: 1%

1+: 40%

2+:  20%

3+: 30%

Teenager: 5%

Not until they’re adults: 4%

So from the looks of it, most of our parenting community aren’t keen to go away for a night or longer if their child is younger than one year old, and some will wait until their child is a teenager or older before considering it – fair enough! A good proportion would be happy to travel without their child once they’re in the toddler zone, which we can understand as they tend have developed strong bonds with your close family and friends by this stage so it’s a little easier.

Dion told us…

“We’re going away for Valentine’s weekend as it’s my partners birthday on the 16th too! We went away in November for my birthday weekend , my youngest would of been 9 months and my oldest 9 months! But my mother in law is absolutely fantastic with my 2!”

Hollie told us…

“My LG is 16 months and haven’t left her yet and I don’t think I’ll be able to. I feel lost when I’m not with her, let alone a few days or even a night but us parents all need a break every now and again. Bit of sanity does us all good.”

Leanne told us…

“I found it easier to leave my son when I could talk to him and he would understand where we were going and we could talk to him on the phone or face time him! Plus he adores a sleep over with his grand parents or aunties/uncle.”

Jenny told us…

“I wouldn’t do a weekend away without my little girl. Possibly 1 night but not a whole weekend.
I wouldn’t let her go on holiday with other people either as I would rather us go on family holiday.”

Alex told us…

“I feel like it’s important, obviously not on a very regular basis, I have 3 children and I’m a single parent so mine go to their dads anyway on weekends, but I always have my eldest and I sometimes find as a parent you loose yourself, you’re always bottom of the list behind your children, house, bills etc, it is good for the mind, good for yourself to have a break and recharge.. well this is for me personally anyway. Also when I was young I loved going for sleep overs with grandparents/aunties and I know mine love it too so it’s also nice for the children.”

A very mixed range of stances, but all very valid!

We think that Alex’s comment in particular is absolutely spot on. It is really important for parents to be able to recharge on the odd occasion, and it can also be really good for your little one to experience a sleepover (unless you know they would badly struggle to cope), so don’t feel ashamed if you’re hankering after a kids-free break. On the flipside, if you really don’t think you should go without your children, that is absolutely fine too, as long as you can find time elsewhere for some TLC.

What are your thoughts? Tell us in the comments!

Love from Katie & Team BBY. Xx