This is not intended as a critique on parents or parenting. It’s just something I’ve experienced multiple times as I’ve gotten older. I don’t have my own children, but many of my good friends do. There have been situations in the past where friends with kids organize a group vacation like to a beach destination or places like that to catch up and have fun. I’ll be honest though, I’m much more weary about these trips nowadays because there have been multiple trips now where my friends have often left me alone in the middle of activities because they need to tend to their children (nothing wrong at all with this to be clear, that’s just parenting in general).

These trips can often be somewhat frustrating or disappointing because having young children around can disrupt a lot of the plans you made while the friends who don’t have parents are forced to wait on the kids or they have to go it alone. I’ve found if I’m evaluating a trip like this before going, I try to make sure there’s other people who don’t have children going who I can still hang with if the kids need attending to or see if the activities we have planned can still be enjoyed alone.

If not, I try to see if there’s the option of going on this trip without kids (with the best intentions at heart, not just because I don’t want the kids there). The candid answer from my view on this is it can be very hard to actually spend quality time together as adult friends catching up when very young children are tagging along and become the focus in most situations. It’s not the fault of the children for having needs. But you need to come to terms with this reality to make sure you’re prepared for what the outcome may be and if it would be disappointing for you. Otherwise you may spend a lot of money/time/vacation frustrated over how it turns out.