Winter vacation | Imamother

amother

↑ Cornsilk

Yesterday at 8:18 pm

Ema of 5 wrote:

How much do you have off for Chanukah? My boys have two days and my girls have one.

My kids end at 12 tomorrow and have off until Tuesday

amother

Mayflower

Yesterday at 8:38 pm

The ages / stages makes a huge difference. I have a high maintenance baby that takes up hours of my day nursing / rocking. Add in little kids and teens with opposing interests and needs. The littles are up by 6. Big ones want to sleep in and stay up late. Baby wakes up multiple times a night. Most of these ideas would be very complicated to execute. Baby & little wouldn't let me make elaborate food or sit and play. My older kids also don't really like baking, or crafts and I really don't like cooking or piles of dishes... Not easy OP I agree.
When my kids were younger, and I didn't have a baby age, it was a lot more doable. Once all my kids are older I'm sure will be easier too. But right now no easy solutions...

amother

Celeste

Yesterday at 8:43 pm

I don't know if you have any budget for this trip at all but what has worked well for me is to rent a cheap air b and b in the middle of anywhere and do free activities there- we have done tobagging, outlet mall, interesting stores...)Somehow in a different area it is more fun. If you can find one with an indoor hot tub then you have built in entertainment. We just rent it for one or 2 nights toward the end of vacation so that everyone gets excited at the end.

amother

↑ OP ↓

Yesterday at 8:54 pm

amother Cornsilk wrote:

I agree with OP there really isn’t a solution. Especially when the kids get older. My teens have no interest in the library, a walk, or dollar tree. Grocery shopping with me isn’t a novelty and they don’t want to bake/cook. It’s very hard to keep everyone entertained for cheap.

Lazy mornings sound nice in theory, practically my little kids are not hanging around nicely not killing each other or my house from 6am to 1pm. No way.

Making nice big breakfasts also sounds nice, but realistically that means me being busy in the kitchen all morning preparing/serving and left with a huge mess after that I’m trying to clean up while everyone is kvetching that they’re bored.

There really is no magic solution.

Ya thanks I really don’t see how I’m being unreasonable here

amother

↑ OP ↓

Yesterday at 8:55 pm

Ema of 5 wrote:

How much do you have off for Chanukah? My boys have two days and my girls have one.

Thursday Friday and Monday

amother

↑ OP ↓

Yesterday at 8:56 pm

amother Celeste wrote:

That’s probably at least $300 for 2 nights right?

amother

↑ Lily ↓

Yesterday at 9:31 pm

How about you get your kids to help you make a camp for other kids whose parents have to work during winter break? Then, with all the money you've made, you can take your kids somewhere fun on the Sunday of vacation.
Maybe it won't work in your location, but people make winter break camps all the time where I live.

amother

↑ OP

Yesterday at 9:32 pm

amother Lily wrote:

I really don’t have the bandwidth to deal with even more kids.

amother

↑ Lily

Yesterday at 9:33 pm

amother Celeste wrote:

We did this before also and it was so much fun. Rented a Airbnb in PA with a huge hill and literally went sledding all day and roasted marshmallows.
But this won't work for OP because it's likely at least $200.

amother

↑ DarkCyan

Yesterday at 9:39 pm

amother Peru wrote:

I never heard of cc giving free hotel unless you mean with points? Can you list actual cc that does this? Thanks

I have an Amex card that says Marriott Bonvoy on it and it gives both me and my husband who is on the same account a free night. We need 2 rooms for my family so it's one free night for us and we get adjoining rooms.

seeker ↓

Today at 1:56 am

amother Maple wrote:

Chase sapphire preferred gives $50 hotel credit per year. Not free but it’s something

Lolol doesn't that card cost $500 a year in the first place?

↑ seeker

Today at 3:16 am

amother Buttercup wrote:

No not even close to that.

I stand corrected, I was thinking of Sapphire Reserve , which is 550 per year but then you get $300 of FREE hotel stays. Preferred is $95 a year so you still need to do a little more to make the $50 hotel credit pay for itself.

↑ Ema of 5

Today at 7:28 am

amother Cornsilk wrote:

My kids end at 12 tomorrow and have off until Tuesday

Wow! That’s a LOT! And what is their winter vacation schedule?