Parenting Tips For Traveling to Walt Disney World With Children
My family and I travel to Walt Disney World often. This includes my husband and my two children who are now ten and eight years old. We are Disney DVC members and became Annual Pass holders again this summer. We typically travel to Disney in January for marathon weekend and then in the spring for their spring break.
I attended the #BlogHer conference recently and wanted to surprise the family with a trip to Walt Disney World since the conference was taking place in Orlando and they were already out of school. We have to be considerate of the time we have to take them out of school now that they are getting older. We also have a different park visiting strategy. Here are a few tips for the way we visit the Walt Disney World Parks during our vacation and a few parenting tips to remind us that kids are still just kids.
Keeping Your Cool
On this past trip I used some parenting advice that I had learned from a fellow blogger Kelly Bourne that I met at the Mom 2.0 conference. Taking your kids to Disney is a magical experience as long as everyone can keep their cool. I have to be honest, there may be several smiling pictures of us having fun; but there are times when it may be too hot for everyone, or someone is hungry, or things don’t go the way we had planned or hoped it would. And then you see a face like this. When this face happens, look out! You have to act quickly to avoid a major meltdown.
If you lose your temper, you are just adding to the situation and no one wins at that point. Like Kelly mentioned, the kids need to have you hear their concerns and feel loved. If you get down on their level and talk calmly with them (giving them your attention), they will be more receptive than you raising your voice or placing them in a time out. Then give them a choice on how they want to handle the situation. Do they need a minute to calm themselves down or can they go on with what everyone was doing. Giving them the choice make them feel like they have the power at that moment.
Parenting Advice from Kelly Bourne
Why Do Kids Act Up?
That is where Kelly’s advice really came in handy for me during this trip. She mentioned that kids have two main needs, they want attention and power. When the kids act up, it is usually because they are hot, hungry or frustrated and can’t find a way to vocalize these feelings.
There was a point during our recent trip that my daughter really got upset about something and it was late in the evening. We were hot and tired and she was just done. Instead of yelling or losing my temper I let her vent and say what she needed to say; but then I pulled her aside and asked her to take a breather and to think about what is going on. She sulked for a bit was we were walking to the car; but on the ride home she changed. She told me she wiped off her bad mood and threw it out the car window. I gave her the power to decide how she wanted to handle the situation.
Praise Them For Their Good Behavior?
I praised her for finding a great way to address her frustration and that if she ever feels it starting up again in the future that we should have a sign so each of us know she is having a hard time and she needs to take a minute. This has been a great way to avoid any meltdowns on vacation. Let’s face it, vacation is a lot of fun; but staying up late and trying to do as much as we can is tiring. I make sure to point out to the kids when I recognize that they haven’t been fighting, or that they have been polite and getting along with each other for an extended amount of time. It makes them feel good that their good behavior is being recognized and they know they are pleasing us.
The kids did great on our trip that was filled with activity every single day. They loved staying up late and closing the parks. Then we would sleep until 10:00 the next day, swim for a few hours and then head to the parks for dinner and then close the park again. There was one day that was a challenging day and that we because we had to get up early after a late night, it was an extremely hot day, and we missed our bus back to the hotel. But we rolled with it and had our first Uber ride (a memory was made for our memory jar in that experience!) Then we took some time to have dinner and swim and returned to the park.
Let The Kids Decide
After the tough day we at at the parks we had a family meeting the next morning to plan out the events of the day. Giving the kids a voice in the plans lets them feel like they have some power and that they will be heard by us. We all decided on what we wanted to do that day so everyone had the same expectations. If plans had to change due to weather or unforeseen circumstances, we all knew that we would have to come up with an alternative. But the end results was that we all wanted to have fun and that we were going to do our best to do what we all wanted.
Check Out Kelly’s Program
So the next time you go on a trip or even in your every day lives, consider these tips that I mentioned from Kelly’s program. But even better, check out her program for yourself! I watched her webinar on How to Win Your Kids’ Cooperation (without losing your sh*t) to pick up these first simple tips. But she also has a lot more to offer with her membership as well as a Facebook group for parents. So I would highly recommend you take the time to watch her webinar and just hear what she recommends to help us help our kids and enjoy the summer without losing our sh*t!
