Currently on vacation with our almost 3 years old daughter in Costa Rica. I feel like I haven't really gotten to explore this country as I usually like to on my own terms. The activities that we do find for her, often are a failure resulting in a melt down and she just wants to go back to the hotel. She doesn't even want to play on the beach or at the pool. This trip in Costa Rica she's been a complete home body, trips outside have been a melt down. So this leads me to the main question.
Does it get easier as they get older? Please tell me it gets easier...
We've done a fair bit of traveling with her already. Cabo when she was 10 months old, visiting family members in NY, MA and SC multiple times per year. She's a great flyer, so no worries there. But when we're at the destination, everything is very much centered and catered to her. I get it, she's a toddler.
Photography is a hobby of mine, but it's impossible to do any sort of composition with a camera while a wiggling child is hanging off my shoulder. We have grandparents traveling with us this trip, and they've sometimes been helpful for an hour or two but...man kids are a lot of work. I may need to work with my partner on building in a solo vacation for myself occasionally because traveling to new places with a kid kind of sucks.
Rant over.
Can you bring extended family to help with child care? It is a huge difference when grandma or grandpa can hang back for an afternoon with your toddler. Gives you some mental breathing room.
I have a vacation with our toddler planned for after she turns 3. I have already frontloaded this emotionally as a "work vacation". I will still enjoy myself! However, I know going in, there will be no downtime and to focus on things my husband and I will enjoy with our daughter. Rather than making it the toddler show when she will probably remember at best 1 thing from this vacation.
We did have extended family on this trip, but she's so clingy with us because she's less familiar with them. When we were able to get away from her for 3ish hours one night, it was hard to relax because we just kept looking at the clock.