We took our kids to Disney World once.
When asked what their favorite part of the trip was, they responded..
The hot tub.
At the hotel.
My kids light up the most when I am fully engaged with them, fully present, entertaining their ideas, and asking questions.
Their favorite family trip so far? When we traveled to Arkansas to mine for crystals. AKA, dig in the dirt all day. They saw it on a YouTube video. They asked to go. So we obliged. I had never been to Arkansas. It's beautiful.
We stayed at a resort, Diamonds Old West Cabins, with a huge playground outside the cabins, archery, and a bubble party every evening at 6 pm.
They still talk about that trip.
For our Disney(land) trip, we stayed at a motel ~ 1.5 miles from the park (Canadian walking distance) and the thing my kids LOVED was we walked by a 7-11 every day and I would buy them a slurpee on the morning walk to the gates. Probably $20 for the week (and likely not much worse for you than a typical vacation breakfast).
The "make your own waffle" station at the included breakfast was also a huge hit. The park and rides were satisfactory.
I've taken my older daughter to Disney (World) twice now (at ages 7 and 9). Her absolute favorite part: riding the Skyliner to EPCOT. On our second trip we went an hour out of our way to go ride it because we weren't at a served hotel that time.
When pressed for a favorite activity within the park, it was "that time we ran all the way from Japan to Soarin', dodging people".
It’s so funny you mention this.
My family are pretty regular Disneyland goers. Last year we finally made it to Disney World for the first time.
My four “kids” were between the ages of 12-23.
And I think their favorite part of the trip was the Skyliner.
> My kids light up the most when I am fully engaged with them, fully present, entertaining their ideas, and asking questions.
Exactly. The author didn't mention it but it's not just the bus ride, it's how they engaged with their daughter during that ride.
Remember the mania over the total eclipse in April in the US? I took my daughter on 250-mile roadtrip to see it.
The drive took a few hours there, then 9 (!!) hours back because of horrendous traffic. It could've been a disaster, but because I knew it's going to be such a long drive I committed to stayin upbeat, fun, and fully engaged the entire time.
It was a fantastic time that brought us closer together and we still talk about it fondly.
Oh and the total eclipse, we didn't even get to see it ... 95% cloud coverage.
A few months ago, we took our year-and-a-half-old daughter to Belgium and Spain for two weeks. Her favorite part of the whole trip was seeing horses, sheep, and geese (all of which, believe it or not, we have here at home in Canada).
When I was about seven, my sister and I were taken on a special trip to see the Giant Pandas at the National Zoo in Washington, DC. The pandas were fine, but we were fascinated by the chipmunks running around everywhere.
I had a similar experience -- their (age 2 & 5) favorite thing? Was it the rides, meeting all the characters? No. The parking lot tram.
Funny, this was also my favorite ride when I was 4!
I have travel entire Vietnam with people with kids. After seeing all the pagoda, park, cave, amusement park.. the best part of the travel for the kid was the pool at one hotel.
Even as an adult I enjoy time when some other person I am spending time with is fully engaged and fully present, I’d call it quality time, but it’s just so rare…
My little brother once got a bicycle for christmas. He played the whole evening with the cardboard box it was in.
Consider the possibility that your brother might be a cat ...
First time I took my eldest to London Zoo, we asked her what her favourite part was, she said "the puddle".
Certainly it's true that kids can get a lot of joy out of something that to an adult seems really small or boring. But the flip side is kids can get totally emotionally distraught or enraged over tiny things.
Are these two sides of the same coin, and come from having just a smaller world, where small things can feel very big to a developing brain? Or as an adult with a fully-formed brain and access to the larger world, can we separate them and find that kind of unrestrained joy in the small stuff without also being swept away by small disappointments?
I think many adults also get distraught or enraged by tiny things - it is an emotional regulation problem, not an age problem (but adults can and should be better than children).
>But the flip side is kids can get totally emotionally distraught or enraged over tiny things.
Oof isn't this the truth. The tiniest things will drive my son into full meltdowns right now.
Yes. Basically kids can have strong emotional reactions to seemingly small things.
This really hits home. Like everyone, I tend to fall into routines and get comfortable with the familiar. But having kids constantly pushes you out of that comfort zone because they're excited by things that might seem small or inconvenient to you. Embracing their enthusiasm is not only good for them but for you too. It brings some variety and breaks the routine. I always have to resist the urge to tell my kids, "No, we're not doing that because..." Just going with the flow and joining in their little adventures is incredibly rewarding. It's not just about making them happy—you gain just as much. Their joy is just the bonus.
When I was a kid in suburban Australia my parents would organize a semi-annual ‘bus-train-ferry’ trip. It was a school holiday tradition where - in hindsight - we’d do the sort of daily commute that thousands of working adults would do every morning…except for a kid the magic of a bus to a train station, a train into the city, and then a ferry across the river was just great fun. A day ticket for a family back in the 1980s? Probably next to nothing, but a priceless memory.
I went to the transport office and got a map of all the local tram routes - we hung it on the wall, and my child and I rode every tram from one end to the other.
Took a few weeks to ride all the trams in Helsinki, and it got a bit boring towards the end as several tram routes terminated in the same location. But every tram we'd get on in the middle, ride to one end of the line and go out for a walk, then ride to the other end.
Recently I suggested we do it again, as the trams have been renumbered a little, and there are two new lines available but he's lost interest. Shame, but doing the original routes was a lot of fun and I still have the route map on my wall along with the star-stickers we placed on it to mark the route numbers we'd completed!
For my middle child's 1st Birthday we realized we could give him everything he ever wanted for about $8. He opened a few boxes of bandaids, tissue boxes, and a roll of toilet paper. Played for hours.
When I was five or six, my grandmother took me and my siblings on a train to Toronto (maybe a two hour trip) around Christmas to walk down some street (no idea which) and look at the Christmas displays in shop windows. It was all magic to me.
I don't think we ever bought anything although she must have fed us something. It's one of my favorite memories and I still love trains. I'm hoping to ride Via from Toronto to Vancouver in a cabin car someday soon!
The issue is you don’t know which of the 0-5 dollar products to spend that will make them excited.
A strategy is therefore to buy lots of cheap stuff and experiences, and let the kids have the option to choose. Then throw away the stuff they don’t care for.
If you buy expensive things, you tend to try to force that thing onto the kid, which can be counter productive.
Pen and paper are my go-to. Throw in a "wow that's beautiful!" And they will draw all day.
In this case she asked to take the bus. I suppose that could’ve gone south, though. I think kids are generally delighted by novelty.
I took a bus home with my toddler one day when waiting for the planned ride was going to take a longer time than I was originally expecting. I didn't think much of it, but for him the bus ride was WAY more interesting than the zoo we had just visited!
thank you so much for sharing your story :)
experienced the same with train to museum
Yesterday the rain was torrential when I picked up my 5yo from school with my 2yo. I brought wellies and we walked up and down the streams of water running down the hill. The kids were more excited than anything we've paid for recently.
My son loves to ride a bus too, I'm not a fan, and near me buses are single deck, quite old and unpleasant and really quite expensive.
I discovered they city park and ride scheme was the perfect solution. It's cheaper than parking in the city centre and unlimited bus rides to and from the centre on nice new double decker buses.
Spending time with kids > giving stuff to kids.
I would say this applies to more than just kids, this is the case for almost everyone.
When I was growing up, it was a Christmas tradition for my family to take the local train system (SEPTA) from Delaware to Philly to visit the exhibits at the old Gallery mall. It was a rough, dirty, and crowded ride, and it felt like forever as it stopped at every station. My grandparents would take my mother when she was growing up.
Decades later it still left a positive impact on me.
This was very sweet :’) I wish my dad would have said yes to the train more when I was a kid. Now he’s the one asking me to ride one.
I've been spending my entire adult life trying to rediscover this spiritual joy of being a child. I remember it so fondly. My daughter is about to turn 2 and I'm secretly hoping that she can help me find at least a little of it.
A while ago I was at our patio table with my 4 year old, we were building a house/castle thing out of scrap cardboard. At one point while painting it she pauses and looks over at the garden/woods. I asked her what she saw, she smiled at me and said, "I'm just... happy." I'll never forget it :-)
this is beautiful, thanks for sharing.
This sort of content feels good in the immediacy but ultimately lessens the quality of hn.
I'm not concerned about this post specifically, but I feel that we should be more critical of things like this making it onto hn. I come to hn to mostly hear about tech, tech advances, startups, etc. I don't come here to read feel good (and admittedly, very cute) stories. They have their place, but I feel that place is not hn.
IMO the near constant dismissive, negative, and / or non-constructive criticism is what devalues HN. Genuine curiosity, sharing of contextual and tangential experiences, and constructive criticism are what makes it great. At its best its only about technology because thats where many inquisitive types end up.
In this particular case, the spark it ignited in me and others was precisely that inquisitive nature - about eschewing the expected value in lifes activities and instead reaching for that inner genuine interest can turn many experienced upside down. Maybe in reaching too far, but that was my take away from it. If similar stories were reposted ad nauseum i doubt they would make the front page and thus for me at least i am unconcerned with its presence.
Maybe a little bit of humanity and feel good is just what HN needs! These computers and software and such are after all for... humans mostly.
Computer issues are easy. I could do it all day. But those human problems are tough to crack.
Maybe so, this is a public community and the community will decide on its own standards (as it should be). My opinions are my own.
I can't exactly draw the line about what does belong on hn, but a question I sometimes ask myself is "Would I be rolling my eyes if I read similar content on Linkedin?" If so, I assume it shouldn't be on hn.
I can agree that I wouldn't want to see this type of content take over HN... and I don't think it would. But a little sprinkled in seems fine.
I come to HM for technology matters, but I am genuinely interested to see that the many geeks here from hardware nerd over full-stack developer to investor or founder are all also human beings that have ordinary lives and ordinary problems.
It is valuable content to read on HN how fellow geeks see other spheres of life.
At the risk of sounding old and cranky I'm inclined to agree with you. The story made me smile no doubt. But I was not expecting a public transportation story.
OP here. I see where you're coming from and I even agree with you. I seek and like tech posts on HN.
That being said, I enjoy reading (and writing) human stories as well! Plus, it's nice to read the many stories people are sharing in the comments of this post. It shows that our community isn't as cold/ruthless as some may think :)
I think the comment about the kid liking the puddle the best at the zoo is the best comment I have read on HN in the past decade.
90% of HN is off topic drivel, pointless ranting , overall tired and unoriginal, when it’s not flat out wrong. I include most of my contributions in these 90%. Genuinely interesting contributions are then few and far between amongst the 10% which actually desserve to exist. If it’s quality you seek, you can close your account right now and go do something useful with your time instead.
At least, this post is soulful and happy.
I don’t mind it in small doses and trust the community to vote appropriately.
Even the Wall Street Journal has lighthearted “A-hed” articles, which have occupied valuable space on their front page for 83 years and counting.
Forget about toys. Kids love big cardboard boxes. My nephews and nieces love them.
I’m middle aged but I remember building so many make believe things out of boxes. All I needed were markers, glue and paper. My parents couldn’t afford those mini cars so I built them myself. Out of boxes.
A big box could be a car. Or a fort. Or a castle. Or a boat.
Kids usually love taking transit.
Do the things that will give your kids the greatest exposure to different ways of being, living, and seeing. That ain't done by having entrenched routines.
For their 3rd Birthday the daughter of a friend just wanted to ride the bus. So all our friends and their kids got on the right bus at the right time and place so we were all on the bus by the time the Birthday girl got on. We had a riot of a time going around our little town, and the bus driver and other passengers all sang Happy Birthday and “the wheels on the bus”
Brilliant idea for a memorable 3rd Birthday!
There is no such thing as "quality time" together, there is only time together.
Bigs things happen in the little moments, and you have to have those little moments for them to happen.
I don't know...
I've been to restaurants where two adults and two kids are sitting at a table. The adults looking at their phones and the kids watching something on tablets makes for poor chances of an interesting little moment to happen.
This kind of stuff I like reading on HN!
Absolutely wonderful tale - I laughed out loud at that final touch!
Lovely story
Love this!
aww r/mademesmile
It's as if shes hard wired for public transport in an effort to have a future planet to live on!
So wholesome :-)
Priceless! <3
indeed! :D
A reminder that $ != happiness
Is this not an obvious "no-shit-sherlock" thing to anyone who ever hung out with a kid?
It’s an excellent reminder to anyone who ever hung out with a kid...
Because it’s easy to forget. :)
I don't think there is anyone on Earth not able to work it out, but I know for an ironclad fact there's those who can't be bothered.