18 months! "He won't remember it"

[Luv2trav]

I am so sick of this comment.... Why does everyone feel that we shouldn't go to WDW if our DS won't remember it?? It's OUR vacation too and WE WILL remember it.... Does anyone else get these comments....

I guess it's because most people consider this type of trip a once in a lifetime event... We don't... We plan on coming back as much as possible.....

 

[DisneyPhD]

I agree. I feel strongly about this too, and when people make the comment "they won't remember it, why bother." I always think, "they won't remember anything else, but yet I continue to take her places, read her books, go the zoo ect...."

We took our DD when she was 9 months old. She loves to look at the pictues and talk about it now (21 months old). We had a great time and really enjoyed the vaction. We are only 24 days away from our next trip and the whole family can't wait. As DVC members God willing this will not be our last trip to WDW (one every year for the next 40!!!!! ) Each year she and us will get more out of it. If it gets boring we can skip a year. (yea right)


I think people who feel this way don't "enjoy" the trip themselves, only get pleasure out of the kids likeing it. IMO they just don't get it. Too bad for them. More fun for us.

 

[MELSMICE]

No, they won't remember it, but you will & that's the fun of it.

I don't remember the vacations I took with my parents when I was that age, but the stories they tell over & over about them are priceless. I know they wouldn't have traded those vacations for anything.

Go as many times as you can no matter how old they are, have a great time & make many memories.

 

[prplcrzy]

We took my ds when he was 2.5 months, 6 months and 13 months. Everytime people said he wouldn't remember it, and that is true, but the vacation was not for him, it was for us.

We are DVC members and go every year. I think I look forward to the vacation more than the kids.

Enjoy your vacation and don't listen to anybody!

 

[Jordan's MOM]

Ask them if they ever read or sang or talked to their child before they were 18 mo. old? Well they won't remember it. All these experences a child gets before they are three years old stimulates their little brains and what better brain stimulation than WDW. OK I am a preschool director and love WDW. Go. Don't worry about what anyone else says. We were not able to take my DS at that age and I so regret it!


Jordan's mom

 

[catwho]

Bravo!!! We took our ds when he was 9 months old. He doesn't remember it, but he loves looking at the pictures of himself at the parks. Took our dd for her 2nd birthday. She doesn't remember it. But she knows that she went when she was 2 yo and just thinks that we have always gone to Disney for our vacations.

I suppose that the person who told you that it wasn't worth it to take an 18mo to WDW also never took their child at that age to the park. They won't remember that either! I look at it this way, they may not remember it, but they will have fun while they are there. And it is time with their family and *that* is what is important.

so to anyone who doesn't think you should take your young children to WDW!

 

[sha_lyn]

I hate stupid coments like that. My answer back when DD was 2 1/2 and we were planning our first trip was " guess I'll just go home and lock her in a closet since she won't remember anything that we've been doing for her for the past 2 1/2 years, I'll take her out when she is old enough to remember things"

 

[toystorymom]

I couldn't agree more! We had our first WDW vacation last year with our 3 kids, ages 5, 3, and 1 and so many people asked why we didn't wait until they were older. Why??? The older 2 had the time of their lives and talk about it almost every day, they can not wait to go back (and neither can we). Of course the baby won't remember it, but I will never forget the look on his face when we rode It's a Small World (again and again) or his smile while riding Dumbo. It was a wonderful experience and I wouldn't change it for anything.

I say enjoy family times and make these special memories as much as possible while they are young. Before I know it, they'll be teens asking me to drop them off a block away from the mall!

 

[cms1174]

I agree with you all. my boyfriend and I are taking our 2 and half year old daughter and he thinks I am crazy. He keeps saying why don't we wait until she is old enough to remember. I personally think that they do remember some things and this will be one of them. Not all but some memerable events. Anyway who cares I will remember how she lights up when are there.

 

[kfeuer]

Comments like this drive me nuts, too. I mean, are we as parents supposed to forego any vacation until the kids are old enough to remember it? If you have more then one kid and bought into that theory, you could easily go 6 or 7 years without a vacation (no thank you!)

We're going this fall with our DS who will be almost 3 and our as yet unborn DS (due 4/5/03) who will be around 6 months. I don't care if they remember the trip or not, I know they will both have a great time while we're there, my DH and I will build memories that will last us a lifetime, and we'll have fun, too!

I agree with what someone said above--there are some sad people in the world that look on taking the kids to Disney as a chore (and it's not something they'd ever do on their own). Those people might as well come from another planet as far as I'm concerned

 

[4greatboys]

Last Sept when we took our family vacation my 2 youngest were 2 yrs and 5 months. No way was I going on a family vacation without my whole family. My 2 yr old does remember a few things but even if he didnt we would still take him. When they are older and look back on our pics of family vacation it will make them feel good to see themselves in the pics with the rest of the family or the see themselves with Mickey or Pooh.
We are already planning our family trip to Disney this year. Cant wait to take the boys back.

 

[NotUrsula]

When my son was 15 mos. old we took him to visit family overseas. While we were there, we happened to go to a beach that was reached by a path that was lined with lots of fuchia blossoms. We did not happen to take a photo of this path, though we walked it several times on that visit, and I did point out the flowers to my son. We have never revisited that particular beach.

Fuchia does not grow where we live, and I've certainly never seen it growing wild near beaches in Florida, which we visit quite frequently.

When he was nearly 3, we went to a restaurant that had artificial fuchia plants hanging over the tables. My son looked up at them, thought for a moment, and said, "Look mommy, beach flowers."

If a kid can remember flowers on the side of a road, Disney is probably going to stick, too.

 

[cinmell]

This past September we took our daughter who was 22 months old at the time and boy does she remember!!! When the disney commercials come on she tells me she wants to go again, to the castle. She turned two in November. If we have a disney cd on in the car and a song comes on from Pirates she says dog and key b/c she remebers the dog with the keys in his mouth at the end or when she hears small world she starts saying boats and kids, again! She wants to dance with Bear again at the Playhouse Disney show (dance in the audience) and go on dumbo and see Mickey and Minnie. They remember alot and even if they don't, you will have memories and pictures and they can still enjoy themselves.

 

[beattyfamily]

YES!!!! I've gotten this comment and it drives me crazy!!!

I agree that saying they won't remember is NO excuse because we take them lots of places and do lots of fun stuff even though they may not remember it later. We'll all still have fun! She'll still enjoy herself even if she doesn't remember it when she's older and we'll have the pictures to help her remember.

The only thing I can possibly understand is if it really is a once in a lifetime trip and they probably will NOT go again and are asking me what's a good age. Then maybe I'd say over 6 years old cause they can go on almost everything and will probably remember it.

 

[mylilnikita]

I have heard the comment as well. Ever since my daughter was a few weeks old(she will 5 in September) , she has been to State Fairs, zoos-both local and d.c.zoo, museums. A lot of pictures have been taken and when she gets older, she can see these pictures. Life is too short to wait until they are older. I took her on a "cruise to nowhere" last October and she loved it. When we travel the tunnel into Norfolk, Va where the ship was, she always says this is the way to that ship we went on. I have a co worker who avoids her 9 year old child and tells the child she is at work when she isn't , co worker asked me why would I even take her with me on a cruise or Disneyworld if it was only the 2 of us, I told her because before I had my daughter, I traveled around and now that my daughter is here, I want her to experience what it is like to travel. Take your children, make memories together.

 

[disneyfantotheend]

I must say that I took my son for the first time when he was almost 2. He doesn't remember a thing, but he still loves to look at pictures and hear stories of his first trip to Disney. This will be his third trip and he will be 9. He still loves to look at the albums from the other two. And compare how big he has gotten. Sure they don't remember but it is still a great time and take lots of pics to show them when they are bigger. And some kids do remember things from when they are very young. Maybe if it was going to be a persons only trip ever to Disney, I would suggest waiting, but I sure wouldn't put them down for deciding not to. I guess you need not to worry about what others think, go with your instincts not theirs. And remember, some of them are trying to help, even though it does seem rude.

 

[The Sybah Shelstah]

Someone telling you that you shouldn't go to Disney because your 18mo old won't remember it anyways is just ridiculous.

Now I will say that I had been waiting till my children were older... because I thought it would be a once in a lifetime trip (I still hadn't been in my whole life yet!!!) and I wanted to go when they could enjoy it the most (not necessarily remember it- but I suppose the two go hand in hand) by being able to ride the rides/etc.

So with the first I was waiting till she was 4/5- shortly before she turned 4 I had another child. Shortly before he was 3yrs old- I had another child. By the time she turned 2 and the idea of going to DisneyWorld came up... I said to heck with waiting... because at that point things had changed in our lives and I knew that it wouldn't HAVE to be a "once in a lifetime" trip... so it didn't matter to me if she was old enough to ride every ride and for sure remember the trip. So we went. And we'll go again, and again.

So far she remembers it- but it's only been barely over a month. LOL Basically she just asks to go back to see Mickey Mouse again. She enjoys seeing the pictures in our "disney trip album" and none of us can wear anything with Mickey or Minnie (etc) on it without her pointing it out and asking to go see Mickey Mouse again.

 

[BrerMom]

Originally posted by NotUrsula
When my son was 15 mos. old we took him to visit family overseas. While we were there, we happened to go to a beach that was reached by a path that was lined with lots of fuchia blossoms. We did not happen to take a photo of this path, though we walked it several times on that visit, and I did point out the flowers to my son. We have never revisited that particular beach.

Fuchia does not grow where we live, and I've certainly never seen it growing wild near beaches in Florida, which we visit quite frequently.

When he was nearly 3, we went to a restaurant that had artificial fuchia plants hanging over the tables. My son looked up at them, thought for a moment, and said, "Look mommy, beach flowers."

If a kid can remember flowers on the side of a road, Disney is probably going to stick, too.

What a sweet story!

I think they can remember a lot more than most people think they can. Besides, any outing is designed to expose them to the world so they can have experiences. Disney accomplishes this, doesn't it?

 

[ASFCurly]

I don't think people are trying to be rude when they tell you that they won't remember it, that is ridiculous. A lot of people think of WDW as a one time thing and they are just trying to help you out. They are just trying to point out that if this is a once in a lifetime trip that you might want to wait till they are older and they remember it, because they won't. I went to Disneyland when I was 4, and now about 19 years later, I only just barely remember one thing about it, and not a whole lot about that one thing either. If you are going to be going when they are older then it isn't a big deal, but if this really is the only time that you would be going then they would be right and would have a good point.

 

[kozmo]

Chances are he wont remember a lot of things at his age,so does that keep you from singing little songs to him,reading to him,playing with him -cause there is a chance he wont remember it????I took my little grandson to disneyworld in october,he was 28 mos,he had a ball,about 2 weeks ago out of the blue,he asked,"my go to disnee world nanny",and has not stopped since,we dont know what stimulated it or what,but he wants to go to disney and ride the monorail and the train.Nuff said???