Trying new things with young kids and being out of your comfort zone…like me!

Since having kids we have always still tried to do things we love, as well as try out new experiences. We believe its important to shake/spice things up with life as its all one big adventure anyway and although being out of your comfort zone can be incredibly scary – its also really worth it for your self confidence and you’d be surprised what you can do and your children!

More often than not I have realised that I was potentially limiting what my children could do because of my own fears and that’s a hard pill to swallow and is why we have worked hard to ensure that our children try things if they want to and not because mummy and daddy say so (within reason and safety of course!). I’m sure it won’t surprise you that sometimes we have been successful at attempting new things with our kids and others have been a big fat hairy fail! When I say fail I guess what I really mean is it wasn’t particularly enjoyable for those involved! But we try to just put the “not so fun times” down to experience and the wonders of parenthood – haha!

Some of the things we love doing are fairly generic activities that many of you will also share a liking to but perhaps haven’t built up the courage or thought to go ahead and try doing them with your children. So I thought I would share our successes and “not so fun times” mostly for your amusement but also so you know it can be done, it has been done and that you should just go for it! Whats the worst that can happen after all? You can always have a laugh afterwards at least!

Here are some of the things we love doing and have tried with our kids along with whether it was “great fun” success or a big fat “not so fun” fail!

Travelling Internationally – SUCCESS & FAIL!

Top success – surviving 7 flights and 5 continents in 50 days with a 3.5yr old and a 19 month old has been our biggest feat so far! Generally the kids have been great and we now have a fairly slick flying regime and would seriously recommend going in a lounge if they have one available – it’s a great way of feeding and containing everyone!

Biggest fail – spending an entire night flight with a miserable and screaming (yes screaming) 19 month old just getting rid of a cold and keeping everybody and I mean everybody awake. It was hideous and everyone thought they knew what was wrong with her – the answer = she was just royally annoyed at not having her comfy bed to sleep in and lay starfish and was also pretty cheesed off at everyone wanting to poke her!

Snowboarding – SUCCESS!

We let Max try snowboarding at 2.5yrs old and what great fun that was! We really didn’t expect anything, so to have him happily spend 20 minutes at a time on a board was great! We have written a bit about our trip here if you’d like to know more.

Jet-skiing – SUCCESS!

Both our kids loved going on our jet ski and Max often got me doing crazy figures of eight with him whilst Olivea would mostly just squeal with delight! As we owned our Jet ski we had not just the knowledge and experience but more flexibility when compared to renting so worth bearing in mind that rentals may have a minimum age requirement.

Stand Up Paddle Boarding – SUCCESS & FAIL!

Top success – a morning of trying several stand up paddle boards (we tried the Shark brand) with the kids and them managing to stay on and enjoy telling mummy or daddy which seagulls to chase!

Top fail – the wind picked up once we had got back on the beach and the paddle boards went flying nearly flattening Max – the poor sausage wouldn’t stop talking about the flying paddle board trying to bonk him on the back of the head for the rest of the day!

Theme Parks – SUCCESS!

We have been lucky enough to go to a few theme parks and two Disney theme parks now; Disney Tokyo when Max was merely 4 months old and Disney Shanghai when Max was 3.5yrs and Olivea was 21 months and we all thought it was great. We weren’t sure if the kids were too young however we needn’t of worried – there were lots of things for toddlers that us parents also really enjoyed. It was also a great experience going to Disney in Asia and as adults a real eye opener in terms of culture.

Nice Restaurants – FAIL

Now we both love eating good food and used to really enjoy going for nice meals on occasions BUT since having our two monkeys its just not worth the hassle! Too many times we have tried a nice meal out for an occasion only to have both of us parents eat 1 mouthful or even better 1 of us just accepts defeat and takes the kids for a walk or sits in the car while the other tries to salvage any adult conversation and some lukewarm food!

Long Walks or Hikes – FAIL

We have met quite a few families who enjoy nice long walks and hikes and every time I wonder how nice that must be for them! For us – our children are just not ready/built for walking and mum and dads backs aren’t what they used to be! We have had to invest in a cheap umbrella fold buggy so that we have something for both of the kids rather than them fight over the one pram!

Safari – SUCCESS!

The two times we have visited South Africa we have taken the kids on Safari – either a guide led one or a self drive and they have both been really good – we wouldn’t hesitate to go on another one.

Baseball / Rugby / Football Game – SUCCESS!

We took Max to his first football game when he was only a few months old and his first Rugby game when 9 months old and then his first baseball game when on holiday in the U.S.A. at 14 months old. We had no issues with him at all other than him falling asleep a few hours into the baseball game!

These are our personal family experiences and we know its different for everyone – if you want to know more about any of the above the leave us a comment – we love hearing from you all.

Cheers and here’s to a fun weekend ahead 🙂 Speak soon xx