Holidays are among the top five things that children influence most in their parents’ lives (along with amount of sleep … !)
Parents in Scotland say the amount of sleep they get, the type of holiday they take, where and how often they travel, and how often they eat at restaurants are the top things that have changed since having children*.
Speak to any parent and they’ll tell you parenthood changes everything, but new research from travel company Flight Centre shows exactly how much littles ones influence the lives of their parents. The majority of parents (three out of four) say that decision-making is more difficult since having children, and almost half of parents’ everyday decisions are based entirely around their children.
In fact, children’s’ needs take such a priority that parents in Scotland say their biggest worry when they go on holiday is keeping the kids entertained (34%) – which is more of a concern than travel vaccinations (6%) or flight delays (19%).
With planning a family holiday causing parents so much stress, it’s no surprise that a quarter of parents prefer to book holidays by themselves and don’t involve their children in the planning process.
However, these findings come as Flight Centre launches ‘Kids in Charge’, a new service that sees role reversal with children in the booking seat. Flight Centre’s expert consultants will create tailor-made family holidays based entirely on children’s ideas and imaginations, so that hard-working parents can put their feet up safe in the knowledge that their holiday is being built with the family’s best interests at heart.
Yvonne Hobden, Head of Marketing at Flight Centre, commented: “Family holidays are where memories are made, but with parents finding decision-making more difficult and revolving so many choices around their kids on a daily basis, we want to bring the fun and spontaneity back to holidays.
“Our team have been blown away by the kind and imaginative ideas kids have come up with, from their own weird and wacky dream holidays to wanting to reward their parents and spend quality time together.”
This should come as welcome news to parents, who say it can take anything from one day to over a month to book a holiday (54%). In comparison, the majority said it took them less than a day to plan a holiday before they had children (52%).
To celebrate the Kids in Charge launch, any family that visits a Flight Centre store in Scotland throughout December (up until 24 December) and books a tailor-made holiday for 2019, or requests a quote online, will receive a voucher for £250 off their booking (redeemable by 31 January 2019).
For further information visit www.flightcentre.co.uk/holidays/family/kids-in-charge.
*The top things that have changed in parents’ lives in Scotland since having children:
- How much sleep I get (49%)
- The type of holiday I go on (48%)
- Where I go on holiday (46%)
- How often I go on holiday (43%)
- How often I eat in restaurants (40%)
- How often I drink alcohol (34%)
- What car I have (28%)
- Where I shop (27%)
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