KatieCharlotte

My kid will not be hanging out with other kids who come in between 3 and 6 am. Call me a helicopter mama, I call it smart.

 

My kid, my rules. I know what my child can handle so while to a perfect stranger it may appear I'm being harsh, you have no idea what the other 51 weeks a year entail. I have no problem with my rules. They don't affect you (the collective "you", not the OP), so I have no issues imposing them.

I think OP said she considered her 1 a.m. curfew an okay compromise. She said staying out until 3 or 6 am was "a bit insane." Her original post expressed her disagreement with parents who set a 10 p.m. curfew for teens or didn't let them out of their sight.

Our parenting does affect everyone else, whether it's setting no limits at all or being extremely helicoptering. (Not letting your teens stay out to 3 a.m. is NOT extreme helicoptering, but not letting teens out of sight would be, IMO). Our kids eventually grow up into adults that everyone has to interact with. As parents, we can only do the best we can to help our children become considerate, responsible adults. We can advise each other to strike a balance between protecting our kids and giving them independence, but like you said, only we know our own kids and what's best for them.

As a mom of an almost teen (and a former overprotected child myself), I agree with you that it's important to give children and teens increasing responsibility, so they can learn to function in the world without mom and dad. It's very hard not to be overprotective because we love our children so much, and we know that bad things can happen to them, but it's our job to help our children grow into responsible, independent adults. They need to practice making good decisions on their own. My son acts so much more mature when I show that I trust him and expect him to be independent and responsible. I saw a positive change in his maturity and confidence after we let him hang out in public areas on the cruise with new friends without us, and we will give him more independence as he grows older. He is also able to stay home alone and fix basic meals for himself.

Even now that I am well into adulthood, my poor mom is less than enthusiastic about me taking a girls cruise without my husband and, when I told her one friend loves scuba diving, she said, "You're not diving are you?" For a minute, I felt like a teenager again and wanted to dive just because she said I shouldn't. :)

It's not the crash you need to worry about, it's the turbulence. During bad turbulence your little bundle of joy becomes a missile that could break someone else's neck. Frankly I don't really care about your kid, but I sure do upset thinking that someone's unrestrained kid could injure me in a plane because the parents were selfish.

Exactly how often has that occurred in real life? Ever? If you're honestly worried about infants becoming projectiles, have you noticed how many unsecured items there are on an aircraft?

Do you know how many infants have actually been seriously injured or seriously injured another person because they were not in a carseat on an airplane? An FAA study in 1990 found exactly one death in twelve years of flights. Meanwhile, many infants died in car accidents and would have been perfectly safe had they flown to their destination on mom's lap.

If you say that only one is enough...then no one should ever leave their home with their children in the car because that is vastly more dangerous. I assume your children at least wear crash helmets in the car. I don't know how they'll get to school, between the dangers of your car, the seatbelt-less bus, and walking to school across roads. There are always dangers in everything. We are all constantly required to evaluate the likelihood of danger and the sacrifices involved in avoiding the danger. Let's not condemn each other for choices that are all within reason.

My friends have twins, they have no problem managing them and the seats onto the plane and into rental cars, even when just one parent is flying with them. Easy? No, but they value the safety of their children over their own convenience and wallet.

In the extremely unlikely event that the plane crashes, I'm sure the carseat will keep them safe. Or, they could just stay home and be totally safe, unless they value having a vacation over their own child's safety! :D

We have flown with infants in lap. We did bring a carseat in checked luggage because we were renting a car. We would not have if we were taking shuttles and public transportation. Who installs the carseat in the airport parking shuttle -- I've never seen one with seatbelts. Hotel shuttles are a wide range from mini-van to bus. Some hotels with vans that have seatbelts might require carseats because they're worried about the law and liability, so I would check with the particular hotel.

With our first child, we bought a plane ticket and installed his carseat, which he did not sit in the entire flight. On the way home, we gave up his seat so a woman would not be bumped from the flight and got two free tickets anywhere in the country. Poor ds survived.

I enjoy my vacation. If I can't afford to do that, I "do not" bother.

For those of us who are "thrifty," not spending any extra money on the ship is enjoyable. So many things are included that I would normally worry about spending money on -- appetizers, desserts, lemonade instead of ice water, food my kids will try and then barely touch, the fanciest thing on the menu instead of the cheapest, multiple games of mini-golf for the kids, shows, other activities like ropes course, room service breakfast (except tip of course), the list goes on! :) We don't like to gamble, rarely drink, and aren't interested in spa services, and people are happy to take family photos of us if we offer to return the favor. We're content bringing on our sodas, which we like better, and bringing refillable water bottles and packaged snacks in ports. The one thing we don't skimp on is enjoying activities in the ports, we just find ways to save, like private tours, when possible. I didn't pay for the cruise to miss out on the destinations.

Oh, and we drove twenty hours to the port, which was a huge savings for five people on an expensive flight route. We also recommend using some kind of no-fee rewards cards for all purchases, including your cruise, because why not?

We do NOT skimp on tips. When we go out to restaurants at home, which is rare, it's our usual practice to bring a "two-for-one coupon" or go on "kids eat free" day and then give a big tip. On a cruise, we add a little to the automatic tips.

Last month, I watched the Dream and the Magic dock side-by-side in MB with no problems. On cruise critic, we tend to only hear about the misses, not the many times the ships dock without problems. So don't think you're doomed to miss it.

But iti s an issue, which Carnival obviously doesn't warn its customers about beforehand. Our tour guide said the captain of the Dream is overly cautious, to put it politely, but obviously the guides are not happy about losing revenue when the ship doesn't dock and Carnival isn't happy when a captain damages the ship, and it looks pretty tricky to dock, especially with a larger ship.

Don't feel you have to book with Carnival because there are private tours that are refundable or don't make you pay in advance. We loved Bodden tours, which doesn't require any payment info beforehand, just a cash payment partway through the tour.