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.

We live in a walkable part of city. In a park 1 block from our apartment, there are "baby trains" (small electric trains, on rubber wheels). They cost ~$2 for 5 minutes, plus 10 minutes of your kid screaming "want more". Subway in Almaty is $0.2 (for adult), unlimited time. So when my son was almost 2 y.o. and walked well, I decided to take him to the real subway instead of enduring that vulgarity (granted the station is just 2 blocks away). He loved it a lot. Shouted "too-too" when the train was departing. Wanted more and more. He couldn't speak then, so he was turning my head with his hands, to make me see the approaching train. Also, it was a hot sunny day of +35°C, but in subway, it was 10 degrees cooler. The first time, we travelled 1,5 hours strait, 2-3 stations back and forth. I sweated because I had to carry a rucksack and a 6 kg of folded stroller. But that was unforgettable.

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?

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.

Premise of article is wrong. Kids do get excited about the same things as adults; novel and intriguing things within reach. These things just aren't exciting any more to adults. That's the only difference. An adult that's never been on a train, but never could, or was never allowed, will find it exciting too.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

If you're a bit stable yourself (& used to skateboard yourself), try long-boarding (4 year old in front of you with plenty of protection, there's enough space on a standard longboard to fit an adult & child).

Or biking them in a bicycle trailer to the store/school.

Surfing is one I'm looking forward to myself, I've never done it either myself!

Tangential anecdote: When I went to a buffet as a child, I loaded up on mashed potatoes, fries, onion rings, etc. I would be told by family and friends that I was effectively wrong for choosing those foods because seafood, meat, etc., was more expensive and therefore more valuable and worth choosing.

I don't think that was a bad outcome necessarily, because I picked foods that were super unhealthy and cater to thin dopamine hits. But I do think the reasoning (value vs. health) was off as it started instilling a sense of letting perceived/imagined value reign over personal instincts and inclinations.

Reading this felt like a call to be more present, pay more attention to the small things, do things for their own sake, etc.

Our mum used to take us for short hiking trips. I don't remember the hiking, but I still do remember the train rides to get there. Those are some of the best memories from my childhood.

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 didn't have that particular kind of idyllic childhood, that fairytale cherished time of having engaged, caring parents whose primary goal was to spend quality time with me. But with that came a different kind of freedom, different experiences.

For example, on one occasion my mother and stepfather wanted a week together, and obtained it by taking the three of us for a full week stay at a big amusement park during a school holidays... and oh you better believe that I have an extremely joyous set of memories of spending all day every day unsupervised in a happy dream of endless roller coasters and water slides!

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.

Also about parenting and bus rides...

The Years Are Short (Gretchen Rubin)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KktuoQwb3vQ

It doesn't need much money to show someone you love them.

That's why a poor loving father will always be worth much more than a wealthy absent father.

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!

When my daughter was about 8, we took her to see Marshall Fields in Chicago. Her favorite part of the store was the escalators. We rode those multiple floors of escalators for about half an hour, she loved it!

Also, taking the train to/from Chicago was up there too.

Kind if a larger lesson in this story is that kids will be interested in what they are interested in. Many of us here are like me and have made a career out of programming computers or related jobs. I've had three kids and not one of them is interested in programming, despite my attempts at encouragement. You can teach your kids a lot of things but they will also make their own path in life.

We are in progress of putting a basketball hoop at the end of our dead-end street and are unfortunately concerned that there are a handful of residents who probably don't want it. I swing back and forth on who I think "the bad guys" are. But I know the kids will love it and it will keep them off their phones.

You just need to go with the flow and "yes, and", as long as nothing dangerous is happening

I had a similar experience with my young son. One of our best memories together was telling a long bus ride in pouring rain, just watching the scenery roll by. He is 21 now, and still finally remembered that trip.

I guess I am a little cynical, but one alternative interpretation of this article is that five year olds can be quite difficult, and it is very tempting to just waste 4 hours to avoid dealing with a temper tantrum.

Kids usually love taking transit.

I still remember the good times I had with my dad just taking train trips to random locations in my state. I think its part of a kid's desire to explore!

I still liked riding the bus, all the way through college. I live in a small town now, no need to ride the bus, a bike does fine, but I miss it sometimes.

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.

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.

> Kids get excited about things that are very different from those of adults.

The very first sentence of this post is ungrammatical.

My conclusion is to do different stuff to make life less boring.

Absolutely wonderful tale - I laughed out loud at that final touch!

This kind of stuff I like reading on HN!

I took my daughter to a Broadway Disney musical. We were almost late so I picked her up and ran multiple packed city blocks with her in my arms. I think that was her favorite part, including, which I don't remember, running in front of a tourist taking a picture of a spiderman sidewalk actor and yelling "sorry" as I passed. We also went to Disney and her favorite thing was actually just going on a ride she was nervous about and feeling good about how brave she was.

Love this!

I love this story haha

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.

I think the SMBC comic Yeep [1] deserves mention here.

[1] https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/yeep

So wholesome :-)

Priceless! <3

> "No, no don't play with the wrapping paper! Look at the truck vroom vroom!" to no avail. She preferred the wrapping paper.

Your daughter a cat, by any chance? It's just the same with cats. They don't give a shit about anything you buy them, sometimes not even food - if there's packing peanuts, packing paper or Amazon cardboard boxes, that is more important.

It's as if shes hard wired for public transport in an effort to have a future planet to live on!

aww r/mademesmile

Lovely story

A reminder that $ != happiness

Japan is genius when it comes to implementing those simple things that kids like. Like putting little shallow water areas in playground, all kind of mechanical things and variety of playgrounds from all types dotted all over the city, some would considered to be "dangerous" in the west. There are ones where kids can even light fires and play with working tools or cook. There are theme parks all based on various playgrounds without any electricity driven rides. You can also stamp a special kids book in train stations and even places where kids can act play in various adult "jobs" like cashier or mechanic or whatever. My kids had so much fun at those places, much more than in Disney, although they enjoyed it too.

Is this not an obvious "no-shit-sherlock" thing to anyone who ever hung out with a kid?