Should they see that?

There is so much to do in Vegas; however, not all of it is appropriate for children. As a parent, you need to do research and weed through the loads of entertainment opportunities to find what will work best with your family. For instance, I heard about a pirate show at Treasure Island that I thought would be wonderful for the kids until I found out the pirates were scantily-clad women gyrating on a pirate ship.

Is your child a two headed monster?

When planning a family trip, you really are on “kid-time” and can’t really plan things around what you want to do. My kids do best with a routine, still take occasional afternoon naps and do not sit still for long periods of time. For us, planning short activities immediately after breakfast and leaving the afternoon open to naps and lounging around the swimming pool worked best.

A couple of things to think about when choosing activities:

• Does your child need a specific routine (meaning do they turn into a two-headed monster if they miss snack) or can your child go-with the flow?
  
• Does your child prefer quiet environments or does your child thrive with noise?
  
• Can you child sit for long periods of time?
  
• Does your child still nap? What time of day?
  
• When does your child go to bed at night? How do they do if they stay up late? How did your child sleep the night before?
  
• Are you in the same time-zone?
  
• Do you have a budget?
  
• Can you child walk distances or do you need lots of child gear – baby bjorn, stroller, child carrier, etc.

Tips for The Strip

• Navigating. Driving The Strip can be “slow-moving” especially during weekends and evenings. During some large events or holidays, the Strip maybe closed to traffic. Look at using the hotel shuttle, monorail or walking to move around.
  
• Top Things to See. Plan your visit around one or two things you really want to see on the Strip. This will help figure out what time and where you should start.
  
• Free Parking. Many of the resorts have free parking in their self-park garages so try to find a resort close to the things you want to do. We parked at the MGM Grand and walked from there.
  
• Your children will lie. Don’t listen to your children when they say they are big kids and can walk. We made the mistake of leaving the stroller in the car and was forced to listen to hours of whining (I’m tired, I can’t walk anymore, I need a million dollars, etc). Blocks are very long and distances are deceiving when you look at a map.
  
• Early Riser. Visit during the week first thing in the morning. We didn’t get to see all the dazzling lights at night but we also limited seeing the “nicely dressed ladies” and the “street hawkers” handing out fliers on adult entertainment.
  
• Teach your kids about basic geography. The Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower and streets of Venice really aren’t located in Vegas.
  
• Lying is ok in certain situations. My daughter wanted to know what the “nicely dressed ladies” do. I told her they were hired to clean the streets.
  
• Bring lots of healthy snacks. It is difficult for us to go to sit-down restaurant so we always come prepared.
  
• Set basic ground rules. There are lots of souvenirs for sale. Our girls could buy one item that was $15 or less in M&M world. If they whined wanting something else, we would give it to the “nicely dressed ladies.”

Summary

Overall, it was a short but enjoyable trip for our family. Vegas is not a vacation destination for all families so do your research to find age-appropriate activities. Don’t overschedule – kids need downtime just to play (our suite was so big we spent a good amount of time playing hide-and-seek), to enjoy the pool or to people watch. If your purpose is to go out to fine restaurants, to go gambling or to see an evening show then hire a babysitter or leave the kids at home.

A few days after the trip, my daughter created a sculpture out of Tinkertoys. She looked at me and beamed “This looks like the Statue of Liberty”. I responded, “Oh, did you learn about the Statue at preschool.” Looking at me puzzled, “No, mom. We saw it in Vegas.” I immediately called my husband and told him we were booking an educational trip to NYC.