Any of you have kids?

Both sets of grandparents ran tourism/hospitality type businesses with their kids (my parents) in tow and when I came into the world, my parents were running a busy caravan park on Queensland's Gold Coast. Apparently my Dad used to lie me on the front seat of their vintage (pink!) Holden and drive me around the park to clean toilets, fix pipes, collect rubbish. 2 siblings followed - my dad's philosophy was that the kids joined HIS life and not the other way around, so we all became pretty good at adapting pretty quickly!

Whilst travelling Europe, I worked in a few hostels before managing one in Scotland for a year. I loved the job (mostly!) and since having my daughter have often reflected on the role and can't think of many other jobs as suited to having children in tow.

I regularly cover as relief manager for my Mum (now managing another caravan park) and although there are some physical differences between caravan parks and hostels (ie: the guests don't share your lounge room!), the tasks involved are essentially the same and my daughter (3 1/2) fits in without a problem (she often helps!).

I'm hoping to head out on a bit of a RTW trip with her later this year and keen to find hostel work. NZ is our first destination, and so far it's proved a tough nut to crack! 4 years ago when I first looked into managing a hostel there (with a child in tow) I had a great response, but this time around nobody wants to know us, and I've been surprised by the percentage of Kiwi hostels flat out refusing kids even stay in their hostels.

Having travelled 'child-less' I do appreciate the other side of the argument but this blanket ban has really taken me by surprise, and is contrary to my experiences in hostels in Australia and the UK/Europe...might have to buy my own hostel...

lol, "more or less" is true. sometimes children don't fit in a hostel setting. I think it depends on the size/layout of the hostel (ie: the one I previously managed had 63 beds in 12 rooms on 4 levels, so easy to keep a child out of the way if necessary. saying that, we did have a really young child stay with her parents and she was practically adopted by a group of girls with not much English, who were staying while on a tour of Scotland. It's likely they may otherwise not have come out of their rooms or interacted outside of their group, yet the child gave them something to talk about with staff and other guests...

Depends on the nature of the hostel, but when I have my hostel (one day, one day! :D my daugher will definitely be involved and I think it will create unique and original character for the hostel...)

:) saoghalbeag