National Parks and Children
I once advocated that parents who take their children to national parks will have exhausted and happy children at the end of the day. Well, strike that. You will have exhaustion, but that will most likely happen to you. I cannot guarantee the kind of children you will have. I can guarantee that they will attempt to coerce you to purchase an overpriced stuffed wombat or kangaroo from the information centre; do not make any eye contact with them when they bring the cute fluffy thing to you, pretend you are deaf, then slowly back away from them like they are not even yours, works every time.

Freycinet National Park- we got in, paid the entrance fee and managed to walk 100 metres before:
The kids got hungry;
The toddler threw a tantrum
Babies started crying for their feed;
Some adults got sweaty;
One particular adult declared that the mosquitos at the park were bigger than her baby, I'm still unsure if she was afraid for herself or her baby.
Speaking of mosquitos, I think they had eyes too. We had the repellant bracelets, which didn't help us much, the mosquitos bit the right arms of those wearing it on their left and the left arm of those wearing on their right, I was impressed.
All the adults got hungry too so we threw in the towel went looking for food.
I didn't even have time to update my facebook 'I was at the Freycinet National Park" location thingy. It was like it never happened.
Result:
Adults - Exhausted
Children- Cranky and confused
Babies - Eat Poo Sleep Repeat ??????

9ja Trippers invade Mornington Peninsula.
We started with SunnyRidge Strawberry Farm where we chose not to pick our own in the spirit of 'ask not what you can do for yourself but what can be done for you'. We promptly devoured our breakfast and pumped the kids up with sugar. (We have 3 GPs and a registered nurse as part of this group but some trippers had strawberry sorbet, and chocolate brownies for breakfast, I will not name names but these are people who should know better).

Point Nepean National Park:
Very different national park experience. We made sure everyone had some breakfast before setting out. We arrived fresh and full of zeal. They energetic ones decided to ride bicycles up hill to Fort Nepean (group 1 aka the zealots), the pragmatic ones decided to use their feet to walk the 2.8km (group 2 aka the sensibles).
The sensibles took the shuttle bus to the starting point of the amazing walk and made good headway into their quest. Unfortunately they were delayed by a particular child who vehemently protested the quest. He could not understand why he was expected to walk up a hill so soon after his 4th birthday.He was a known protester so we knew any attempt at negotiation was going to be futile. We commiserated with him and promptly put him in a pram and Mama dearest pushed him uphill. However due to the delay and another brief stop at Harold Holt's Memorial ( Prime Minister of Australia who disappeared from Cheviot beach while swimming) the zealots caught up and overtook us.
Point Nepean is not just a national park, it provides hands on, good history lesson for the kids. They got to see where the first ever World War I shot was fired from, the former barracks and underground tunnels were the soldiers lived and defended Port Phillip Bay.

Result:
Adults- Bone crushing exhaustion
Children - Hungry and asking to go back home to the Riverland.
Babies - ????? Eat Poo Sleep Repeat.
Zealots: Didn't even break a sweat ridding up and back
Sensibles: Hiked to Fort Nepean and sensibly took the shuttle bus all the way back.

So in summary, when travelling with children, forget the deceitful pictures of relaxing parents sitting and gazing at the sunset next to content children playing in the sand. Let that picture remain a figment of your imagination because that is what it is.

In real life, you will find that babies will do what they have to do when they feel like it. Toddlers will play all day and fall asleep as soon as you arrive at your carefully planned outing, proceed to throw a mega tantrum and immediately want to go out again as soon as you arrive home. Kids are fun as long as they do not get hungry, or thirsty, or tired, or angry, or the sun doesn't get too shiny, or the wind too cold, or there are no flies, or mosquitoes, or ants, or ………

The adults will always look forward to the end of the day so they can go home to watch the tennis, or Netflix or build puzzles or read a book or sleep ……………

The holiday is over and the trippers back home facing piles of laundry, unread work emails and empty fridges.
So why travel?
I can guarantee that you will create memories, have lots of laughter, get quiet moments to talk with your older kids, get dirty with the little ones, climb trees, wipe bottoms and mouths (not always in that order), soothe tantrums, forget various items in strange places, argue over missing items, stop on the roadside to feed babies (multiple times), play soccer, find that your older kids have used your monthly mobile data in 3 days, go to bed tired, even wake up tired sometimes and wonder why you bothered to leave home, try new things, see new places, make new friends, eat ice-cream for breakfast and so much more

On any other utopian expectation you may have about family thingys, you are on your own.