Mom’s Horror As She Realizes What Kids Have Been Doing at the All-Inclusive

A mom-of-two was stunned to discover what her kids had gotten up to during an all-inclusive family vacation together.

Shelly Larsen-McHugh’s face was a picture when she took to TikTok, posting under the handle @babiesandbichons, to share what happened to her 6-year-old son Louie and his 3-year-old sister Luna.

“We just found it funny,” Larsen-McHugh told Newsweek. “As if parenting isn’t hard anyway, the unnecessary things you need to deal with, like all-inclusives.”

All-inclusive vacations are proving an increasingly popular choice.

Earlier this year, a study in TravelAge West’s Need to Know research series revealed 77 percent of travel advisors reported “most” or “some” of their clients had opted for an all-inclusive vacation as a way of better managing costs.

That’s not to say that all-inclusives are not without their pitfalls, as Larsen-McHugh discovered during a family vacation in Corfu, Greece.

“It was the first morning and our 6-year-old son wanted to get us all some juice,” she said. “He got himself and his 3-year-old sister some ‘cherry’ juice and asked me and his other mummy what we wanted.”

Louis told them they had a choice of orange, grape or cherry. However, when he returned a few minutes later, he informed them there was “no orange or grape, just cherry.”

That’s when Larsen-McHugh’s suspicions were first aroused. “I thought having cherry at breakfast was unusual but said ok, I’ll have cherry, more for the fact of his kindness and wanting to get us all drinks,” she said.

It was only when he returned to the table with their drinks, that the reality of the situation dawned on her. “I took one drink and obv knew it was red wine,” she said. “Louie had a sip and obv didn’t like it.”

It turned out Louie had unknowingly served himself and the rest of the family glasses of red wine to have with their breakfast. Larsen-McHugh was caught completely off-guard by what happened.

“Usually in an all-inclusive at breakfast the wine dispenser machines are covered over or locked so I didn’t think at all it would have been wine,” she said. “It was right next to the other juices.”

Larsen-McHugh was able to take some solace from the response to her video. At the time of writing, the TikTok clip has been watched nearly 500,000 times. “Judging from the comments this seems to happen quite a lot,” she said.

It’s something they can all look back on and laugh about though, which is what you want from any good vacation. “The all-inclusive canteens can be feeding time at the zoo which is chaotic anyway, I’m coeliac so having to translate that need into a different language to your kids being sat there with what you thought was cherry juice! It’s a lot,” she said.

Even so, Larsen-McHugh will be keeping a close eye on what Louie and Luna are drinking from here on out. “We will definitely be vetting the drinks as they come to the table,” she said.