A married couple took a solo trip away without their kids, only for their daughter to outrageously present them with evidence weeks later.
Nayeli Tirado, 33, an educator and content creator, lives in Yuma, Arizona, with her husband Orlando, 36, and their two children: Emma, six, and five-month-old Luca.
Recently, Tirado and her husband embarked on an adults-only getaway, which she told Newsweek they “don’t do often, but it was really special to have that one-on-one time as a couple.”
The couple hit Disneyland—somewhere they’ve been before with their children, Tirado describing it as “the Disney love runs deep” in their family.
“We love going to Vegas, we love going wine tasting and little getaways like that too, but we also genuinely love Disneyland,” she explained. “And we truly believe it can be enjoyed with children and without children; and both experiences, although very different, are magical in their own unique ways.”
Instagram @nayeli.tirado
While on their trip, they got special Disney badges which declared they were celebrating having “no kids” with them—and after their return, the badges were discovered by none other than their daughter Emma.
“Her reaction was hilarious,” Tirado said, clarifying their daughter knew about the solo trip and was presented with souvenirs on their return. “She found the pins a couple of weeks later in our ‘Disneyland Box,’ and since she recently started reading, she spotted the ‘no kids’—that’s when I pulled out my phone and caught her cute dramatic reaction.”
In a video shared to Tirado’s Instagram account, @nayeli.tirado, in May, she recorded six-year-old Emma holding up the evidence to the camera, and repeatedly demanding: “How dare you?”
Emma, wearing a Disney’s Lilo & Stitch t-shirt, is smiling as she confronts her mother with the pins, and Tirado, too, can be heard laughing behind the camera.
She wrote in the caption: “Hide the evidence better, people!”
Tirado said her daughter “has such a great sense of humor, and her ability to catch on to sarcasm and joke about things like that is one of my favorite things about her.”
Viewers had a huge reaction, awarding the video close to half a million likes, as one commenter joked: “As a bartender that works at Disney World, I pour extra heavy when I see pins like this.”
Another shared that she and her husband had day passes to Disneyland, and would go on “day dates” while “the kids were in school.”
Some were outraged on Emma’s behalf, as one wrote: “I couldn’t fathom my husband and I going to Disney without our kids. That’s so weird to me I wouldn’t even have a good time,” and another said: “I think it’s weird when grown-ups go to Disney without children.”
But another admitted the only thing that annoyed her about the video was “my husband and I never thought to get one of those pins on our trips with no kids.”
Responding to the criticism, Tirado said they believe “it’s healthy for adults in general to take little breaks when possible, even if it’s to a place as magical as Disney. For parents, a little recharge goes a long way for the whole family.”
She added that they live relatively close to the theme park, “so going often, and even occasionally without the kids, doesn’t feel strange to us,” but understood that it might have appeared odd to people to whom a Disney trip means flights, detailed planning, and long hotel stays.
In 2023, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, was the most visited theme park in the world, with 17.72 million visitors. Anaheim, California’s Disneyland, where Tirado’s family regularly visits, was second—coming in at 17.25 annual visitors, according to Statista.
And, Tirado revealed, she and her husband had a surprise trip to Disney planned for their daughter just weeks later. To celebrate her graduating from kindergarten, they pretended they were taking her to school, only to reveal they were on the way to the theme park instead.
“It was such a heartfelt moment, and seeing her reaction was everything,” proud mom Tirado said.
“At the end of the day, we believe it’s healthy for parents to have alone time and to occasionally do the things they enjoyed before having children without feeling guilty about it. We believe that when parents take care of themselves, they show up even better for their families.
“And if you’re someone who grew up going to Disney and find comfort in that place, it’s okay to come back and reminisce.”
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