As Cara sets off for the mountains with her entire extended family, we're gearing up for a family vacation to the beach. Unlike Cara and her family, my Bunch doesn't travel well when it comes to sleeping so we don't do it often. My crew is high maintenance about where and how they sleep and for the first 2 days no one sleeps so we're all cranky and tired and ready for home.
You can plan for the flight, ride or hotel arrangements, but the other thing is to reset your expectations for what "vacation" really means.
- If you are traveling with two kids (or more) close in age and the oldest is under five, please note: This will NOT be a "vacation." You might be sipping margaritas by the pool, but you'll also be dashing after toddlers, dealing with pooey diapers and likely not getting much sleep.
- If you're going somewhere truly fabulous--like Europe--don't expect your kids to hike around and enjoy looking at museums, historical sites or anything else grown up. As Cara said about her upcoming trip to visit me in DC, the trip is about rockets, dinosaurs and pandas. If she's lucky her kids can wave at President Obama on the way to the Natural History Museum just like my kids do on the way home. This is the main reason our family vacations have always been the beach or the mountains. It pains us to go somewhere fabulous and only ever see the pools, zoos or parks.
- Vacationing with family is deceiving. It makes sense that these people who are bound to you by blood would want to provide you with some relief to make it your vacation, too. And yes, for the most part your family will step up and help out with some of the basics. But know this help is limited. After approximately four days, everyone else is tired out and your kids often become your problem again. So take the help when you can in the early part of the vacation to see, do, read, eat out, relax, etc. before everyone gets exhausted by the chaos.
- There will be chaos. Change in schedules, beds, people, food makes kids out of sorts sometimes. If you have an easily adjusted kid to all of this change--I have one of these--you're lucky. The trick is to be flexible. You may have to eat hot dogs or PB&J more than you had planned. Your kids may have to learn to like couscous or 12-grain bread. You may have to let your kids go without a bath one night. Being flexible can be hard especially if you're Type A like I am.
Keep these three things in mind during your vacation and you'll be fine. Vacation with your Baby Bunch is about:
1) Change of scenery. We all (us and the kids) need a little change in our lives to help us get perspective and grow as person.
2) Being with each other. It's amazing what happens as a family when you're apart from the computer (work or home) and the phone. Yes, leave your Blackberry at home.
3) Seeing new things, places and people. Even if you're seeing another zoo, another garden or another McDonald's, it's something new for you and the kids to experience together.
Happy traveling. (As a side note, we're both out for the week so we've queued up some posts for you to enjoy while we're gone.)
I always like to think that vacations give my husband a new appreciation for what MY life is REALLY like, too!! 24 hours a day with the children? DOES HIM SOME GOOD for PERSPECTIVE! ;)
Posted by: JessPond | Jun 12, 2009 at 11:41 PM
I understand what you are saying about museums etc but I swear it's worth stopping by some culture if you can - my DDs (3 & 4.5 yrs) loved the Musee D'Orsay in Paris, just going in there & experiencing the sheer scale of somewhere filled with art/sculpture amazed them, places like the Centre Pompidou had a special children's gallery, and they danced their way outside the Louvre buildings very happily (sadly closed on the day we passed. If you do your research before you go you can find a little something so it's not just parks & zoos, to build up their tolerance and curiosity of arts, history & science, even when they are young. I feel your pain though, it can fill you with dread and you won't get time to experience the place in an adult way for sure. Enjoy your vacations, most of all have family fun!
Posted by: Natasha | Jun 14, 2009 at 04:43 PM