First a little background on me.
I grew up traveling… a lot.
We weren’t gypsies or anything, but I guess my dad must have had a lot of
vacation time, because we visited a lot of the US, most of western Europe, and
cruised much of the Caribbean. It didn’t hurt that he travelled a lot for work (back when frequent flier miles
really got you something). Once I was grown, friends started having babies, and before they knew it, they were holed up in their houses refusing to take the baby for an hour long drive for fear of forgetting a teething toy (I blame TV sitcoms for this one). If there was one thing I knew, it was that I was not going to let kids
keep me from traveling. Nor was I going to leave my kids every time I wanted to go somewhere.
I am now mom to 2 wonderful kids, and they have seen so much more than I ever did when I was their age, and I hope to be able to continue the trend.
Maybe you were adventurous in your youth or maybe you always wanted to travel but never got the chance before you were blessed with your darling little time suckers. That’s okay, because you can still travel, even with little ones in tow. There are a million kinds of traveling one can do, and traveling with kids merely changes the adventure. In fact, even if you saw the whole world before you had kids, you’d be amazed at what a different adventure you would have going a second time with your kids.
The first rule is one I have a love/hate relationship with. Lists. So utterly important the importance of which cannot be understated. And these lists vary wildly depending on the destination and the route to get there. I have tried to break down lists into region and separate out modes. It’s the most obvious of things that tend to be forgotten without a list.
And the number one thing on all of those lists?
Cash. Not spending money, peace of mind money. Budgeting in an extra amount of cash just in case something on that list (or that didn’t make it on the list) is forgotten, you can spend whatever ungodly amount they want for it, without feeling pain about it, after all, having money to buy it WAS on your
list. Make sure you have a survival list. Basically an “if I got stuck on a desert island, my kid(s) would need…” Limit it to 5 things. Things like Epi-pens, inhalers, contacts/solution fall into this category. Diapers and toys do NOT. Those go on the regular list. Why? Because those things you can live without,
if you absolutely have to. Its not like you aren’t going to bring everything on your list, but its important to give yourself a reality check before taking a vacation, and know in your heart that as long as you have everything on your survival list, you will, at least, survive.
I am easily wound up, and I do not unwind easily. This is seen easily at my uncanny ability to remain ticked off for hours after the hotel lost our reservation, even though we managed to get another room and were by then seated at a bar having a beer.
Still ticked. Many of us are that way, and we have a tendency to let that one bad thing affect our entire
vacations. The problem, I have realized, is that we plan our vacations to be perfect.
When someone tells me about planning their wedding, I always snicker to myself, because I know their day isn’t going to be perfect, it never is. Something will always go wrong, small or large, something. And most of the time, it doesn’t ruin the day, just makes another memory.
So why then do I go into a vacation expecting things to go exactly the way I have planned? That was a rhetorical question, I have no idea.
I grew up traveling… a lot.
We weren’t gypsies or anything, but I guess my dad must have had a lot of
vacation time, because we visited a lot of the US, most of western Europe, and
cruised much of the Caribbean. It didn’t hurt that he travelled a lot for work (back when frequent flier miles
really got you something). Once I was grown, friends started having babies, and before they knew it, they were holed up in their houses refusing to take the baby for an hour long drive for fear of forgetting a teething toy (I blame TV sitcoms for this one). If there was one thing I knew, it was that I was not going to let kids
keep me from traveling. Nor was I going to leave my kids every time I wanted to go somewhere.
I am now mom to 2 wonderful kids, and they have seen so much more than I ever did when I was their age, and I hope to be able to continue the trend.
Maybe you were adventurous in your youth or maybe you always wanted to travel but never got the chance before you were blessed with your darling little time suckers. That’s okay, because you can still travel, even with little ones in tow. There are a million kinds of traveling one can do, and traveling with kids merely changes the adventure. In fact, even if you saw the whole world before you had kids, you’d be amazed at what a different adventure you would have going a second time with your kids.
The first rule is one I have a love/hate relationship with. Lists. So utterly important the importance of which cannot be understated. And these lists vary wildly depending on the destination and the route to get there. I have tried to break down lists into region and separate out modes. It’s the most obvious of things that tend to be forgotten without a list.
And the number one thing on all of those lists?
Cash. Not spending money, peace of mind money. Budgeting in an extra amount of cash just in case something on that list (or that didn’t make it on the list) is forgotten, you can spend whatever ungodly amount they want for it, without feeling pain about it, after all, having money to buy it WAS on your
list. Make sure you have a survival list. Basically an “if I got stuck on a desert island, my kid(s) would need…” Limit it to 5 things. Things like Epi-pens, inhalers, contacts/solution fall into this category. Diapers and toys do NOT. Those go on the regular list. Why? Because those things you can live without,
if you absolutely have to. Its not like you aren’t going to bring everything on your list, but its important to give yourself a reality check before taking a vacation, and know in your heart that as long as you have everything on your survival list, you will, at least, survive.
I am easily wound up, and I do not unwind easily. This is seen easily at my uncanny ability to remain ticked off for hours after the hotel lost our reservation, even though we managed to get another room and were by then seated at a bar having a beer.
Still ticked. Many of us are that way, and we have a tendency to let that one bad thing affect our entire
vacations. The problem, I have realized, is that we plan our vacations to be perfect.
When someone tells me about planning their wedding, I always snicker to myself, because I know their day isn’t going to be perfect, it never is. Something will always go wrong, small or large, something. And most of the time, it doesn’t ruin the day, just makes another memory.
So why then do I go into a vacation expecting things to go exactly the way I have planned? That was a rhetorical question, I have no idea.
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