I Need a Vacation After Our Vacation!

At the beginning of our 4 hour plane ride to Oregon, my 2 year old daughter got our vacation off to a great start when she threw up all over herself, my purse, and of course me. Oh, and her favorite blanket.  

Once when my family drove to California and stayed in a hotel, my infant son wailed all night long from his Pack n Play. Nobody slept, and I spent most of the night on the floor, trying frantically to calm him before we got kicked out of the hotel. Naturally, we were all just a joy to be around the next day.

I’ll never forget the trip to Sea World where I LOST my two year old son!  A helpful park employee found him very quickly but I aged ten years in that ten minutes.

I’m not even mentioning the time my son tore open his arm on a swingset and needed 27 stitches! Or, there was the time we misread the website and Legoland was actually closed the day we planned on going!  I really loved when we visited family and we were the only one with little kids who needed naps, so we had to either miss out on the fun or deal with cranky kids all day. But, my favorite has to be the road trip to grandma’s house where my infant son didn’t stop crying for seven hours!

This is why moms need a {solo} vacation after family vacations.

Since my husband is a “go with the flow” guy, most of the time, I do all the planning. I budget and save. I look for the best deals. I read reviews, then read more reviews. I ask everyone for their opinions, but usually in the end I get a “whatever you think is best”. That means, I often make all the decisions, and then endure the whining when the kids (or my husband!) complain when something doesn’t turn out just right.

I pack. I unpack. I do the laundry. I clean the house so we don’t come home to a pigsty. And I’m the one who gets things back on track when we return from vacation and settle back in to our normal routine.

To be clear, I greatly appreciate that my husband works hard so we have the money to afford the occasional vacation.  I’m grateful we can visit family or enjoy a fun theme park, national park, or the glorious outdoors.

But usually, by the time we are running out the door to start our trip, I’ve run out of patience and wish I could just stay home and curl up in bed for a few days instead.  In fact, maybe I’ll just send my husband on the trip with the kids, and no one will notice I’m not there!

Moms, who’s with me?  

Sure, I could hand over the planning to my husband.  But, I’d be so on edge the whole time as we “go with the flow”.  We’d also probably spend a lot more money, which would have me in hives.

And yes, I could have my kids pack themselves.  I tried that once. I printed out a list and had them mark off things as they packed.  As I checked over their bags I had to grab the toothpaste, flip-flops, more socks, a hairbrush, two swimsuits, a jacket, and take out the hidden “treasures” and dirty clothes they tried to sneak in. I didn’t save much time. Maybe I’ll try again–in five years.

I bet we all have our vacation frustrations, our sleepless nights in unfamiliar beds, our vomiting episodes and worse. I’ve sure wanted to give an ultimatum; “If one more thing goes wrong we are never going on vacation again!” I just have to remember that for every difficulty, there is a great family memory.  For every vomiting episode, there is a smile of delight. Heck, sometimes those awful moments make for the best stories to pass on to the next generation!

We are really lucky to be able to go on family vacations.

Now, who wants to send me off to a day at the spa?

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