Since staying home with my kids is my job, I wasn’t sure how much our family vacation would feel like a vacation to me. I would still be spending my days taking care of my kids, just like at home, would it really be a vacation? Luckily, it was.
There were several unexpected perks of vacation.
Other than the epic drive to get there, once we made it to the beach we walked just about everywhere we went.
I went an entire week without washing, folding or putting away clothes.
No cooking. We didn’t even have a kitchen. So I couldn’t cook, even if I wanted to. No cooking also meant no dishes to wash and put away.
Extra helping hands. When my son would walk into a room with his diaper smelling like a landfill, I could tell him that his mom was looking for him. Or I could tell him that his mom probably missed changing diapers while she was at work so it would be nice of him to ask her to change it. Evil, I know.
It’s perfectly acceptable have a Bloody Mary from the tiki bar at 10:30 on a Thursday morning. Speaking of cocktails, I added the phrase, “bill it to my room” to my vocabulary.
Someone made my bed for me each day. I felt like I was seven again.
The most difficult decisions each day were, should we go to the pool or the beach and should I wear SPF 30 or SPF 50 sunscreen.
Every night around 6pm a housekeeping lady came around for turn down service and gave me pieces of chocolate. How cool is that?
So, even though I spent a week with my kids doing many of the same silly things on vacation as we do at home, to me it still felt like a much needed vacation.
-Pete