When I first decided I wanted to be a parent and have kids, the thing I envisioned doing was taking family trips. I wanted to take the kids to Disney World, show them DC, go skiing, and maybe even be the cool parents who take their teenagers to Europe. Once I actually had the kids (by kids, I mean more than one), I thought, "Am I insane? How are we ever going to leave our house?"
Well, this weekend we took our 4.5 year old and our almost 22 month old to the Gulf (not a fantastic beach, but it's close). We have traveled with our kids before, but never with just the four of us and never a car trip. This was really a family proof of concept.
And guess what? It wasn't totally awful! In fact, many parts were fun. Unfortunately, it rained and was 75 degrees the whole weekend, not ideal for the beach, but the kids still thought it was fun. We were in a different place. They got to play in the mud (AKA beach). They got to swim in a new pool. The condo had new books and movies. Our 4.5 year old even thought the ocean was awesome, which shocked me since it required her to get sand on her and potentially be near a jelly fish. Granted, our 22 month old quickly decided he did not like the ocean when it almost swept him to sea, so he just stood there and yelled "Sissy" at his sister out of extreme concern for her well-being. So cute. And he consumed an unhealthy amount of dirty, rain water from the oh-so-clean Texas beach (but hey, no vomiting - that's a win).
Anyway, so what I realized yet again is that the worst part was what I built up in my mind. I feared every worst case scenario happening, when in actuality, very few of those scenarios came to be. Now was it relaxing and like a kid-free vacation? Not in the least. But it showed me we could do this again and still retain our sanity. And I remembered why I initially wanted to have kids? So I could share these experiences with them and see them have as much fun as I did as a kid. And that made it all worth it.
No comments:
Post a Comment