This just in… vacations are work!
Okay any of us that are mothers already know this. In fact, I recently wrote that in my next life I want to come back as the father who honestly doesn’t get why vacationing is a lot of work. And don’t even get me started on camping. That is like moving house to a more primitive setting. Just how many modern conveniences can we take away from you and still have you able to function. No bathrooms? No running water? Cooking over an open fire? Yeah, I don’t come from a lone of hearty pioneer folk. Our idea of roughing it is the 4 star hotel.
In a recent column in Newsweek, Kathy Deveny writes about the mythical family vacation. She shares her memories of long car trips she took with her family as a kid.
Unencumbered by seat belts, my brother and I roamed into each other’s carefully guarded back-seat territory and bickered until one of our parents lost it. We stopped at motels with pools and ate “picnic” dinners in front of the TV. But they’re some of the best memories of my childhood. (”I don’t remember it quite so fondly,” says my mom.)
Turns out the time honored family vacation as we know it did not evolve until the 1950’s when post WWII prosperity made it possible. Before then Mom’s did not have to take the entire “show on the road.”
Even though I like to complain, I still enjoy family vacations. If only because everyone else is having fun and I can live vicariously through them.
I can agree and then you husbands looks at you like your crazy because you are tired.lol…lol
Comment by VV — August 3, 2008 @ 2:45 pm
I have never been in a discussion on this topic before, but being a mom of 8 kids I remember thinking that what Wonder Woman had to do was not even close to what I had to do. I didn’t have time to look beautiful like Wonder Woman, but on our vacations we would fill a trailer with stuff and have to set it all up, usually after sunset, and then dismantle it, sometimes in the rain. We also had occasions of saving our kids lives on trips, so in that way I can relate to W W.
One year we went 4 weeks after my 5th born was born. It was still the same program, except the added bonus of the stuff that follows pregnancy. I do have good memories, but I do remember wondering how I would survive it, and how in the world did women in the wagon trains make it. You so often want a vacation from your vacation. While everyone else is doing the hikes I would love to do, I would be preparing the next meal. I would have done it again if it was presented to me today in the same context, but I do think that “Wonder Woman” didn’t have a clue! Now that I am older and only have three kids at home, things have changed a bit. I am actually getting more in shape, and am having spouses and grand children to add to the group. My fourth child and only living son was married at Evergreen Gardens yesterday. It was a happy day and was the high point following days of the ones you feel like you can’t make it through and you pray for all that you need to do it and then you figure out how to access it. When you do that you become stronger, mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. There were times of feeling sorry for myself in my life, but they have given way to being thankful for all I have learned and have gained and all the experiences that my family has been able to have.
Pushing your limits is good for you if you are careful. It strengthens you. Being honest and asking for help is important to do. Knowing you won’t always get it is important to accept. Having a mess just sit there is also something you have to come to a point of doing just to stay sane and have a break. I like this site. It affirms kids instead of getting down on them. It has helped my kids see their need to participate more willingly. It has helped my sisters kids too. They are actually gaining a semblance of order in their home.
Thanks for putting up this site.
GCM
Comment by gcm — August 4, 2008 @ 2:35 pm
We took our twins camping (10 days) in a pop-up trailer, a couple summers ago. It was a working trip for my husband and during the stay, he even had to travel across the country and back.
Till last weekend. Thurs, between 4:30-5pm (I was driving the kids to tae kwon do), when they decided they wanted to go camping…”this weekend”. So, after class, we drove home and they asked Daddy, over supper (aprox 6:30pm) if we could go camping. By the time they went to bed (8pm), we had reservations for a campsite right across from the bathhouse (w/laundry), Fri and Sat at a local campground. We had picked up an 8-person tent last fall, for $15 from a thrift store. It looked to be never used.
My husband packed big stuff Thurs night, the kids and I finished packing, bought a few things, and went to set up camp-Friday. My husband joined up, helped finish the tent (sure enough, it had never been put up) we cooked, ate hot dogs over the fire for supper with s’mores for desert and went to bed. It rained from before 6am till about 10am and the kids had “cabin fever” already. We finially sent them out in the rain. haha
The really cool thing was that at 11am, the park/campgrounds was having a thing for the kids, at the pond. The conservationalist (sp?) gave the kids nets and they waded into the pond to see what pondlife they could catch and observe. He told them about it and the released.
Thankfully, it didn’t rain Sunday morning so take-down of the tent was fast, easy and pleasant.
Even with only 2 kids, our family does not take many vacations but spur-of-the-moment camping trip was relatively more pleasant than most of our “sleep aways”. Less planning=less time to argue about plans=less disappointment=less stress. Whatever happened (pond, playground, waterpark, rain), we just went with it!
Comment by Gina... — August 6, 2008 @ 9:16 am