With Memorial Day quickly approaching, I've been scrambling to put a fun family vacation together for my little family of three - my husband, myself and our one-year-old daughter Alyssa. My problem is defining our new "fun". Before Alyssa came into our lives, vacation planning was easy: we'd rent a beach house with a bunch of friends, beach all day and bar all night. Obviously those days have come and gone. The bar is no place for a baby and neither is a house filled with single middle and upper twenty-somethings. While my husband and I are among the first of our friends to start a family, we're testing new grounds for family vacations and haven't quite found our vacation niche.
My sister tried to help. She found a cute cottage about an hour away near a faux beach, or river bed. There were historical sites, fishing, and new restaurants to explore. While I was thrilled of the idea, hubby thought it would be boring and he didnt like the idea of laying out on the faux beach, errrr...river. Okay, I thought, we would just stay in town and visit our neighborhood pool. But who wants to go to the over-crowded neighborhood pool on Memorial Day weekend? Not me.
It's too late to find an affordable house at a real beach, and not to mention, another family to join in with us. And what can you even do with a one-year-old anyway? It's not like she will remember this vacation. So maybe there isn't even a point to get away!
I'm enlisting the help and advice of other working moms who have vacationed with their young children and still found something that the whole family can enjoy. What do you do for family vacations?
When kids are in tow, which
When kids are in tow, which mine usually are, I always say same job, different location. If you are looking for a change of scene and baby sleeps well, choose a pretty place you can take walks with your little one during the day and share a bottle of wine with your hubby at night after baby is asleep. It's funny how the word vacation takes on a completely different meaning once you have children !
I have been dragging my now
I have been dragging my now 3-year old around with me all over the country since he was bout 4 months old. I am (not so quickly) learning that the children really do not want anything more than your quality time and probably even playing with their own toys. It is US, the adults, that think we need to have some sort of cool and/or glamorous plans to entertain our family. I say don't waste the money. Have a stay-cation and enjoy each other as a family where you don't have to be on the run. Plus packing up for a baby is cumbersome and it's amazing how much crap you transport!
My son turned one just before
My son turned one just before Labor Day and we had not had a Daddy-Mommy-Baby getaway that summer. So last-minute I called motels in a town in Cape Cod, MA family recommended. We booked a rather inexpensive one room for two nights. The weather was beautiful. Some of my favorite photo memories are the day on the beach and splashing in tide pools. Advice: make sure you have a cooler and something grown up to drink and snack on (wine, beer, something?) because we put the baby to bed and sat in little chairs outside the motel room door, having a drink and listening. It was worth the trek.