I don’t know whether to chalk this up to me being a good, attentive parent or my kids learning how to deal with me and how to train me to meet their needs and interests, but we’re on vacation in California for a late spring break and it’s going remarkably well, sufficiently well that my 17yo turned around this evening (our first full day) and surprised me by saying that “this is totally fun so far!”
To be fair, I’ve done a lot of legwork lining things up so we have things to do, including Seaworld, the San Diego Zoo, WonderCon, a pirate-themed dinner theater in Anaheim, and various cool lodging options, starting with a week at a very nice condo in Dana Point through the vacation rent by owner VRBO site. Then a few days at the beautiful Kona Kai resort in San Diego before we return to the usual weird spring weather in Colorado with my Alaskan sister in tow.
Making it more fun, the fine people at Ford Motor Company have loaned us a beautiful 2014 Ford Escape, fully tricked out, and we’ve been really enjoying it. In fact, today with only some trepidation, I let it auto-parallel-park. Amazing. Video to come. 🙂
But what I’m really appreciative of is encapsulated in my daughter’s comment. It’s darn tricky to take a holiday with children because they rarely want to just lay in a hammock and read a book, and when you have three different developmental stages (17, 14, 10) their interests are rarely all aligned.
My kids, however, are all happy as clams on a beach, whether it’s 85F and with warm Hawaiian water or a cooler mid-60s with semi-frigid spring California water. Either way, beach = good, which works for me because I am quite happy to collapse on the sand and soak up all those lovely negative ions. Or positive ions. Or something like that.
Tomorrow we’re aiming for a bike ride in the morning – maybe Newport Beach, maybe the Great Park in Irvine – and back to our unit for some swimming in the pool here, followed by dinner with Dad possibly at his place or out. Or perhaps a pizza and salad we can just show up and share. Something. The goal: easy. Fun. Relaxing.
And so far, so good.
I think you can take credit for being an attentive parent, but also take credit for raising your kids to be thankful for mums vacation ideas. I know of some kids who would have an anaphylactic reaction if they were ever to thank their parents… actually l know some kids who would have an anaphylactic reaction by the mere thought of spending time with the parents. You have done a great job of raising your children and l am happy to read your article as it reaffirms that there are still teenagers out there who love spending time with the parents.
Thanks, but I’m not sure how “mum’s vacation ideas” factors into this. 🙂