Is it really vacation if you bring your kids?

Apologies for the several-day hiatus from the blog, but I have only been doing this for a few months now and I was not sure how to get ready to really keep up a solid momentum of posts while away on vacation. However, sitting here pondering a few things - mostly revolving around my children - I really realized something. These week-long vacations are not much fun with really young kids around.

Don't get me wrong - I love my kids. But it is hard enough to get them to go to sleep at a reasonable time at home, let alone in a house with 20 other people. They want to stay up later, they try to get away with things more, they push boundaries - how kids do. It's just way more frustrating when all you want to do is go sit on the beach with a good book and relax and you have to worry about the 1-year old's diaper status and the 6-year old running off into the street because he sees his big cousins doing it and thinks he should be able to do it too. Dinners are cooked by committee and it is not always easy to find things that picky eaters will eat, so meal times can be rough. Then there is the general over-tired feeling that comes from being near the beach and playing in the sun, and we all know how fantastically well-behaved kids are when they are over-tired.


We are not going to stop coming on this trip - it is a family tradition and we would miss it terribly if we would not come, as we have some years. I would miss seeing my nieces, nephews, brother, sister, cousins, aunts, uncles, and other family members for this week-long family reunion. Our family would miss the beach, as this is about the only time we get to spend down the shore in a summer. It takes some getting used to - this whole vacation with kids thing. By the end of this week I think I will have it just about figured out - which means that next year it will be completely different all over again.

I guess that's the beach for you - the only constant is the water and change. Tides ebb and flow, sand washes in and is washed out my storms, grasses grow and dunes enlarge, and always and constant is the pounding surf. Somehow it is like having children. Children will always be there - their moods will ebb and flow, they will eat and grow larger and more capable and more independent. I guess the point I am trying to make is that no matter how hot or bothersome the sand is, no matter how many times the seagull swoops down and steals your granola bar, and no matter how many times you thought you reapplied sunscreen but still ended up burned anyway you should be thankful you have the opportunity to be at the beach.  Just as I should be thankful for the opportunity to have children. Having them a the beach and getting off of their routines and schedules is not the greatest, but watching my son play in the surf and his brother building and demolishing and then rebuilding and then re-demolishing sand castles with his older cousin is the point of it all. So I think the answer is yes - it is a vacation if you bring your kids - because bringing your kids is the point of the vacation. It's just up to the grown-ups to try and remember that from our own childhoods.