When's My Vacation?

My better half is on vacation this week. We're doing the thing that all the cool, hip media outlets are referring to this year as a "Staycation." That phrase is only one reason why I don't watch local news broacasts anymore (their use of moronic, made-up words, and their insane focus on the weather), and it makes me want to bitch slap someone, but...it's what we're doing.

We're lucky to live in an amazing part of the country, and there are tons of great things to do. I'm finally accepting, however, what it means to try and enjoy time off work when small children are around. First, stay-at-home-moms don't have vacation time. The little people still get up at 6AM, they still demand food almost constantly, they still shit in their pants, they still need to be read to and talked to and stopped from killing themselves with sharp objects.

So, while the husband vacations, parenting still goes on. Here's what we've done so far: I took the kids to the library and Target while Mat worked on his computer set-up. We went to the coast and "enjoyed" the beach (that's a very loose use of the word, because mostly we kept the kids from running directly into the waves and being swept out to sea, then dumping baby powder on them to get the sand out of their creases). We checked out an outlet mall and picked up some new fall clothes for A&L, who have somehow outgrown everything we've ever bought for them before. We'll still be catching a matinee and going to opening day of our local county fair before the week is done.

Yeah, the days of long, lazy, sleeping-in vacations are done. No more booze-filled outings, hot and steamy meetings in the bedroom at 2PM, and Halloween movie marathons. No more running off to Vegas for a quick overnight trip because we feel like it.

There's no extra money, no extra time, no real recuperative sleep, yet...it's still amazing to see those little faces when they catch their first glimpse of the ocean. When they see a waterfall for the first time. When they get a little bite of chocolate at a fancy shop in a new town we've never been to. Is there anything sweeter than seeing them snoozing away in their carseats after a long day of adventures? I don't think there is.