To the travel makers,
I see you.
I know how many hours you spend poring over booking sites, travel blogs, and Facebook groups with the aim being to plan the perfect family getaway.
I know how you balance the budgets, how you scrimp and save here and there in the everyday so you can make amazing travel memories with your kids.
I know how hard it is to get family accommodation right. How difficult it is to weigh up the options. Self contained apartment accommodation with space to spread out versus a resort room with all five of you crammed in but a few blissful kids club hours each day.
I know of the checklist you keep in your head leading up to a trip. How you tick off each item on that checklist with a sense of satisfaction as the date of your departure draws near.
Child two needs a new passport. Check.
Travel vaccinations. Check.
Travel insurance. Check.
Long haul flight entertainment options for the kids purchased. Check.
Transfers booked. Check.
Child one has grown out of their sandals before a trip to the tropics. New sandals required. Check.
I know how you feel when something goes wrong. How devastated you are when a hard planned, long anticipated trip is ruined by viral gastroenteritis that rolls through you family, felling one by one and claiming your precious travel days.
I know how it hurts when your other half – the non travel maker complains, about the quality of the accommodation, or the length of the flight.
I know how you want to throttle the non-travel maker when you have been packing for multiple children and yourself all week and now, at midnight the night before an early flight they are just throwing a few things in the bag.
I know how happy, no joyous you are when it all goes right.
I know how delighted you are when your children still talk about those fabulous trips years later with smiles on their faces.
I know what hard work travel making is. I know it is worth it.
Travel maker, I see you.
Yes to all of this! Such a long list of to dos just to go on a vacation with the kids…but it’s so worth it! Show them the world.
What a fun post! This pretty much sums up my life!
This is so lovely! I feel this exact thing. It’s a lot of work, but it’s always worth it.
You’re right, it’s definitely all worth it!!
So important to acknowledge the “invisible labor” and mental load (not to mention the physical pieces) that make these precious world memories possible!
Yes, this all sounds very familiar! And totally worth it in the end.
Lots of details to make it all come together, but OH SO worth it!