A good friend once told me,
When you go away with kids, it’s not a vacation. It’s a trip.
And boy are those words true!
Sometimes, when life gets overly crazy-making, I like to flee for a bit. We head up north, to my parents’ little condo in the mountains, and we do a whole lot of nothing.
We spend as much time as we possibly can outdoors.
We read stacks of fantastic books.
We watch movies, snuggled on the couch together.
We simplify. We leave plenty of space between. We focus on the things that are important and, by doing so, we recharge.
(Speaking of which, have you read this book? You need to!)
I’m in the midst of one of those getaways right now. Life has been feeling too hectic of late. One of the many homeschooling perks is the ability to take off on a whim… especially when you are feeling an overwhelming urge to decompress. So, one morning, the kids and I woke up, made a vacation bucket list, and headed north.
I love getting away from everything and spending quality time with my children.
But, the thing is: my kids don’t sleep well while we are away.
Today, I’d like to talk about that frustrating thing called Vacation Sleep.
Vacation Sleep… Or Lack Thereof
There is a part of me feels guilty complaining about this because they used to not sleep – at all– on vacations trips.
Nowadays, they try to stay quiet until a [mostly] reasonable hour. They take great pains not to wake me, although one of my children is the world’s loudest child and so that is basically impossible.
Still, even though they are quiet-ish, they are not sleeping well.
And eventually, despite the simplification of all the things, all of that cruddy sleep catches up with them.
This, of course, contributes to the much-dreaded and inescapable Hangover From Fun, which I’ve written about before. Sometimes, when sleep is cruddy and the trip is long, the dreaded Hangover starts prematurely.
And that’s what has happened over here this week.
So when you see all the happy photos from our getaway, like this one:
We are #BostonStrong today! #CarterTough Gooooo runners! We are cheering for you from up here! ????
A photo posted by MyLittlePoppies (@my_little_poppies) on
And this one:
And this one:
A photo posted by MyLittlePoppies (@my_little_poppies) on
Please know that there were lots of other moments in between. Ugly moments like this one:
In the interest of keeping it real, we had plenty of moments like the one you see above.
TONS.
Just in the last 24-hours, we have had:
- A kid walk into a car door face-first.
- Fighting over whose fingernails are the dirtiest. (I cannot make this stuff up.)
- A bloody lip from falling off a slide.
- Bickering over whose juice cup is the fanciest. (Zero fancy cups here!)
- Three bloody noses, all from the same nose.
- Inconsolable crying because he doesn’t remember what he was crying about. (I kid you not.)
- Crying because he doesn’t want to go home… in five days.
I could go on and on and on.
Do you know how I cope when The Hangover From Fun shows up early? I document it on camera and send photos to my husband with comical captions.
I also reinstate a quiet time. I am, at this very moment, reporting to you live from the midst of an epic Hangover From Fun-induced quiet time.
A glass of wine at the end of the day helps, too.
It can help to focus on the positive moments. When the meltdowns start to wear on you, focus on the laughter.
Just yesterday, a little boy approached us, holding our Yodeling Pickle aloft. (Yes, our Yodeling Pickle. Stay tuned for a post on that.)
We immediately recognized the pickle as our own, and we could hear its unmistakable yodel increase in volume as the boy approached. This made the entire situation funnier.
Is this your pickle? You left it outside last night and I saved it for you.
We held it together long enough to thank the little boy and then we could not contain our laughter any longer. We doubled over in hysterics and my 8-year-old, with tears on his cheeks, cried, “He must think we’re so weird!”
Reunited with the world’s goofiest pickle.
We will remember that pickle conversation forever, folks. It was a memorable moment. (And I would bet the farm that the family who cared for our pickle overnight will not forget it either!)
There were also lots of funny texts from my husband, like this one here:
Also, my oldest sent a ransom postcard to my husband in which he stated we would only return home if we were returning home to sushi.
When he read what he had written, I burst out laughing. That was another gem of a moment on this latest trip.
So when you find yourself on a trip with children who aren’t sleeping well and who seem to be melting down every few minutes, remember this: even though Vacation Sleep is lousy and The Hangover From Fun is at times unbearable, this time spent away together is worth it. There is beauty in the chaos. There is joy and there is laughter and you are making memories that will laugh a lifetime… even if you’re going to need to go to bed super-early for the next two weeks to make up for it!
Now, it’s your turn. Tell me: Do your children sleep on vacations? Does The Hangover From Fun visit your home? Share here.
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