It’s the night before our family vacation and the stress is starting to set in. I’m not entirely sure why. We’ve gone on a number of big vacations with the family and they always turn out fine.
This one feels different though. I’m not sure if it is the driving distance, it’s not much further than we’ve gone before. It might be the destination. We’re planing on several day trips around where we are staying and one of them is to go into New York City for the day. I’ve been there once myself but this time we’re going with the whole family. This includes my sister and her three little kids. Maybe it’s because I just don’t feel prepared enough.
Usually we spend a great deal of time planning out almost ever part of our trip months in advance. Due to certain circumstances we had to change up our plans and shorten the trip a little. This means that things were done more hastily than I’m used to. I used to love having no set plans and just going, but thanks to my wife I learned that things with kids go a lot smoother when there are some plans laid out. I think I’ve come to need that planning.
This is not to say that we don’t have plans. Things are still well planned, and I think they are even better planned in my wife’s head than they are in mine, so that does give me some comfort.
I know once we arrive we’re all going to have a great time so I just need to relax now and start enjoying. I’m going to get to spend lots of time with my family. We’ll be making lots of special memories and seeing lots of exciting things.
Just writing these feelings out, and reasoning them through, is already starting to make me feel better. So I’m off to finish packing and hopefully make sure we don’t forget anything important.
Sandy McFadden 