Tagged: Father

Is traveling with a young family even a little bit relaxing? Just a little?

You have kids, you know what I am talking about.

After you spend, way too much time packing… and trying to find the perfect blend of the comforts of home, while not bringing your house with you on vacation… you get in the car, or plane or in our case a combination of driving and ferry riding and convince your children that what you are doing is adventurous and exciting and for their benefit as much as yours….

But then… your active 2 year old, misses her nap and screams like her car seat is on fire. You arrive late in the evening and your 3 month old is off his schedule and he screams like he is on fire. Then you all get to sleep… late… and because so many hotels, resorts etc, have not figured it out to make things dark in the rooms, you all wake up early and suddenly is 11:05am day 1 and you are exhausted…

So is it worth it?

Yes. I believe it is.

For starters, you are instilling the gift of travel in your children… you are teaching them that schedules and routines are comforting and relaxing, but it is great and rewarding to diverge from them… and without diverging from them, you might not experiencing the joy of surfing, snowboarding or things you have come to love. There is a reason I only find time to write when I am away from my home and things that I am “busy” doing when my children sleep – like cleaning the house and doing the laundry.  There is a reason my yoga practice advances while I am on holiday (last night, out of the blue, I pulled into Sirsasana II in my Vinyasa Flow class without ever having done it before*) The reason is traveling leaves you feeling inspired.

You are reminding your children and importantly yourself that you are not a slave to your schedule. Children, like adults can make up sleep at different times. As missing a few hours here and there of sleep is worth it for what you might experience while you are awake.

*that I can remember…

And always when you least expect it, moments like this happen:

IMG_9268

And this:

IMG_9250And this: IMG_9288

And suddenly you are filled with inspiration and a zest for life, you care less about sleeping and more about living.

Tofino x 4

Tofino means a lot of things to our family. It’s our go-to vacation spot. My spiritual hub. Majka’s “beach”.  The place we go as a family and everyone has fun. Also and very importantly, it is the place where my Australian husband can get his much needed surfing fix while we are living in Canada. Its part of the deal – while we live in Canada we go to Tofino often.

We had perfected this holiday as a trio: me, Marty and Majka. But that’s parenting. Once you get one thing figured out – you need to be working on the next challenge.

The Tofino Trio

For us that next challenge comes in the shape of a little baby boy. Our jumpsuit wearing – Taj – now 6 weeks old has made our trio a traveling four.

The Taj.

To summarize the highs of our recent trip as a four:

– Taj slept the three hour journey from the ferry to the Cox Bay Resort.

– I surfed 3 times. I felt like a liberated woman!

– We were complimented while eating at the Shelter on how well behaved our children were. THAT HAS NEVER HAPPENED.

To summarize the lows:

– Majka bit Taj

– We can confirm Majka is “high spirited” otherwise known as “crazy”

– We all shared a room and I was so worried Taj would wake up Majka (which he didn’t) I slept with one ear open to monitor the noise.

Lessons learnt:

– Stay in a place with built in laundry facilities. Babies poo a lot.

– Stay in a place that allows you to pass off surfing – as close to the surf spot as possible

– Just go to sleep – deal with the catastrophe when it happens.

Overall – major – major success.

And then there were four.