That family holiday is worth the work

We’ve just got back from a 4 day stay at Sea World Resort (Australia). The amount of planning, effort and money required to do a holiday with a toddler and a baby is so immense I often wonder pre-holiday if going on a trip is even worth it. I’m a homebody at heart who has to psyche myself up to venture to the other side of town, let alone go on a full on family trip. There are so many reasons not to go, what with the thinking about packing, the actual packing, figuring out what food to take, the long car trip with a crying baby, and that’s before you’ve even arrived! Then there’s four people sharing one hotel room. The limited, junky and heinously expensive food options. Nap routines are disrupted and I run out of clean nursing bras. 

And yet, upon our return home when I feel simultaneously exhausted and refreshed, I realise it was all 100% worth it.

Novelty helps to make us happy. And after 2020, a year in which we basically didn’t leave our local area for months on end, I needed this trip more than I could have realised. Even though there is no reprieve from the mental load, even on holiday. It felt good to be solving different problems from the week-in-week-out parenting and household management. The mental image of my child’s face lit up with pure delight while watching the dolphin show is a wonderful memory that I will draw on for many months to come.

So I’m writing this now as a reminder to my future self. Plan that holiday. Put in the work. You won’t regret it for a second.