Traveling Without Children

I can, and will, at some point, write about all my tips, tricks, successes and disasters of traveling with children. We have done our fair share. Our oldest son first flew on an airplane at 3 months, and now, at 3 years, has flown more than the average adult. And lets not forget about the hours we have logged as a family in the car.

But, I digress.

This blog is not about traveling with our little ones. Instead, it is a celebration of the very first time I left my children in the capable hands of grandma, and vacationed with my husband.

I am a new woman.

The vacation itself was tropical, exciting, relaxing and romantic. The feeling of refreshment I had on my return is hard to describe. I have more patience, more appreciation and yes, more love (I didn't think that was possible) for my children.

My husband travels often with work and is old hat, so to speak, with leaving the little ones. Me, not so much. It took weeks of preparation in order for me to walk out the front door for a week and not look back.

My biggest concern was my 3 year old. I knew he would be asking grandma hundreds of times a day where mama was, and would most likely be sad. I wanted to give him a visual, some sort of a calendar that he could count down the days. What I ended up doing worked very well. I wrote 8 simple notes in envelopes, one for each 'sleep' we were away. Inside, I reminded him how many more sleeps until we were home, and asked him if he would like to find the Smarties. I gave him a hint, such as - they are hiding where you wash your hair - and had grandma hide a container with 5 Smarties each day. He was very excited, and now that we are home he is still asking for his daily letter.

I also wanted him to be able to hear my voice and see my face, though I would not be able to Skpe or call while we were away. Well, we certainly live in technological times, and I took advantage of that. I made 8 simple videos on our computer, and the boys opened one a day. Silly things, like me doing a somersault, and asking them if they could too. Or asking him his age. It didn't take much to make them happy to see my face.

And the one other gift I left for them was a video of me singing their nightly prayers. I teared up while singing it, but was so glad that I did. I was there with them in some way, as they were in my heart and mind our entire trip.

These little touches served as peace of mind for me, and left a piece of me for my children. A little bit of preparation went along way, as it always does. I am so very pleased that I had some alone time with the love of my life, and will count down the days until we can escape once again.

I do find it comical, though, how you can travel thousands of miles and go out for a romantic dinner with your husband, only to find yourself talking about your kids.