any other parents able to pull of taking a real vacation?

[Anonymous]

DH and I have been more or less going without a true vacation, and I mean a real break, like 1-2 weeks, since last March. He's taken plenty of time off, but it's been to mostly manage the kids while I work or, if he can, work on side projects at home. What's everyone else doing? I haven't been with my org for more than a few years, and overtime was eliminated when the pandemic started, so I don't have a lot of time off anyway. I've taken a day here and there to go to a salon, front load chores or do something "safe" with a friend, i.e. socially distanced hike. DH isn't interested in taking an actual trip, renting an AirBnB and we don't have a camper to tour around with. Even if we did, the kids are still too small to actually enjoy such a trip, anyway as car rides can still be a nightmare. We've done socially distanced day trips to our parents, but that's not a vacation. I've thought of taking time off when the kids have spring break, but I think it would be a waste of time because it wouldn't be like I could really go anywhere and relax. Any creative solutions? I can take time off a disappear for a day or two myself, i.e. go to a spa alone for a night or two with pandemic restrictions in place. That's about it.

[Anonymous]

I mean, you said DH doesn't want to go anywhere, so what are you looking for?

[Anonymous]

We have been on several road trips since the pandemic. We just move from our house to a beach or lake house. My kids have done some distance learning at the beach. It is easy to stay to ourselves.

[Anonymous]

Why not just rent a house for a few days? In the mountains or by the lake. Lake Anna is only 1.5 hours away.

[Anonymous]

I took a week off in the summer and a week off at winter break. I’m planning to take off a week for spring break soon.
We do driving distance and house rentals. It has helped me not get burnt out at work.

[Anonymous]

You could also do a staycation but really try not to load yourself down with chores & appointments and try to really do fun stuff.

[Anonymous]

We rented a cabin on a huge gorgeous property with a creek running through it. This was between Christmas and New Years. It was about 2.5 hours away, and the kids complained on the drive it was too far away. But once we got there: they LOST THEIR MINDS with excitement. We went to the beach last summer, but it had been over 4 months since we'd really left out house.

It wasn't really a vacation, because we had to plan all our meals (and still cook them!), brought everything we needed to avoid going to any stores etc. We did get pizza one night from a nearby place that delivered.

But the fresh space, new outside areas to explore, was all SO awesome for our family. We came back feeling really happy and refreshed. One morning all the puddles by the creek had frozen over night, so instead of mud it was ice. My 4 year old spent over and hour cracking the ice in his boots.

So, getting away can be really restorative even if it's not really a "vacation".

[Anonymous]

We rent an AirBnb one weekend per month. My kids are pretty young, 2.5 and 5, but they think it's amazing and get really excited about it. We go to new parks, get dessert with dinner, and play hide and seek in a new house. It's been my lifeline to sanity.

[Anonymous]

We prefer to wait until we're all vaccinated, and then we're going to splurge on a nice holiday to Japan, to visit relatives. Since it's a 20K trip each time, we only go every 5 years or so.

[Anonymous]

Nope. I haven't had any time off since my first was born three years ago because we have no family around, and our nanny can't work evenings or weekends. And we don't feel comfortable leaving our kids, 3 and 1, with someone they don't know. I would consider the trips and outings you mentioned as vacation.

[Anonymous]

I guess it depends on how you define “vacation.” The kids & I spent a good chunk of time visiting the grandparents in another state over the summer.
DH, kids & I went to the beach last summer as well (as Covid safely as possible). We’ve also done camping trips to nearby parks, which we all love.
But had to cancel our long planned, big trip that was set for spring break 2020, and I don’t see a time in the near future we can take a “real” trip involving flying, etc.

[Anonymous]

We haven’t taken a vacation vacation since long before last March. We did do a small camping trip this fall, and it was great. It was a 2 hour car ride and we got a huge tent that was big enough for 3 full beds. My kids were 2.5 and 10 months at the time. It was a great trip, we hiked he trials by the camp site, and let our son ride his bike around the campsite.
Camping wasn’t as stressful as I thought it would be, it wasn’t relaxing but it stressful.

[Anonymous]

We rented a beach house last summer and drove. We rented a ski cabin and drove. We also went to visit family in Hawaii (quarantine + covid test on both ends) I consider all of those to be vacation.

Most people we know did some version of vacation like this. A few famiiles went out west or to Florida for weeks or months because of telework and virtual school.

I would be annoyed if my DH would not get on board with some kind of change of scene. It can be done safely, even with little kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not just rent a house for a few days? In the mountains or by the lake. Lake Anna is only 1.5 hours away.

Just make sure you don't stay on the warm side...

[Anonymous]

My employer seems to think that no one has anything else better to do during the pandemic than monitor email when taking a “day off.” So our family went to out to the country where there is no WiFi/Internet/cell service. I highly recommend!