We all have stories. SagaByte is here for you to share yours. Create an account. Submit your stories using the submit button up top. Vote on stories by creating an account.
The normal family vacation, from my experiences growing up, consists of a week of planned out, over anxious objectives of fun that leads to tired and cranky kids, arguing spouses, and ends in a long trip home as the big finale. When my wife and I started a family, we both vowed to create our own version of vacation that would hopefully be full of actual fun for our children, and not a remembrance of typical disputes, on location. And for our first trip to Orlando, this was quite the challenge.
We first trekked our family to Florida after our third child entered the world. Since a family of five is a bit pricey to go anywhere, to everyone’s shock and disbelief, we drove straight through. This is when gas prices were cheaper than airfare, of course. Using the directions, we calculated our travel time to be somewhere in the ballpark of 23 hours, leaving New York and arriving at our timeshare resort around 3pm. The way my wife drives, we were shooting for 19 hours.
The ride down was surprisingly enjoyable. With a VCR in the back for the kids and plenty of CD’s for the parents, our GMC Safari van was packed with lots of food and drinks to keep everyone happy. Including the occasional gas stops and restroom breaks, we made it in a little over 18 hours. By this time, we were all exhausted, checked into the resort, and crashed for the night. Although tired, we knew there was a week of excitement coming our way.
I wouldn’t use excitement to describe our oldest daughter’s attitude, however. From day one at Magic Kingdom, she acted as though she was at a funeral. As a parent, forking over X amount of dollars to be in Disney World is stressful enough. Then to see that your kid isn’t even enjoying it really adds to the headache. What’s the point? Monday was frustrating for me. Tuesday, my wife started to notice, and we spent the rest of the week trying to get her more in the mood. Our daughter, who was eight at the time, would not break. Now my wife and I were arguing over it. We would make comments like “Hey, could you show a little ounce of a smile?” or “Do you know how many kids would love to be where you are right now?” The little girl that normally has diarrhea of the mouth did not say five words the entire week. Even though our other two kids had an amazing time, we felt like our family vacation was a bust. This made the ride home feel like forever, and we did not break any record times, arriving at our home nearly 23 hours later.
A few weeks later, my wife was picking up the house, and came across our daughter’s journal for school. Before returning it to her backpack, she thumbed through and came to one of her recent entries about her trip to Disney. To her shock, the entry went on about how the trip was great, she had an unbelievable time, and it was the best vacation of her short life. This from a girl who didn’t even crack a smile for pictures with Mickey and Friends, showed no signs of fun on any of the rides, and kept to herself the whole week. We were stunned, and actually went to her and asked if she was lying, which she denied. We shrugged, ranked up her attitude as emotion overload, and called it a day.
We have been to Disney World two more times since that first trip. We still make fun of our daughter for being so miserable that first trip. She still swears to this day that the first time down was the best vacation of her life. I guess we have to take her word for it.
Comments
|Comments|Who Voted|Related Links|