time v. money, the rematch

The best part of being a stay-at-home mom, I've always said, has been the liberal vacation policy. Provided the kids come along for the ride, of course. My crowning parental achievement will probably be my undoing, but it's the 4 wk. road trip each summer - the east coast tour. The kids have become incredibly good travelers - flexible, open to adventure, abstaining from kicking the seat, and being lulled by way too many on-board videos. Solo parenting is actually easier with the frequent change of scenery - we never stay anywhere for more than two days if it's not equipped with grandparents or Most Favored Aunts. Honestly - without the road trip, we wouldn't see anyone, but this way we see everyone - although not for long. Three airfares, rental car and meals - not to mention hotels - is brutal. And then you're limited to the city you fly into, instead of the lower 48 and our beloved Canada. So taking 3 days to drive to New York starts to look pretty good. Especially if we visit friends and family, and do fun side trips en route. And if a child is having a massive temper tantrum, it's possible to pull the car over and give mommy a time out from the purely hypothetical misbehaving troll. (If you're in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, within 5 minutes at least 3 helpful elderly men in plaid will stop and kindly offer assistance.) This is unlike the Friendly Skies, which quickly turn hostile unless you offer to buy drinks for surrounding rows lucky enough to be seated nearby your sleep-starved children channeling Satan as you sit on the tarmac for 4 hours. I can barely get through security without tears or a Xanax. 3600 miles in a Toyota starts looking pretty good...

For the record, I love our car. But lately I am covetous. Luckily the car I want doesn't yet exist, so the longing remains purely theoretical. I want a non-mini van with mini-van amenities (add'l seats option), hybrid, and preferably metallic orange. I really can't explain.

Anyhoo, even with the occasionally high gas prices, and way too many pre-packaged shut-up snacks and animated musicals, the road trip is the reasonable alternative. Or at least it was. Turns out that this year both time and money aren't incredibly abundant... or so it seems.

We sat down with the summer calendar last nite and looked at options. We have a few things already booked - church camp, kindergarten boot camp for X. As it would be nice for our family vacation to actually include all 4 family members, we're needing to work around ... work. Bob is a lot more essential lately (yay, job security! boo, stress.), and the idea of being gone 2 wks. and attempting to catch up is distinctly unappealing. We're looking at long weekends, at best. And although it may be traditional for psychoanalysts to take the month of August off, my fledgling private practice doesn't really qualify. Neuroses don't take a holiday. At least mine don't.

The envelope please..... Wisconsin, here we come. Camping, water parks, mini golf, the works. We may even take a boat trip touring the Apostle Islands. It's all good - the strategic, tactical staycation. Driving less than 500 miles per day will be disorienting but good for the environment.

It's a bummer though - basically knowing we're not going to spend quality time with friends and family, unless they come here. And the kids talk about roadtrips as a summertime given. But we'll be open to options of abundance, even in the old backyard. Although the weeds tend to outnumber the berries, at least on our block.

On the bright side, I haven't been around for the peonies to flower for 3 years. I've almost forgotten the smell, somewhere between home-perms and sweat socks. And we're keeping perspective here: we have a home and jobs to leave behind. It's not like this is a hardship, it's just slightly scaled-back vacation. Sheesh. We have good fortune in abundance.

Objects in mirror are larger than they appear.