Travel without kids, a key to parent sanity.

Leave the kids at home, you say? That’s just unheard of! Trust me, Travel without kids, will be glad you did.

Don’t get me wrong; we travel with our children most of the time. But, at least once a year, my husband and I will take a trip sans kids.

But, I want my kids to get the experiences too!

By the time I made it to my thirties, I was what most would consider “well-traveled,” and a good portion of my travel had taken place during my childhood. I feel very fortunate to have been able to have gotten these experiences, and they have shaped me into the person I am today. So, of course, I want that for my kids.

But….that doesn’t mean they have to go on EVERY trip. We try to make two trips a year, one with kids and one without.

What makes travel without kids so different?

Let me paint you a picture.

Packing for one (maybe two depending on how much you trust your spouse)…OR spending at least an afternoon, ensuring that five different people all have swimsuits and underwear. Packing additional changes of clothes for the kids you know will stain or get wet the clothes they are wearing or in some other way, need to change more than once a day.

You only need to focus on what you need. This is a tough concept for most mothers. It’s nice to have a break and not have to worry about if you have the comfort item that your child can’t sleep without. Or if you have enough snacks and activities packed to keep your children occupied in the car or on the plane. And if you have older children, its a very nice change to not care how many chargers you have packed for electronic devices (ok, but do make sure you pack a phone charger, as lovely as it is to get away your mama heart will need to have access to the phone just in case they need anything…which they won’t)

Travel without kids, getting there.

I like arts and crafts, so I will continue to paint this picture for you.

Get out of my airspace!

Do you prefer to drive or fly? It doesn’t matter… either one is better without kids! No screaming or fighting, no “I need to pee NOW”, no running through airports dragging tiny people in tote.

Oh, and imagine being able to sit at the airport bar, like a real adult, and enjoy a drink before your flight? Then picture yourself casually walking to your gate, but without a sparkly pink Jo Jo Siwa backpack that is just entirely too heavy for the original owner to walk any further with.

You must be tripping, a fun road trip?

Are we there yet? I have to pee! I’m hungry!. He/She is touching me…all things that make traveling with kids oh so fun. That is if your definition of fun includes being stuck in an enclosed area with no escape, surrounded by people complaining about bodily functions, comfort, and personal space.

When you travel without kids, you get to pick your music with no complaint. That means no one is calling you old or requesting ridiculousness like “what does the fox say” (again, I suppose this depends on your spouse…). You can stop when and where you want, no more looking for exits that have a gas station and a happy meal. If it tickles your fancy, you can stop at the sketchiest bar you see…because why not?? It’s not like you can do that with a kid.

The best part of air or road travel without kids? You can sleep…like uninterrupted sleep in the car or plane. That alone should have you sold.

The final destination

(Final destination was a somewhat scary movie…ironically somewhat scary can also be used to describe the stress level you get traveling with kids.)

Where you go doesn’t matter. Like I said earlier, we try to travel once a year with kids and once without. If you take this tactic on, your budget will play into your destinations. But at the end of the day, you are getting time alone or time alone with your spouse.

My husband and I have done everything from Hawaii and a Caribbean cruise to Little Rock and local state parks. Obviously, the bigger destination trips had a lot of excitement and appeal. Still, even the trip to Arkansas (where we ran the little rock Marathon/Half Marathon together) was spent laughing and making memories.

OMG, I remember you!

Do you remember that dude who swept you off your feet when you started dating? Or what about the flirty and sexy women you were back then? Do you remember her??

Travel without kids allows you to revisit those people, reconnect with them. So often in life, we get so busy with working and parenting, our relationships get put on the back burner.

Ships passing in the night

Vacationing as a couple allows you to get dressed up, without baby spit or Cheetos fingerprints (ok, the Cheetos may be a thing still. I have no kids to share with, I am going to eat the damn Cheetos). You actually have the time to get yourself dolled up… you can focus on just you and not have to find someone’s lost shoe (I still don’t understand how they can misplace a shoe…and only one of them??) or brush anyone else’s hair or fight people to brush their teeth.

What you do from there is on you! Instead of picking a restaurant because they serve chicken fingers, you can pick it because they serve alcohol! Go to a club and hit the dance floor…do the things you cant do with kids. BE a kid again!

Bow-chick-a-wow-wow

Speaking of things you can’t do with kids…. this is the perfect time for that other kind of dancing. A bit of the old in-out, in-out. Aggressive cuddling. Baking the potato. Putting the banana in a fruit salad. Making your way downtown. Doin’ the monster mash. A little hanky panky.

You get the point… I hope.

Talk the Talk

And you can talk…oh my, this is one of my favorite parts! When was the last time you had an uninterrupted conversation?? My husband and I have the most amazing conversations, anything from solving the world’s problems to debating what noise a giraffe makes. But getting these conversations in without interruption is next to impossible. We get the time to speak to each other when we vacation.

Run away, as fast as you can…

Admittedly, a good portion of our travel without kids has been focused around races. I sometimes wonder if that’s not the real reason we run…we are running away from our kids ( can’t think of any other good reason to run).

We have been to Disney World a few times without kids to participate in their Marathon Weekend. Do you know what we discovered? We actually like Disney more without kids! I know that sounds bad, but it is a place where we can let go of everything and just be kids together….Kids who drink around the world at Epcot.

I highly recommend Disney for an adult-only trip. You can use Fairy Godmother Travel and let them take care of everything for you! https://www.facebook.com/FairyGodmotherSabrina or https://www.facebook.com/FairyGodmotherBailey

Let it go, let it goo….

We also went to Hawaii for a race that my husband was running. I want to take my kids to the Islands…one day. But being able to go as adults was amazing. We didn’t really have a schedule, which isn’t something I think we could do with the kids. We were able to get out paddleboards in the middle of the ocean and just take it in. Taking it in isn’t something that Mom’s can usually do in this environment… “where are the kids, do they have on sunscreen, where are their lifejackets, put the chicken down”

It doesn’t really matter what your reason is. You can schedule your vacation around a business trip. You are still getting away, and having fun.

Who is ready to travel without kids??

Before you had kids, you fell in love with your spouse. You went on dates and enjoyed spending time together.

Having kids is great. I joke a lot, but I wouldn’t trade any of them for the world (not even the little one who has asked if he can push a button no less than 239 times now). I also REALLY love to travel with them; it’s so satisfying to see them enjoy those experiences.

But if all you focus on is the kids and their experiences, you will lose touch with your spouse. I know this sounds selfish; you brought the kids into the world and will always put them first… but think about it. Your kids deserve to see you happy. They need to see what a real relationship looks like… Not just two parents who co-exist around them.

Do yourself and your family a favor…Travel without kids.

For a fun story about some of my travel without kids, check out this post! https://bigdreamsandmomjeans.com/running-disney-lessons-learned-during-marathon-weekend/