A friend of mine sent me this article from the Huffington Post with a helpful Parents’ Guide to tell if your vacation is actually a “trip”
They define a vacation as “time away from a job and/or the monotony and frustrations of day-to-day life, with the goal of relaxing and having fun”. But a trip is….”simply a journey to a place”
The entire article is hilarious and spoke to me, especially after we just got back from Branson, Missouri for a week-long family reunion as well as visiting my parents in Cleveland over the 4th of July holiday.
(SEE ALSO: Top 5 things to do in Branson, Missouri for familiies)
7 ways to tell if your vacation is actually… a “trip”
Here were a few of my favorite ways mentioned in the article
- If you have packed one or more “throw-up bags,” clearly, it’s a trip
- If the children have fought about where they are sitting, it’s definitely a trip
- If you realize you forgot your sunglasses three hours into the drive because you left in darkness at 4 a.m. to beat the traffic and the sun is just coming up… yikes, that’s a trip
- If your final destination has a kitchen, you are not on vacation. You are on a trip
- If you are the Default Parent and/or the Stay-at-Home Parent, you aren’t even on a trip. You are on a work trip, and, in a perfect world, the entire “journey to a place” would be a damn tax write-off. The only known and quantifiable “break” you are getting from life is that for about a week you will not have to open and sort the mail. Other than that, it’s business as usual.
- If you, at any time during your stay, have to load or unload a dishwasher, that is a Groundhog-Day-style trip.
- If your kids go to bed at 8 p.m. and you have to be quiet and locked in the room with them, well, that’s a classic trip, my friend.
There are way more than that – it’s a hilarious article, and I have literally done almost all of these. Forgetting sunglasses (check – like every time). Having to share a room with kids – check, loading dishwasher (and doing laundry!) – check, and throw-up bags (check – we’re so good we don’t even stop the car)
It reminded me too of my favorite Onion article – Mom Spends Beach Vacation Assuming All Household Duties In Closer Proximity To Ocean
Continue reading the rest of the article over at the Huffington Post – well worth it.
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at
I still feel the same way even though my 5 kids are grown and gone. Thus, no AirB&B or VRBO for this girl. I am happy to tip well for housekeeping at a hotel. Someone to prepare my meals and straighten up after my husband (besides me)….. Yippee! That’s vacation.
Airlines so thoughtfully supply vomit bags, too! I don’t even think about packing them anymore. I just pull mine out a little so Hubby can reach it if his gets too full. (I feel bad that turbulence can make him sick. I do pack mints and gum for him.)
I guess only my honeymoon was a vacation. That’s okay. The trips with the kids have provided a lot of wonderful memories for everyone. I am a bit of a cheapskate (some say more than a bit) so not sure I’d really enjoy a “vacation” all that much anyway. Plus, I enjoy camping a good deal so that shoots the idea of a vacation out of the water right away.