Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

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

  1. If you have packed one or more “throw-up bags,” clearly, it’s a trip
  2. If the children have fought about where they are sitting, it’s definitely a trip
  3. 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
  4. If your final destination has a kitchen, you are not on vacation. You are on a trip
  5. 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.
  6. If you, at any time during your stay, have to load or unload a dishwasher, that is a Groundhog-Day-style trip.
  7. 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)

Aaaaand we've had our first in car vomit. Thank goodness for packing like 20 plastic grocery bags! #tdads #tdaddisney

A photo posted by Points With a Crew (@pointswithacrew) on

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.


This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them

User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.

BoardingArea