One of my favorite movies is "Red". Not a movie for kids, and I admit I like it with somewhat guilty pleasure. There is some language, not much in the way of unhealthy romance, and a lot of (rather funny) violence.
Anyhoo, there is one scene at the beginning of the movie when the female lead says, with a deep sigh, "I just want to travel. I'm thinking about Chili."
So that's normal, right? Most people like to travel. Most people like to go to exciting places and see new things. That's natural.
So I like new places and people and things, BUT I have to admit that travel is VERY hard for me.
I thought it would be helpful to share what I'm like, because maybe one of my readers has an odd kid like me...
So I think it comes down, mostly, to control. I like to plan ahead, I like to know where everything is, I like to know what is going to happen, I want to know where the bathroom is!
I also loathe packing. I like to get things done well in advance, but some packing needs to wait 'til just before we leave. So in my spirit I'm constantly wondering if I'm going to forget something vitally important :-).
Travel is also inherently full of uncertainties. And no place to lay my head is quite like my house. Now sometimes that is a fine thing. A little change is good. But when I'm somewhere away from home, I'm in a mild state of stress the whole time because my stuff is in the wrong place. I'm constantly finding that some key item is in the WRONG place :-).
So when I visited my parents this weekend we had a great fun, but I was also stressed off and on. Because I needed my baby's diaper, and it was in the wrong room, or my big girls' needed something and it was in the room where the baby was sleeping.
I doubt most people can really relate to how I feel, because normal people seem to love traveling. My parents and my brothers are globe trotters. My parents went off to work for the Peace Corps back in the late 1960's and my dad's memoirs are amazing. They'd go somewhere and catch a truck in some random town that was going vaguely in the direction they wanted to go. They would drive for awhile and hope that there would be food and water to buy somewhere. They'd end up (occasionally) in a small village in the middle of nowhere at night and would stay up all night. Ok, readers, I am NOT THAT FLEXIBLE!!!
So traveling is hard. I like it, it broadens my horizons, but it is very hard on my level of peace. So if you have a kid who seems stressed while traveling, maybe she is!
2 comments:
did you see RED 2? I loved the first one too but was disappointed in the second.
Being gluten free, I need to know there will be food available for me, but other than that, I am fairly flexible.
My kids have their own knapsack and suitcase when we travel, so they have all their stuff available when they need it.
Hang in there; travelling with little ones is a stressful thing precisely because you need to be organized and in control. Eventually you'll only need to watch your own suitcase and the food supplies, and you'll be camping up a storm! :)
That being said, perhaps you're like my husband. He dislikes travelling, but I think it's because he'd rather relax than be on the go, and because he needs to travel for work.
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