A New Year of Vacation Resolutions

Looking for New Year’s resolutions you might actually keep?

Think vacation. Instead of those dreary promises to eat less and exercise more, make some changes that will guarantee you and the kids more fun and bang for your 1999 vacation bucks. I don’t know about you, but most of my previous well-intentioned resolutions didn’t even last a week into the new year. Here’s a list I actually might be able to keep:

1. No more dragging the kids to historic sites and museums when they’d rather be swimming. It’s their vacation too, as they tell me at least six times a day when we’re away from home and doing something educational (read “boring”). One educational or cultural site a day is plenty. Maybe on some days we should just skip the must-see list altogether. So what’s wrong with a lazy morning watching TV in the hotel room? I just need to keep reminding myself that the museums and monuments will still be there for the next trip.

2. Let the kids lead the way sometimes--no matter how ridiculous their plans--and incorporate their ideas into our itinerary. Why not stop for half an hour at that alligator farm advertised on the highway billboards?

3. I won’t turn into a witch the night before a trip. I won’t leave all the packing until the last minute, and I won’t do it all myself either. I’m going to hand the kids a list of what they need to bring so they can lay out their own clothes before I throw them in the duffel. Even 7-year-old Melanie should be able to count out the right number of underwear items and jeans. And she’ll have no one to blame when her favorite purple shirt is left at home.

4. Bring on the egg rolls. I won’t let the kids talk me into a steady diet of fast food, no matter how much they whine or how convenient it may be. We’re going to local ethnic spots where kids are always welcome, no matter how noisy they are. We’re going to picnic more too. This year, I’m not going to leave home without peanut butter and jelly.

5. Schedule a massage. I’m going to make sure there’s time for me on vacation. Sure, I will still have to be tour guide, nurse, mediator and maid, but that doesn’t mean I can’t take a break. Maybe I could spend a morning at a local art museum, an afternoon with a mystery novel or a kidless dinner in a swanky restaurant with my husband. I just have to plan ahead so that everyone else is happily occupied and properly supervised.

6. Delegate the drudge work. I won’t do the dishes or cook dinner every night on vacation, even if we have a kitchen in a mountain condo or beach cottage. I don’t want to spend all week vacuuming or doing laundry either. I’ll check out the takeout menu for that little Thai place we saw when we were driving into town. Or even better, I’ll let Dad and the kids take over kitchen duty for an entire day. Or I could find out how much extra maid service would cost. I bet the local Laundromat has wash-and-fold service.

7. Be wild and crazy. So what if I look ridiculous singing karaoke or screaming my lungs out on an upside-down roller coaster? You’re guaranteed to create some lasting vacation memories for the kids.

8. Can the lock-step procession. Especially when we’re vacationing with the extended family, I’m going to let everyone go in different directions sometimes. We don’t have to move like a military company just because we’re spending a week together. With too much togetherness, everyone will be sniping at one another before the trip is 3 days old.

9. Splurge a little. Even if it means I have to cut short the trip to toe the budget, I’m going to book nicer, roomier places--the ones that have suites instead of rooms, or giant pools with water slides, or that are right next to the ski lift instead of a long walk to the ski-area shuttle bus. I won’t spend every day of vacation worrying about how much we’re spending either.

10. Buy souvenirs for dinner. This year, I’m going to buy those great jars of Maine blueberry jam, Texas salsa, Minnesota wild rice and California olives so that we’ll have some souvenirs of the trip that aren’t totally useless. They may even remind us of what a good time we had. I’m going to buy extra souvenirs for the kids, too--the ones they crave but I refuse to pop for--and stash them away for when they need a pick-me-up.

Taking the Kids appears the first and third week of every month.