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Leaving Las Vegas
By Laura Thomas, ABC | May 12th, 2008
A week ago today, I was in the happy midst of a mini vacation thanks to the fact that my husband won a sales contest for a trip to Vegas. Sweet! It was a much needed break and just happened to coincide with our 12th anniversary (hey, there _is_ still a “non-mommy” woman inside me! had almost forgotten her).
I didn’t take the laptop with me, but the blackberry did make it into my purse, so I did occasionally peek at e-mail. But, I worked hard at not responding and getting involved in anything back at the office. I did some light twittering, too, but even that trailed off as the days went by.
But, by the third day I was pretty much ready to head home. I’m not a big gambler and it seems like even the non-Cirque Du Soleil shows look like Cirque shows these days, so it doesn’t take long to feel like you’ve done what you can do in Vegas.
I was also missing my little girl, who told us over and over how much she missed us every time we called her or she called us. On the one hand, it was nice not to have those bathtime/bedtime hassles to deal with, or to have to try to explain why there were so many pictures of mostly naked women littering the streets. But, on the other hand, she really would have liked the 3D movie at M&M’s World, going up the Eiffel tower at the Paris casino and watching the fountain at Bellagio.
We’ve got a trip to Italy planned at the end of June and I expect I’ll have many of the same feelings. It crossed my mind to see about taking her with us instead of sending her off to “camp grandma”, but we’re going with another couple who don’t have young kids. What do you think?
May 13th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I think it depends *heavily* on what the other couple expects. They may adore your daughter, but having your daughter on the trip WILL change their experience of the trip. Easy example: EVERY choice of meal will be different if you’re figuring in the tot.
Not just incidentally, having your daughter on the trip will deeply affect YOUR experience of the trip. Would you rather feel wistful for the girl while having a great grownup trip? Or would you rather move some grownup stuff off of your travel agenda and bring the girl along?
All of these questions are independent, I think. And only you and your hub can answer them.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:39 am
Yes, I think the original decision to go adult-only is probably the right one in this instance. Doesn’t mean I won’t feel guilty, but we’ll try to make up for it with lots of day/weekend trips in our area this summer. And, I don’t think she’ll be as bored at my mom’s house as she was at hubby’s mom’s house because she’ll be in the same town with several cousins that she adores.