It was only after Bene was safely home from hospital and had been here for a few weeks, taken a few trips in the car, been out to visit places once or twice, that Max and I really started to consider the logistics of life with 5 children in the house. I mean, we had ‘considered it’ when we decided to have Freddie; a larger car was purchased, the finances were scrutinised (laughable really, by the time we finally had Bene, most of those were no longer quite as well shaped as they could have been!), things about the house were looked at and a virtual space was made. And we very certainly made a decision that expensive holidays on the Med were not likely to be coming are way any time soon. We made decisions on whether I would work much, or at all and accepted sleep would become a thing of the past again. And by and large, albeit without the baby we expected it to be built around, life is pretty much how we expected.
In the couple of years before Bene arrived we altered our holidays from camping ones to cottage ones. We chose the holiday, that cottage,because it had an affiliation with our family past that made it feel like a safe haven at a terrible time. Max did a very specific search for a cottage in an area, found something familiar and that’s where we went – and we’ve been back for a further 4 weeks since. You might say that isn’t very adventurous (and you’d be right!) but given we had also camped three times at the same Devon campsite, 6 times at one holiday park and youth hostelled 5 times in one other place, you could fairly say we go for familiarity as a regular thing. When you go away with 5 children in tow, one of them a baby, there is something to be said for familiarity – knowing you’ll fit, have fun, be accommodated, find everything you need. It’s tempting (and quite likely) to go back again and again until we die 😉
Tough times, but a holiday is being together.
As we packed to go this year, I did tentatively moot to the children that with life on the up, we might try a new part of the country another year – and if we moved to Devon, we might holiday somewhere else EVERY year – the suggestion was met with blank horror. We’ve brought up a nation (it feels like a nation 😉 ) of conservatives. But Max and I have never visited the Lakes and quite fancy Scotland again, or Northumberland. I can’t say we want to go back to North Wales much, but perhaps it has changed in the 14 years since our honeymoon 😉 Recently I’ve been tempting the girls with looking at sites like Sykes Cottages and TripAdvisor, trying to encourage them to allow some exploring in 2013. So far, all I have persuaded them to consider is 1 week at our old Devon campsite BEFORE we go to the farm for 2 weeks 😆
This is what happens if you make them have their photo taken 😉
To get back to that first paragraph though… what has actually occurred to Max and I is that in only a couple of years, we won’t be taking 5 children away. Our car might last us as a 7 seater because Fran will be off doing her own thing, closely followed by Maddy, Amelie, Josie. In ten years time we will probably only be taking 1 child away with us and ten years will go quicker than it should. While Max and I still have the backs and hips to cope with camping trips and one bed cottages with the children in a tent, we probably should. Our girls don’t seem to mind (phew!) and if all they want is a holiday walking up and down hills and sitting on a Devon veranda together each evening, so be it. Time enough to explore another decade.
So maybe those far flung cottages on enticing sites will not be financially out of reach then, because we won’t be looking for one to accommodate 7 people. Maybe we can traipse the country then, leaving behind glorious Devon for a few short weeks each year. Bene might camp in the garden anyway, an intrepid and brave boy with no desire for a comfy bed, but Max and I can keep retiring to the fireside each night, planning our next day out with 3G and wine. Maybe we’ll do canal holidays then, or fly abroad – I can probably be safely valium-ed with only one child to take care of 😉 I’ve nearly been tempted by channel tunnel but really I think I could happily explore the UK for many years, there is so much of it I’ve never seen.
What’s your perfect holiday? Where do you go? How do you like to holiday? Tent, cottage, boat, camper? When all the children fly the nest, what will you do then? Will you do things differently, do you have a secret plan or does it not quite bear thinking about?
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I would love to explore the British Isles. 🙂 My own little guy is travel sick :(, so we’re minimising actual travel time as much as we can (especially flights – it broke my heart last time we were on a plane, he’s just over 2, so not allowed to sit on my lap anymore, so I had a hysterical terrified child, I had to force into another seat and somehow put a seatbelt on him, not an experience I care to repeat too often). We’re in Northern Ireland at the moment, but an opportunity might present itself in around a year to relocate to mainland UK… as much as I love Belfast, living somewhere with a better train network (he tolerates trains best) sounds very appealing!. I have to keep reminding myself that it will get better as he gets older, but reading accounts of everyones faraway travels with babies and children makes me feel like I’m doing it all wrong somehow..Ah well. They are not the ones with a miserable child puking all over the place…
We return to St Ives, in Cornwall, over and over again because we all love it. Its a bit odd to go to a seaside resort when we live in one but its very different to home. We all love the scenery and the art and the trips to the Minack theatre. I’d happily go there every year until I die, with children or without. Who knows, maybe one day with grandchildren?
Did my comment not get through? We are also creatures of habit and like to go the same places again and again!
It was there! Where did it go??? I shall hunt!
We have had similar thoughts…no surprises there! We recently started a savings jar to save up for a big family holiday to California. Something Woody has always wanted to do, but recently day dreaming with the children, Eden found and old jar, stuck a label on it saying “California”. It might take us a few years (Or longer!), but hopefully before our biggest ones have completely flown the nest we can have that one big dream holiday exploring California in an RV…meanwhile it’s bargain basement last minute holidays in the UK, Cornwall for half term, and we can’t wait!
Oh yes, and Woody and I have always said we’ll do the UK in a camper van when we are old, probably with various grandchildren in tow. 🙂
Our last two ‘big’ holidays have been in Weymouth, because P’s parents own a Haven caravan down there, that we get to stay in for FREE, so for a family our size it’s a no-brainer! However, that will only be available for next summer and MAYBE the one after ~ then they will need to sell it on 🙁 All the children LOVE going to Weymouth, and I have to say this year I thoroughly enjoyed it too. The scenery is beautiful and I realised just how much I miss the sea. I will be happy to go again for the next couple of years, but when we are there we do try to explore different places each time.
We have been back to Colchester a couple of times too (in 10 years), as we still have good friends there who we miss and who the children have stayed friendly with ~ so when we go there we camp, and that’s good fun. The children want to go back again, so we must do that sometime…
One of my FAVOURITE places in all the world is The Lakes and I would go there every given opportunity ~ it just takes my breath away! But it’s not the most ‘big family’ friendly place, as most of the towns and shops are rather ‘cosy’ ! SO, it tends to be where P & I go on a ‘get-away’, when someone has agreed to take on the kids for us for a day or two, OR the odd, rare, day-trip ~ as it’s really only just over an hour or so up the motorway!
There are places I’d like to explore more, and I suspect we will in coming years, when the caravan is no longer an option. Thankfully my children are happy to go anywhere ~ although they do love the beach.
We never talk of ‘dream’ holidays really, as I suspect they would all be so different as to not be very compatible. I think for Paul, his dream holiday would be to stay home with the phones off and the kids away, and to have no demands on his time! He’s a home bird. For me ~ I’d explore anywhere, but I’ve always dreamed of ‘wanderwegging’ in Switzerland ~ maybe one day (when I even have a passport!) & I think New Zealand would be an awesome place to see.