Oh, my goodness, how different life is for us as a family of four, huh? Back when it was just hubby and I, we’d eat out regularly, stay out late (uhuh, even on school nights) and spent every public holiday, long weekend and annual leave period travelling a long, long way from home.
Those travelling years were ace. We hiked to see the mountain gorillas in Tanzania, cheered on the Aussies at the London Olympics and checked out our fair share of great island destinations but now, with two babes pottering around, sitting on a plane for 18 hours with them trying to rip my hair out and crawl up and run up and down the isles just isn’t that much fun.
So what did we do? We chucked away our luggage and decided to stay put for a ‘staycation’ instead. I’m obviously joking about the luggage (who would throw away their suitcases? That’s where I hide the babes’ Christmas presents). But our staycation was so brilliant that I want to share my experience. Here are my top 5 reasons why having a staycation beats an overseas holiday, hands down:
1. It saves us money. The cost of holidays adds up and my goodness, with littlekids, they add up quickly. The taxi ride to the airport is now twice the price because you need to order one with car seats, you need to book a ‘family’ room so you’re not listening to them snore all night and oh, the one that really gets me is that four plane seats have to be booked. Seriously? The kids only spend a tenth of the flight in them. The rest of the time they’re lounging all over their parents or running up and down the aisle driving everybody bonkers.
2. We can actually chillax. It’s funny that we think we need to go away to relax when the reality is that our house is 10 times more relaxing than anywhere else. Everybody is comfortable there. To take time out, we hire a nanny and have her start at 5 pm and get out the door at exactly 5:01 pm. We do this every night of our staycation. We go somewhere great for cocktails, enjoy dinner and then we’re home by 10(ish). Done. 5 hours to ourselves every night. Bliss!
3. We see awesome new things. We plan for our week of relaxation like we would any overseas adventure – we choose the museums we want to visit, the new parks that look ace and the food experiences we’ve been desperate to try. We write them down and build our week around them.
4. The babes still sleep. For me, this is a huge reason for staycationing, HUGE! If the babes sleep, we sleep and I LOVE me some sleep. When we stay at home, the babes are in their own beds, at their regular times and the billion toys they want to take with them to bed are at an arm’s reach.
5. I don’t need to pack the whole house. Are you with me on this? How tedious is the task of packing, especially when there are so many ‘little’ things to pack and you always forget something? On a staycation, it’s just a bag or two for the day and you’re out of the house.
I dare you to try it. Save yourself some hassle and buy a one-way ticket to Staycation Island. It’s bliss.
More ways to tackle the holidays:
- A Girlfriend’s Guide to a Weekend Away without Kids
- 41 Genius Hacks for Travelling with Kids
- How to Pack for a Family of Four in Two Carry-On Suitcases
Image: Getty
