As we are getting ready for a trip to visit family, I hear a news tease from the other room, “Are vacations actually stressful for some people?” the anchor asked. He said they would have the answer after the break. I already knew the answer. . .yes, for mothers at least.
I don’t think my husband agrees. I am fairly certain I can make my case. For example, here is my husband’s to do list for this trip:
- Call his family
- Talk to the dog/cat caretaker
- Pack a few of his clothes
- Go with me to pick up rental car
- Load car
My list for this trip:
- Reserve rental car
- Wash all the clothes
- Hound husband to talk to the dog/cat caretaker
- Pay bills that will be due when we are gone
- Stop mail
- Get drinks and snacks for the car
- Gather info to take along so I can make a hotel reservation if we need it on the way home
- Pack my stuff
- Pack my daughter’s stuff
- Pack most of my husband’s stuff
- Pick up rental car
This is just a simple trip to visit family. Although it is a long drive, it doesn’t include me to do my other list of usual trip items: planning what we are going to do, where we are going to stay, making hotel reservations, printing off the route and other directions because I don’t trust the gps, and buying or reserving tickets to attractions. On our trip to Disney World, I also had the task of making dinner reservations.
Our Disney trip is an example of just how far the stress is put on the mom. We were standing waiting for the fireworks to begin at Epcot on our second night. My husband struck up a conversation with another husband whose wife was there for work and had not joined him and the kids for the fireworks yet. I was trying to monitor a conversation my daughter was having with a group of adults on the other side of us. My husband kept interrupting me with questions like “Where are we staying?” Did I mention that it was the second day of the trip and he had driven to the hotel at least twice by then? I was beginning to get embarrassed until the questions became about what the capital of _______________(several states), neither of these “professional” men knew. The other man’s wife joined us then. She looked tired. Her youngest child wanted to be held. She picked him up. His feet dangled below her knees. Her husband then asks her to verify the name of their hotel.
