Planning a holiday for 2014

When we went to the London Transport Museum the other week, Arlo grabbed my hand, excitedly pulling me to the different exhibits, wanting to experience them with me. Me. Not Sam, or anyone else. I often get passed over for other people. Other people are more fun, and he doesn’t see them every day, like he does with me. But this time, Arlo chose me. Of course, he doesn’t know it, but it absolutely made my day. I went to bed grinning about my happy day with my boy.

And then, as it usually does, a happy time with my family got me thinking about a word that has been banned in our house. A word that has caused upset and arguments every time it is mentioned, feelings of inadequacy and of not providing enough.

I started thinking yet again about how I wanted to show Arlo what it’s like to stay somewhere else, and to wake up to new experiences on your doorstep every morning. I wanted to show him that a holiday was not just a day trip with Grandma (which is what he currently refers to as his “holiday”). I wanted to have him excitedly tug my hand again as we go off exploring. I wanted more happy days with my boy.

And so, in the spirit of my 2014 motto, (which is basically to look after myself and not feel too guilty, but the original motto had a few more rude words thrown in there), I decided not to agonise too much about whether Arlo would benefit more from a holiday or from his parents not putting themselves £600 further into the hole. I decided that there’s little point holding out for a successful blogging competition, or any other ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunities. The only guaranteed way to achieve this is to take matters into my own hands, and to use the tools I do have to make it happen (hello blog content opportunities). This year, the budget is ever so slightly more relaxed, which means that if something is worth doing, we can do it, it just involves sacrifices elsewhere.

At first, I had visions of us going abroad. Letting Arlo experience what it’s like to swim every day. But the realist in our family showed me just how much flights cost these days, and also gave me a brief lowdown on the costs of driving to France, and I soon realised it was well out of budget. (Not to mention unrealistic for us to do a long distance driving holiday seeing as Sam doesn’t drive and I need to take rather strong sedatives for plane/boat sickness, so wouldn’t be able to drive either.)

So, my thoughts moved a little closer to home. There are lots of options when it comes to 2014 UK holiday breaks, but I knew exactly what my first choice would be. A holiday in a beautiful part of the country, like the ones we used to go on when we were little.

I haven’t booked a holiday since 2009. Going on our first proper family holiday has been so long anticipated that it hasn’t really sunk in that we are actually going on a trip, but watch this space in April…