Relaxing Vacation with Kids?

Is a family vacation something you do for your own self-care?

Is there even such a thing as a relaxing vacation with kids?

If you’re like most moms (me included) you probably don’t consider a vacation with kids a vacation for you.  Really, it’s just cleaning up after everyone and trying to figure out what to feed them in a different location.

Us moms get back from these “vacations” needing a vacation more than ever.

While vacations can be a great way to get in a self-care day, is it possible to do this when the vacation includes kids?

Two weeks ago, I posted some tips about self-care. I talked about having self-care days (or weekends) and gave some self-care ideas for men, women and for couples to do together.  But what I didn’t mention was self-care ideas that the whole family could do together.

Like a family vacation. 

At the beginning of the month, The Husband and I had our own little self-care weekend, on our DIY couples retreat, to unwind and reset.  Afterwards, we realized that it had been over a year since we had gone on a vacation with the kids (aside from the awesome mother-daughter trip that just me and Lil Sis went on in March).

So, last week The Husband and I let the kids skip a couple of days of school and took a mini-vacation to Great Wolf Lodge. 

For my kid’s waterslides and wave pools are self-care. 

Big Sis has always found floating in the water soothing, and a trip to the waterpark has always been something that helps her feel refreshed.

But in the past, these vacations haven’t been so relaxing for me.

Typically, they involve me stressing out trying to get everything ready, worrying that I would forget something and then panicking when I did.  Then there was the stress of chasing after the kids and making sure they were never out of my sight somewhere so busy.

But this time was different.

The kids are older now and we’ve had a lot of practice at these vacations, and I have learned a few things to make it less stressful. 

Plus, both of the kids are tall enough to do all the waterslides. So now, instead of standing in a foot of water watching them go down kiddie slides, we can all do the big slides together. 

By the end of the trip, I realized that this wasn’t just another self-care trip for the kids.  It had been a self-care trip for the whole family.

After years of traveling with kids, I have finally figured out how to make these trips a relaxing family vacation for everyone.

Can A Vacation with Kids Be A Form of Self-Care?

If self-care is anything you do intentionally because you actually enjoy doing it, not because you have to, then could a family vacation be considered a self-care activity?

When we plan a family vacation, we aren’t doing it just for our own benefit.  We’re doing it for the benefit of the whole family. 

But even though the whole family benefits from it, we are doing it for ourselves too.

We may not enjoy all the planning, the packing, the long drive with kids or all the other work that goes into a vacation with kids.  But we do enjoy the time we get to spend with them, the fun things we get to do with them and seeing how much they enjoy everything we planned.

Family vacations are not something we do because we have to. 

There are many families that don’t take trips with their kids.  But, if you are one of the families that do, it’s likely because you do enjoy it.

If we look at the parts of our family vacation that we do enjoy, they do fit into the definition of self-care.

Tips for A Relaxing Vacation with Kids

While not every minute of a family vacation will be a vacation for mom, there are ways to make things less stressful so you can enjoy it more.

Go Somewhere You Kids Will Enjoy

While an art gallery may seem like an ideal attraction to visit on vacation to you, chances are your 3-year-old won’t feel the same.  If you want to have a relaxing vacation with kids, you need to focus on doing things they enjoy and save the art gallery for your next mom trip instead.

This was our fourth time being to Great Wolf Lodge.  While going somewhere new would have been nice, I know the kids love Great Wolf Lodge and would be happy to go back.  Plus, going somewhere we had already been meant I had less to plan.

Start Your Pack List A Week Before Your Trip

Instead of stressing yourself out with worry that you will forget something, start writing down all the things you need to remember to bring a week in advance.  Keep your list where you can easily add to it as you think of more things that you will need to pack.

Once your list is finished, type it out and save it to your computer so you don’t have to start a pack list from scratch for your next vacation.

Don’t panic if you do forget something.  If you can’t buy it at the gift shop, you should be able to find a Walmart or another store close by to pick up whatever you forgot.

Despite how organized I am, I have forgotten to pack melatonin, a bag for Big Sis’s food at Disney, and my passport (which meant a two-hour drive back to get it) on past vacations. This trip all I forgot to pack was the wine, so The Husband and I grabbed drinks at the waterpark to take back to our room instead.

Make a Plan

You don’t need to write out a detailed itinerary for every vacation, but having some kind of plan of what you will be doing will make it less stressful.  Find out what the kids really want to do ahead of time and plan when you will do it so there is no fighting about it once you get there.

Since our trip to Great Wolf Lodge was only for one night, the kids knew we wouldn’t be doing all the extra’s this time.  The only thing that we needed to plan out ahead of time was where and what we would be eating.

Plan for Downtime

It can be tempting to try to cram all the attractions you can into your trip, but for kids this can be pretty overwhelming.  Avoid overload meltdowns by planning for some downtime on your vacation too.  Relax at the hotel or find some other quiet activities to do between the busier ones.

Our first day at Great Wolf Lodge, we took a pizza back to our room for dinner and had a long break before going back to the waterpark.  The second day we took our time packing up the room after breakfast and relaxed for a bit before heading back to the waterpark.

Find Time to Relax on Your Own

Having a relaxing vacation with kids doesn’t mean you have to spend every minute with your kids. 

Take turns with your spouse getting in some alone time if you can.  Let him take a nap in the room for a bit while you take the kids to the arcade.  Then he can watch some cartoons with the kids while you take a trip to the on-site spa.

Try to find ways to get in some alone time for the two of you in too.  Bring the grandparent with you so they can watch the kids while you two have a date night, or see if the hotel offers a babysitting service.

If that isn’t possible, at least find a way to relax together once the kids have gone to sleep.

When the kids were young, The Husband and I always brought Grandma on vacation to help us out and allow us to go have a drink together once the kids were asleep.  While we didn’t bring her with us this time, we did still enjoy our drinks from the waterpark together out on our patio while the kids were sleeping.

Stay at A Hotel with A Pool

After a long day out at busy attractions, some kids need a way to wind down and relax.  Other kids may still have energy to burn and need to get it out so they will go to sleep without a fight.  Either way, a pool is great for both unwinding or burning off some energy.

When we aren’t staying at a waterpark, I always make sure the hotel I chose has a pool for the kids.  Lil Sis falls into the wound up and needs to burn off some energy category, while Big Sis just needs to float in the pool to unwind. 

Just Eat Fast Food

You can save a lot of money if you rent a house or a suite with a full kitchen.  But cooking dinner for everyone isn’t much of a vacation for mom.  Just splurge on the fast food, or a healthier dinner at a nice restaurant, so you can enjoy your vacation too.

While Big Sis has a lot of food restrictions, we were still able to let her eat at the buffet for breakfast and get her fries for lunch.  For dinner, we brought a pizza to heat up for her in the room.  The rest of the family took a break from our usual healthy meals and treated ourselves to fast food the whole vacation.

Focus on the Positive

The most important thing you can do to make this a relaxing vacation with kids is focus on all the things that make all the work worth it.

Attitude is everything. 

Enjoy the fun moments, and make this trip about spending time with the people you love most and making memories because that is the part of your family vacation that makes it a self-care trip. 

What made this trip so relaxing for me was that I just focused on having fun with my family.  I didn’t worry about anything that I would need to do later, I just stayed in the moment and enjoyed what we were doing now. 

While a self-care trip without kids is sometimes needed (and well-deserved) for all of us moms, it is possible to have a relaxing vacation with kids that can be self-care time for everyone.

Now that my kids are old enough to make these trips a bit easier for me and The Husband, we plan on spending a lot more time traveling and relaxing together as a family.

How do you relax on a family vacation? What is your family’s favorite self-care trip? Can you add any tips to make a vacation with kids more relaxing?

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