Single Dad Life » travel

In-Laws, Second Marriages, and Baggage

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:58:23 +0000

A Dad’s Point-of-View

by Bruce Sallan

I believe all clichés are generally true. How else could something become a cliché in the first place? Not surprisingly, then, all the clichés about second marriages are true. Indeed, comedy careers have been built around jokes about a second set of in-laws, second husbands or wives, and blended families. For good reason: in-law jokes, and family relationship humor can be hysterical–sometimes.

In a second marriage, couples want to believe that they’ve learned something from the first one and they’re going to take all that hard-earned experience and apply it, making the second marriage work beautifully. Hmmm, is that why there’s a higher incidence of divorce in second marriages and an even higher divorce rate in third and fourth marriages? It is sad, but true.

We live in California, while my new in-laws are in Vancouver, Canada. This means getting together, thus far, at most twice a year. The opportunities to get to know one another are crammed into these short trips where we’re all on our best behavior. Granted, it’s not as natural as the encounters we could have if we lived in the same city, but we’re all trying our best. My in-laws have had to adjust to not only a new husband for their only daughter, but her two stepsons. They’ve been absolutely terrific under these unusual and new circumstances. As we stay in my new in-law’s home, this just adds to the awkwardness of this new family dynamic.

My first marriage failed for many reasons and, truly, I can’t blame my former in-laws. I can try, but it wouldn’t be honest. With my first in-laws, I started off on the wrong foot and continued to chew it up till nothing but hanging toenails were left. My biggest and earliest mistake occurred just before we got married. I offered an opinion about the wedding gift my soon to be in-laws were giving us. As I was a showbiz veteran and they offered to get us a camcorder, I foolishly decided to weigh in on the good and bad features available, suggesting I’d go as far as to pay the difference to get a higher end one than they were initially considering. Well, that was obviously a bad move and, evidently, commenting at all was poor taste in their eyes, from which I was never forgiven.

This time around, I’m determined to handle things better. After all, my wife has to deal with just as much, actually more baggage, concerning me. She’s taken on the role of step-mom to my two boys, having not been a parent before. As we have my boys full-time, that is no easy task, especially when she met my older one as he was entering teen-dom.

It’s not easy under any circumstances, but my wife also has a large family. So large that they have a book about the family, just on my mother-in-law’s side, self-published that lays out the genealogy–in Chinese! I did mention my wife is Chinese, didn’t I, while I’m Caucasion? I can’t even begin to remember all the names of family members, not due to any ethnic linguistics, but simply due to my poor memory. They’ve been extraordinarily gracious to me and my boys, but the strain of remembering who is who is beyond my present mental capacity, and its diminishing limits.

I actually think it’s going quite well. We’ve spent Christmas there, and celebrated in various family mixes. It was fun, we brought presents for almost everyone, and my boys loved hanging with the other kids and doing the whole morning presents thing late on Christmas Eve. Our religious differences didn’t interfere at all, as we were all able to embrace this holiday with our new stepfamily. My wife has similarly embraced our Jewish heritage.

The truth is we actually all like each other. It’s just new; we don’t see each other often enough, and I want to make a good impression in spite of my natural instincts to be provocative. I’m on my best behavior but I still make the occasional slip like complain to my new mother-in-law (about her daughter) thinking, like a complete fool, that she might be on my side, as I’m obviously so “right.” Thankfully, she misunderstood and thought I was talking about one of my kids. I wisely kept my mouth shut at that point. Whew.

I know I’ve got great new in-laws. I’ve learned to be a better son-in-law by listening to my wife, accepting her advice regarding her family, praise their daughter incessantly (which is easy), and make sure my boys treat them with the respect they’re due. I actually think it’s working. We’re even talking about a family trip to Europe. That is not bad, for the second time around.

Please visit www.brucesallan.com to contact Bruce and to enjoy the various features his new Web site offers, including contact info for advice and coaching, an archive of his columns, general contact info, links to his published work, photo galleries, and reader comments, plus much more. Bruce Sallan was an award-winning television executive and producer for 25 years. Google him if you really want to know more (e.g. his credits). When his boys were quite young, Bruce left show biz to become a full-time Dad. Shortly thereafter his marriage ended and his wife abandoned their children, leaving the State. Bruce found himself a full-time single Dad, in his late forties, as well as a returning single man to the changed world of cyber-dating. It became a classic “sandwich” situation when he also began to care for his ailing parents. He began writing various blogs on the dating sites he used as well as articles for local publications. The goal of his column, A Dad’s Point-of-View, is to primarily focus on parenting and occasionally other issues from the male perspective. Presently, his column is available in over 75 newspapers and Web sites in the U.S. and internationally. Bruce lives in Agoura, California with his second (and last) wife and two boys, who are 15 and 12. Find Bruce on Facebook and add him as your friend. Just be sure to tell him you saw him here.

Childhood is Now

admin — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:44:31 +0000

by Pam Leo

“Let us put our minds together and see what
kind of life we can make for our children.”
- Chief Sitting Bull

I often hear people say, “Kids today are different, I would never have behaved that way as a child.” Are kids today different or is it kid’s lives today that are different? In her book The Continuum Concept, Jean Leidloff points out that, “Natural logic forbids belief in the evolution of a species with the characteristic of driving its parents to distraction by the millions.” As new parents we are all told, “Enjoy your children now while they are little.” Yet how much of the day do we spend enjoying our children? Many parents spend more of their day struggling with their children than enjoying them. How has this come to be? What is making parenting today more often a struggle than a joy?

Parenting never used to be, and was never meant to be, a one or two person job. Parents used to have a village, a tribe, or at least an extended family to help care for and spend time with their children. Few families today have the resource of a live-in grandparent, aunt, uncle or nanny. Even when there are two parents in the home at least one of them is gone much of the time. Whenever there is only one adult to care for children, for extended periods of time, there often isn’t the time, attention or energy to fully meet everyone’s needs. Whether a family consists of a single parent and one child; a mom, a dad and three children; two partners and two children or a blended family with multiple moms, dads and stepsiblings, most families need more adult resources.

My experience with children is that when their needs are met and nothing is hurting them, they are a joy to be with. I’ve learned that children do not always have the language to tell us what is hurting them or what they need so they communicate their needs through “needy” behavior. When children are not a joy to be with, their behavior is usually an expression of unmet need. Just as a baby’s cry is a communication designed to bother us and move us to action to meet the baby’s needs, the needy behaviors of children are designed to bother us and move us to action to meet the child’s needs.

Ironically, when children communicate their unmet needs through needy behavior, the action adults often take is to try to change the child’s behavior. As long as we keep trying to change the behavior instead of meeting the need, those needy behaviors persist. If we look at our own behavior when our children’s needy behavior is driving us crazy, we usually find we haven’t spent much time with them and we’ve been too busy and stressed to connect with them. If we look at our behavior when we are enjoying our children, we find that we are spending time with them and not rushing them from one place to another.

There are many reasons why children have unmet needs. Sometimes we can’t hear our children’s needs because our own needs are screaming so loudly. Sometimes we lack information about their needs. Sometimes we have so little trust in our own internal voice that we listen to advice that goes against meeting our children’s needs. Most often, however, the reason children aren’t getting what they need is that our lives are too busy and we don’t have enough time to be with them and enough time to just let them be. One of the reasons parents are too busy is that there is not enough adult resource to do all that needs to be done. The loss of the extended family has been devastating to parenting and to childhood.

Childhood today is very different than it has ever been. . Parents are busier and children are expected to keep the same pace. There are so many more things to do and places to go. Children have to get to day care, preschool, school, games, lessons, and appointments. They often spend as much time (or more) in the car, getting to and from these activities, as they do at the activity. Children are frequently in transition from one place to another. Children need time with their parents and time for unstructured play, time to just be. Kids today don’t get much of that. Most children today spend less time in their home, with their family, than children ever have.

Most parents tell me that transition times are the times of greatest conflict with their children. Getting out the door in the morning and bedtime are often a struggle. It seems the very thing we enjoy about children is also the very thing that drives us crazy about them. Children live in the now. Their attention is completely on what they need, feel or are doing right now. When we are rushing to “get out the door” or trying to get them to bed we are not in the now. We are usually thinking about where we are going and what we have to do next. When transition means children have to leave what they are happy doing to go and do something they may not even want to do, children naturally resist.

The only real conflict that exists between parents and children is conflict of needs. Getting out the door is our need. Getting the kids to bed is our need. When a child’s need to have time with us or time to just be is unmet they know that going out the door or going to bed means those needs won’t get met . When children express their unmet needs through their behavior and that behavior conflicts with parents’ needs the conflict of needs often turns into a power struggle.

This summer many parents told me how much they enjoyed their children when they were on vacation and/or when family or friends were visiting. When I asked why they enjoyed their children so much at those times the answer was always the same. “We had more time and there were more adults to do what needed to be done, so we all had more time for ourselves and more energy and attention for the children.” How can we have more of this for our family in everyday life?

We may have to begin to create more adult resource in small ways. Parents could ask family members and friends to spend more time with our family on a regular basis. We can invite other families to do things with our family and invite single friends to be part of our family. We create an “extended family of choice.” When there are more adults to meet the needs of children there is less conflict of needs and fewer power struggles. Even one hour a week of more adult resource would make a positive difference.

Creating more resource will mean having to ask for support. Most parents find it difficult to ask. We may feel like we are imposing or that we are supposed to be able to do it all alone. None of us can do it well, alone. Time has shown us that. We all have to work together to make it work for everyone. The children who depend on us now to get their needs met will one day be the adults we depend on to meet our needs. They will only be able to give what they have received.

We won’t get a second chance to “enjoy them while they are little.” Meeting the needs of children takes time, energy and human resource. If we don’t create the resource to give us the time and energy to meet children’s needs now when they are little, we will spend the time dealing with their unmet need behaviors when they are big. Childhood is now. The more resource we create, the more everyone’s needs will be met. The more everyone’s needs are met, the more we will all enjoy the children, when they are little AND when they are big.

Courtesy of
Pam Leo
Connection Parenting
Optimal Child Development

Photo courtesy of WSilver

What Every Single Parent Must Do Before Taking Their Child On Vacation

admin — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:16:10 +0000

By Jennifer Doncsecz

Ever since January of 2007 when the government made it mandatory for every US citizen flying to the Caribbean, Mexico and Canada to now have a valid passport, single parents have felt much more at ease when taking their custodial or non custodial child out of the country.

However, just because you carry your child’s passport doesn’t mean you no longer have to get a notarized letter of permission to travel by your child’s other custodial or non custodial parent.

In most circumstances, airlines will ask where the other parent is. If you are traveling to a heavily used route for single parents to “disappear ” with their non custodial child (Mexico, Dominican Republic, Aruba) you will be asked to produce a letter that is signed by the other parent and notarized.

This letter should include the other parents name, the dates of travel, the locations you are traveling to, the other parents phone number and signature with a notarized seal. If you do not have this, the airlines could refuse you board the planes or even worse, you could get to your destination only to find that customs/immigration will make you turn around and not enter the country.

Many of my clients sometimes call the airlines ahead of time to check to see if this is necessary, however, the airlines do not operate customs/immigration and may tell you the wrong information.

Play it safe and always have the other parent sign this very important letter. Even if you have joint custody or full custody and the court awarded you ownership of your child’s passport, customs wants to know that both parents are aware of the child’s leaving the country.

In some cases where bad feelings are present between the parents, this can prove to be a bit tricky, but isn’t it better than spending thousands of dollars on a vacation on a beautiful island and being turned away from entering the country?

If your child’s other parent is deceased, it is also a good idea to bring a copy of the death certificate. I once had a client, who in a panic, had to call their in-laws for a copy of the obituary of their deceased spouse to be faxed to the airline’s counter because they were being denied boarding.

In the ever present world of parents abducting their children and taking flight, the airlines are being held under much more scrutiny. So, don’t get burned before you even arrive at your destination–be prepared and know what is required!

If you want more information on single parents vacations, please feel free to email me at Jennifer@travelbyvip.com

Jennifer Doncsecz
President
VIP Vacations Inc
www.travelbyvip.com

#1 in the Nation for Group Sales to Sandals and Beaches Resorts!
Winner of the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s Romance in Travel Award in 2007!
Fox Philadelphia’s Travel Expert. Tune in each Friday to Good Day Philly and learn about the latest travel news!
Look for my new show on the Travel Channel every Sat. night at 10:30 pm-Cruises We Love!

Picture courtesy of Alex

10 Simple Ways Single Parents Can Travel On A Budget

Barry — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:49:22 +0000

By Jennifer Doncsecz

It takes a little more planning when there is only one adult in the family, but it is possible to have nice family vacations!

The kind both parent and children will remember for a lifetime and the kind that will not destroy a single family’s budget.

There are several things single parents can do to enjoy vacations and make them memorable for children, too.

Take short day trips together. There are many neat places to go or interesting activities available near any metropolitan city. When you only go for the day, it requires less planning and costs less, too.
Travel very light. Mail ahead or buy when you arrive whenever possible. You will be the only person carrying everything unless you have older children.
Visit relatives for a reasonably priced vacation. You don’t have to mooch entirely. Take the host family out to dinner one night and be very helpful around their home.
You probably have a favorite baby-sitter you use at home. Bring him/her with you. They can share a room with your kids and be immensely useful to a single parent family.
If you go to your parents’ house or visit a sibling, someone who is very close and totally in love with your children, take a short trip alone. Leave your kids for at least one night while you either take a relaxing or exhilarating side trip.
Travel with another single or a relative. Some expenses are shared and each of you take a day as the primary caregiver of the children.
When your kids are small, travel off-season. Everything is cheaper and less crowded.
While driving to your destination, pack food ahead, then eat in roadside parks or metropolitan parks to save money. Being outdoors lets kids run off some energy while you take a driving break.
After you arrive, eat your big meal at lunch each day, then have sandwiches in the hotel room or outdoors (weather permitting, of course) for dinner. Luncheon prices are always lower.
Let your child bring a friend. With careful planning, your child can bring a friend for very little more money. Often the other family will footthe bill for their child anyway. This will give you some relief from the chief entertainer role. It is particularly important when your child has no siblings.

If you want more information on single parents vacations, please feel free to email me at Jennifer@travelbyvip.com

Jennifer Doncsecz
President
VIP Vacations Inc
www.travelbyvip.com

Why Single Parents Pay More to Travel

admin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:57:29 +0000

By Jennifer Doncsecz

Solo parents face special issues when traveling, such as: how will a vacation be priced, given that rates are usually based on two paying adults? And how comfortable will a parent feel, if most other vacationers are two-parent families?

The good news is that with many holidays, single status hardly matters: car trips, camping, Disney theme parks, even European odysseys (with hotel rooms priced by number of beds) — there are many situations where neither price nor social ease is affected much by being solo with kids.

Many families, however, dream of a Caribbean resort, or a cruise… and on these holidays, being a solo parent c

an mean a whallop to the wallet.

My 10-year-old Child is an Adult???

Single parents may get a big shock when a child gets charged an adult rate.
This occurs because resorts/hotels base room prices on two adults sharing one room, i.e. the resort expects to charge, say, $300 a night for a room, but expresses this to customers as “$150 per person based on double occupancy” — “person” meaning an adult guest. Kids can then stay for free or pay a discount rate.
Unfortunately, if you’re a single parent the resort still wants its $300. So your child will be charged an adult rate.

Single Supplement Blues
The other bane of single parent travel is the “single’s supplement fee”, which is again a way to bring the room price up to the $300 that the hotel/ resort wants. The single parent is charged the “per person” rate of $150, but is also charged a supplement of 50% to 100%. How do these common industry practices play out, when you’re traveling with one, two, three, (or more) kids?

One Adult, Plus One Child Traveling
How nice it would be if the adult were charged only the regular “per person” rate per night, and the child paid only the regular kids’ price. A few resorts do offer this kind of price break during special promotions at low-volume times of year.

But more likely, the adult will be charged a single supplement, and can consider him/herself lucky if the child gets a discounted children’s rate. As Sally Black notes, “many resorts insist on collecting the two-adult rate, even if you’re traveling with a three-year-old who doesn’t eat much or water-ski.”

One Adult, Two or more Kids
Add another child to the equation, and the extra child(ren) should get the discount child’s rate. If, for example, a dad were traveling with a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old, he’d probably pay two adult prices and the 3-year-old would pay the kids’ rate.

Price by the room – Yay!
Fortunately, some resorts charge by the room, no matter what age of occupants: at Disney World Resorts, for ex., room rates are the same for up to four people. (And the Value Resorts start at under $100/night, with many perks.)

Likewise, many hotels price by the room. The trick is to read prices carefully: look for prices that say “per room per night”, rather than “per person per night”.

Time for a Change
Until recently the travel industry has done little to make vacations easy for single-parent travelers. But change has started.

· Single Parent Tours tracks deals for solo-parent travelers, has bulletin boards, and organizes trips several times a year.

· Beaches Resorts– popular Caribbeanall-inclusives– has Single Parents months each year.

· Other resorts– such as Breezes and Franklyn D. Resort all-inclusives– offer deals for single parent travelers. (Franklyn D. Resort in Jamaica assigns a “vacation nanny” to each family during their stay– terrific for solo parents!)

Feeling Comfortable as a Single Parent
Besides pricing, the second major issue faced by single-parent travelers is: will I feel comfortable with other holiday-ers?

I often say. “Many single parents feel like an outcast at family resorts. Although these resorts offer the best children’s programs, parents sometimes feel peculiar trying to socialize with married couples.”

· One solution is to sign up for Single Parent Tours (above) or visit Beaches or another resort during a Single Parents promotion.

· Some Club Med all-inclusives have a good ambiance for single parent vacationers: traditionally, at meals, guests sit at round tables that seat eight, which encourages friendly chat. (However not all Club Meds have this seating any more.) Club Med has terrific kids’ programs and baby care, and there’s a resort right in Florida.

· Smaller resorts sometimes offer a friendlier atmosphere and more opportunities to chat and meet other guests for company.

The bottom line:
The travel industry still has a long way to go in encouraging single parents vacations, but some progress is being made. If you want more information on single parents vacations, please feel free to email me at Jennifer@travelbyvip.com

What has been you experience traveling with your kids? Any tips you discovered along the way? Let us know.

Air Travel with Kids

admin — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 05:21:43 +0000

by: Jennifer Doncsecz, President

Air travel is challenging under the best of circumstances, but when you add children and/or pets, things can get downright hairy. Not to mention smelly, messy, and noisy! While I do not make a habit of traveling with my dog or cat, I have, but I have a lot of experience with my kids-who can be equally as smelly, messy and noisy. So how do I do it? Actually it is pretty simple

Be Well Rested. Get enough sleep the night before. If you’re like me and time always slips away from you, set your target bed time for an hour earlier than the actual time you want to get to sleep. Save the paper or National Enquirer for the plane, train or next night.
Go Slow. This will be repeated-often. But this piece of advice is something that cannot be emphasized enough.
Be Early. Allow plenty of time for unexpected mishaps. Leave your house early. Plan to arrive at the airport early. What’s the worst that can happen? You arrive with a lot of time to spare. That’s ok. That will allow you to take things slow.
Enjoy the Day. If you are early, you may even have more time to enjoy the day.Treat your trip as a fun adventure, not a stressful event. You are on a vacations-all parts of the day are experiences to be enjoyed. Drink it all in. Look at the day with a child’s sense of wonder. If you follow the first steps, this should be easy.
Use Curbside Check-In. Check as much of your luggage as you can with the Skycaps-make sure the right destination tag is on the bags. Make sure you have the essentials and the distractions in your carry on bags. Don’t worry about waiting for luggage on the other end. Trust me, when you have kids to deal with on a plane, the last thing you want is excess luggage. And don’t forget the skycap tip. $1 per bag!
The stroller or baggage cart. These things are wonderful. If you have a stroller, load up the kids and some of your carry-on bags and you are set. When you board a plane, leave it at the gate and they will check it for you and it will be waiting for you when you get to your destination. If you are not traveling with a stroller, rent one of those “Smart Carts” for a few bucks. They can transport kids as easily as bags and you can just leave it at the gate when you board.
Navigating Security. The best advice here is to go slow. That means don’t worry about the people behind you who are in a rush. They are the ones that are late-not you. But make sure you comply with all the ridiculous regulations. Let the kids know what is going on and why. There is nothing worse than forgetting that cell phone in your pocket and tripping the detector. You can ask to go through again, but the answer is “no.” A security tip-send your kids in advance of you to receive your carry-ons while you wait till your possessions are IN the scanner before you pass through the detector.
Car seats. You can bring these on the plane; but you will have to pay for a seat.Check your label to make sure it meets FAA regulations. Car seats are recommended for safety, but not required. Children under 2 years old can fly for almost free (you pay the taxes) on most airlines if they sit on your lap. Consider the length of the flight before taking advantage of this. Holding a baby or small child on your lap for several hours is harder than it sounds both on you and your neighbors. I was the beneficiary on a non-stop from Rome to Washington once-not fun…not at all…in the least.
Entertainment. Bring plenty of items that will pass the time for children (and adults too) such as books, favorite small (non-noisy) toys, music players, coloring books, etc. Inexpensive headsets are also a great investment for those planes that might have onboard entertainment and not enough airline provided sets for your family. Kids need to move. Find ways for them to safely move-a walk around the cabin after the meal service, stretching games, Simon Says, etc.
Snacks. Pack some healthy snacks that will also help with the dehydrating airplane environment. Fruits like apple, pears, and bananas are great. Whole grain crackers are good too. If your child is on the younger side, bring a sippy cup. The free drinks (as long as they last) are fine, but avoid those with caffeine-everyone will be happier. A note on water. Water is the best hydrator for adults and children alike. You cannot drink enough, but if you drink the airline’s water, make sure you get it from a sealed bottle.
Infant needs. It’s always best to check the latest rules ahead of time because they seem to change on a whim. But for right now the TSA will allow you to bring baby formula or breast milk on board. You are not allowed to bring an ice pack so instead use ziplock bags with ice cubes. You can use them up until the security check where you’ll need to dump the ice. When you get on the plane or when you land, you can always get more ice to put in the baggie to continue to keep formula, breast milk or other baby drinks cold.
The Ear Thing. If your child is an infant (or has sensitive ears) make sure they are doing some swallowing during takeoff and landing so their ears can adjust to the pressure. For infants, don’t let them start until the plan is speeding down the runway-falling asleep while nursing defeats the purpose. Older kids can drink, chew gum, or suck on a mint. If a child or baby is sleeping during the descent, you’ll want to wake them up so they can eat or drink. If you don’t they make wake up in mid descent with some pretty severe pain. Listen for the flight crew announcements to judge the time till landing.
Pet Travel. When you book your travel, you’ll need to make sure you book passage for your pet too. Most planes have a 20 pound weight limit for bringing a pet on board with you. If your pet weighs more than 20 pounds your pet will need to be in an airline approved crate and will travel in with the luggage. Always make sure your vet has cleared your pet to fly and that you are aware of any quarantine restrictions of your destination. If you ever see a service animal on a plane, remember that they are indeed working-do not assume you can pet them. Always ask the owner first. I once traveled from Seattle to Baltimore next to the nicest Golden Retriever-he was nicer than 90% of my seatmates!
Pet Carriers. If your pet will be flying with you and not in the cargo hold, you’ll need to have an airplane approved carrier that will fit under the seat in front of you-no Fluffy does not have run of the cabin. In order to make the event go smoothly it will help to give your pet plenty of “practice” ahead of time. Have your pet travel in your car inside the carrier similar to how it will be on the airplane. You can also make their carrier into a day bed in your home so that they will be familiar with sleeping inside there. Make sure you check with your vet for any tranquilizers that may be needed.
Going Potty. This applies for both kids and pets: try to have them go potty as close to boarding as possible. For pets, they will obviously need to do this outside so bring the material needed to scoop the poop. You should also prepare for the worst in case your pet has an accident while on the airplane-wee-wee pads, ziplock bags, and clean up supplies are a must in case of a mess. For children that are potty trained, it never hurts to bring an extra set of underwear and pants just in case. Flight etiquette: gently wake your slumbering seatmate if you need to move across him, hold it till the service carts are away, and wipe the sink when you are done washing your hands. Best time to go? Immediately after the meal service passes your seat. Worst time, when the movie ends.
Wear Comfortable Shoes. When flying, people’s bodies can sometimes retain water which will show up in your feet swelling a bit. If your shoes are not comfortable, it will hurt. On a long day of traveling don’t underestimate the amount of energy that tight shoes can steal from you. Comfy slip-on type shoes equals a happy traveler. Unless you are absolutely sure your feet don’t stink-leave the shoes on and never, never walk around in stocking feet or worse barefoot.
Go Slow. Remember, I told you this was a key point! Enjoy each moment of the day. And as Bobby McFerrin might say…Don’t worry. Be happy! Your on Vacation