Not Panicking

My husband says I get all panicked before a family vacation.   He says I plan days in advance, have a long list, get a good bit done well in advance of our departure date but somehow I still manage to think we’re not going to have enough time to get everything done.

So this time I tried it his way.   I didn’t tell him I was doing this; not to set him up in any way, but because I didn’t disagree with him, but if I was going to panic about packing, might as well have something to panic about.

Or at least that’s how my thoughts went earlier this week.   On the whole, things went find.   The things that I worry about did happen though—things unexpectedly come up that take time and remembering things when there isn’t enough time to get it all done.

Tonight I had a meltdown moment because we were out of time and things hadn’t been done by the children such as picking what they wanted to take to put in their backpacks.   They can’t do it tomorrow because we’re leaving the house before six AM.   This is sort of important because they’ll be flying for twenty hours of air time before they get home.   The backpack contents is important.  Out of time because they had to get to sleep before my daughter, for instance, fell asleep on the floor of the room.

There were other things but mostly I feel like the trip is a hack—I’m packed and I think I have most things, but I’m not sure if I made the best decisions and I don’t know what my husband is carrying and what I am and how that’ll affect things.   Those conversations like, “oh, yeah, I packed that but it’s in the checked bag.   I didn’t know you needed that on the plane” or, “I thought we didn’t need jackets, I didn’t realize the volcano tour got into the forties commonly because of altitude.”  

I’m tired, so tired, and I don’t feel like this is my best trip planning.   I’ll have to ask my husband if the one rather intense packing outburst from me to him and the children was better than the constant discussion of all things trip for days before like I do for most trips.

The Big Boy Update:  My son packed his backpack and it is very, very full.   I think he’ll actually be fine carrying it without complaining.   Tomorrow we’ll know if we need to relocate some of his weight to checked bags on the way home.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I thought my daughter was going to have a problem letting the dog go without excessive hugs as I was heading to the car to head over with Matisse for boarding.   But my daughter was fine.   She was playing a new hiding game outside with Madison and told me, “it’s okay, Mom, we already said goodbye,"