I had planned the trip for three years. I had the train tickets. The rental car. Hotel reservations. Non-refundable tickets for a musical, a lobster dinner cruise, and a whale-watching tour. All four granddaughters were super excited: we were going to Prince Edward Island – just grandmother and granddaughters!
Accidents Happen, but They Don’t Ruin Our Fun
But, less than 48 hours before we were supposed to leave, my 10-year-old granddaughter fell off the middle level of our back deck, breaking one wrist, spraining the other, and receiving a mild concussion.
Did we still go on the trip? You bet we did!
Actually, she was just taking a page out of her father’s playbook: our son who fell off his bike and broke his elbow right before we left on a big trip to Yellowstone. But in both of those cases, their injuries rarely come up when we discuss the trips. We just revel in all the fun memories.
The thing is, kids have accidents. They’re exuberant and irrepressible. They can be thoughtless and clumsy, and they don’t always have much common sense. But that’s no reason not to plan and take trips with them. It’s life, and if something unforeseen happens, it can be a way to teach kids to pivot and work through adversity. Don’t throw in the towel. Push on.
Trips and 10-Year-Olds
There must be something about 10-year-olds. In 2019, my husband and I and a small group of other adult relatives took our 10-year-old grandson on a trip to Bastogne, Belgium, for the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, a battle his great-grandfather fought in. The battle took place in deep winter – so that’s when the anniversary celebration was held.
Our grandson showed up at the airport with no winter coat. (His parents thought it was in the car. It wasn’t.) Fortunately, his older sister was wearing a puffy navy unisex winter coat which she (reluctantly) gave him.
That was just the beginning. You can see the list of all the things that went wrong on that trip here (not all my grandson’s fault!), and if you read down the list, you might be tempted to think we had a terrible time. Nothing could be farther from the truth! We had a wonderful time making once-in-a-lifetime memories. Including, on a side trip to England, a visit to the Tower of London!
If you’re a grandparent, that means you raised kids. And if you raised kids, you know what I’m talking about when I say things will go wrong and accidents will happen. But wouldn’t you go back and take (most of) those trips with your kids again if you had the chance?
The value of and the joys contained in skip-gen travel will outweigh any mishaps that might happen along the way. Don’t let worries about what could happen prevent you from the joys and precious memories that most certainly will happen when you travel with your grandchild. Summer is not that far away (no, really!) so the time to start planning is now.
They grow up so fast!
Your Thoughts:
Have you done a skip-gen trip? Who did you take along? Where did you go? Did any accidents happen? What was your attitude afterward? Did you find your silver lining?
