The pros and cons of a holiday without the children

Later this week, my husband and I are lucky enough to be going on holiday without our children. Lucky because its an all expenses paid trip thanks to his work, but mainly lucky because we have lovely grandparents that are willing to look after our children while we jet off to the other side of the world. Being an anxious person, while I'm very much looking forward to our trip I'm also finding the build up a bit stressful. So I thought I'd write a post starting with the cons of travelling without your children - and then I can look forward to the pros!

Cons

It's mainly the guilt - guilt at going away and leaving the children, guilt in case they miss us, guilt for my parents having to give up their precious time to look after them.

Making sure that every detail of the daily routine is covered and that I've remembered everything that needs to be done while we are away and thought about all the logistics.

Having to have a thorough tidy up and clean so that the house is left in a reasonable state for my parents to live in! 

Pros

A chance to spend time with my husband away from the children, when we might actually be able to talk to each other without being interrupted!

The children will have lots of fun spending time with their grandparents, and I'm sure they'll spoil them!

I only have to pack for myself, which is easy.

There's lots more space in the suitcase, and we'll probably only need to take one case. I might even pack a choice of outfits rather than recycling my clothes to save space.

It's a very welcome break from the daily routine - the school run, the supermarket trip, the swimming lessons, the lunch box making and all the washing.

I can enjoy a whole 12 hour flight to myself without needing to worry about whether all the teddies have made it on board, does anyone need the toilet, did I bring enough snacks, are they wearing their seat belts properly, what if their children's meal doesn't arrive, will they sit quietly for the whole flight, and so on and on.

We'll be able to use the faster smart gates at airport passport control.

I've bought and packed some exciting brand new books, under the reasonable assumption that I'll have the opportunity to read them.

We'll be able to eat a meal out that isn't pizza, because it's the only thing that the children will reliably eat in a restaurant.

We can even enjoy a few drinks with the meal without worrying about having to get the children to bed and up again early in the morning.

And of course I can spend the whole time looking forward to seeing the children again when I get back.

As you can see, once I've got over the guilt, the pros far outweigh the cons! It should be an amazing trip, look out over on Instagram for some photos later this week but here's a sneak peek of where we are off to...

Photo credit Raphael Nogueira via Unsplash