Vacation time needed, even if it’s in small doses | Oct 21st 2007
Back in June 2007, an MSNBC survey revealed that half of Americans did not plan to take a vacation over the summer, and those that did intend to take a break, would spend less time away from work than a year ago. MSNBC reveals several reasons for this vacation deficiency which include financial reasons, crowded flights and flight delays and rising gasoline prices.
Shirking the statistics, I began planning my own family vacation back in June, while simultaneously cutting back my work hours over the summer so I could spend more time with my kids. Our big vacation blast was to take place at Florida’s Disney World in October 2007.
Things don’t always go as planned. As it turned out, cutting back my hours over the summer meant we didn’t have enough spare cash for the big vacation extravaganza. Luckily my 6-year-old took the news well (much to my shock) and my 3-year-old is too young to realize what she missed.
I’m actually not surprised that this trip never got further than my imagination. I rarely ever take vacations for a variety of reasons (mainly lack of time and lack of money.) But avoiding time off is bad for business - and it really took me a long time to realize this. Working nonstop for two years straight contributed to a very bad bought of burnout.
Even though a trip to Florida is not in my immediate future, I’m not ready to give up on my family vacation yet. Since I don’t plan on taking a full week off from work until December, I’ve begun planning a series of three-day weekends to incorporate some special and fun events to enjoy with my family.
The first event of the Dooley vacation tour will take place in Saugerties at the Garlic Festival. My kids have never been to the festival, but my husband and I used to go every year when we lived in Saugerties. We also got married in Saugerties, and plan to show the girls the park where we had our ceremony.
Then on Sunday, September 30th we’ll all travel into Manhattan to walk for an organization called Forward Face which helps support families of children with born or acquired facial differences. My daughter Emily was born with cleft lip and palate and this is our second year attending the walk.
After our three-mile walk along the Hudson River, we plan to pay a visit to F.A.O. Schwartz and let the girls pick out a toy. While this is not a totally free activity, it’s a lot less money than the four plane tickets, one week hotel stay and theme park tickets would’ve cost us. Anyway, who needs Disney World when you live two hours from Manhattan?
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This article was originally published in The Poughkeepsie Journal on September 22, 2007.