Planning time for travel plans

As the car meandered down the interstate towards the setting sun, the children turned to each other in the back seat and said with wide grins, “Wow! That was the best vacation we’ve ever had!”

I may never hear these words. Spring Break is coming up fast and I’ve got great plans, but these plans still live in my head. I need to find the time to create our itinerary and I have a hard time finding the time to get to the store to buy milk! How am I ever going to create this trip?

Mommy is busy making travel plans

I read an article in Newsweek last week titled “Mommy is Busy Right Now” and I wanted to stand up and cheer. It summed up the impact of the technology revolution in all areas of our lives, especially when it comes to making travel plans. Times have changed for booking a vacation, but the changes haven’t given more of the time I need. Thanks to technology, I don’t have to rely on someone else to get a deal on a hotel room; I can do it myself.

This begs the question: how much time should I spend hunting down a deal, researching the hotel with that low price, and making sure it’s not a scary, rat-infested hole? If it takes me five hours to make sure a deal is all it claims to be and all that I want, what have I saved? My father always used to say, “Isn’t your time worth anything?” Yes, Dad. Yes, it is.

Bring back the travel agent!

Relationships matter when I’m making plans, whether in my own town or when I plan to travel outside my state. Travel agents used to create these relationships with people and help them make their plans. These days, I rely on websites with a good reputation to save me money so I can afford the vacation in the first place. What I spend to make this happen is hours and hours of valuable time.

Here’s another facet to this situation: if my family doesn’t enjoy our plans or something isn’t as great as promised, I feel responsible because I didn’t do enough homework. I don’t blame the site. I know I can complain in a post about a rotten hotel or attraction, but I’m still the one who researched and made the choice. If I don’t get it right, I feel I didn’t listen closely when others were talking, I should have listened to different people, or I didn’t do enough research.

In the past I may have just chalked it up to a place not being a good fit and left it at that. Now, with multiple channels of information, I not only make all the plans, but blame myself if the plans stink. I can’t take the pressure! (Pressure is what I want my family to have a vacation from!)

Finding time to DIY it

I’m blessed we can afford to take a vacation this year and I know I have nothing to complain about. I’m not complaining; really, I’m not. I’m observing the “do-it-yourself” trend. My issue with this trend is not having the time to do it, and the pressure to get it all right. My wise friend offers me these words, “You can have it all; you just can’t have it all at the same time.”

Happy trails!

When Eileen Calandro isn’t wishing milkmen still existed, she is the Chief Mom Connector of Mom Central. You can read about other things she tries to make time for on her personal blog at calandroclan.com and connect with her on twitter at @MomCentralChat and @calandro5.

Eileen Calandro