Do not say “staycation”

About a month ago my family had big plans to travel to the Grand Canyon for Spring Break. Our one obstacle in the process seemed surmountable: finding the time to research and book the travel plans. But there’s a new hitch in our plan: our dog is sick. She has cancer and there’s nothing that can be done for her except to keep her happy and comfortable. We have no idea how much longer we have with her, so we will enjoy being with her as long as we can.

So now it looks like our Spring Break trip won’t happen. This is fine. We want to spend time with our dog and be here if she needs us. We plan to stay home, but my husband refuses to use the word, staycation. We hear this word constantly now that family budgets are tight and people can’t afford a family trip. And it makes him nuts. “What about when you just stayed home and didn’t call it anything? Why can’t we just say we’re staying home?” I see his point.

The word staycation seems like a consolation prize, like trying to make something out of nothing. If we label it something, does that make it special? What happened to the good old days when someone asked what you did over vacation and you just stayed home. Why are we incapable of just answering, “Nothing.”

Not doing nothing

Of course, to answer, “nothing” implies we sat around, were inactive and didn’t have any fun. Of course that won’t happen! We invited friends to stay with us for the vacation. We’ll set up tents in the backyard (or family room if it rains) and let the kids camp out. Day hikes will have to be on the agenda. We’ll pack a lunch and explore a new area we want to see.

One of the days we might cook and bake and make a complete mess of the kitchen. Trying new recipes with the kids and our friends will be exciting and delicious all at the same time. Luckily, we live close to beaches and people travel hours to enjoy these areas. We can be there in 20 minutes! One day will be a beach day so we all come home sandy, sun-kissed, and exhausted.

I’ve always wanted to explore a town about 45 minutes away from us. Looks like I finally get my chance! Obviously, we may be staying at home, but we won’t lack for fun activities and adventures during our break.

Through the years, we spent many vacation times at home. We just never had an official name for it. Now that the word staycation exists, we still won’t use it. So we’re not doing that for our Spring Break. We plan to stay home. And stay at our house. We just won’t be calling it anything special.

When Eileen Calandro isn’t giving her sweet dog some well-deserved TLC, she’s the Chief Mom Connector of Mom Central. You can read about other things she cares about on her personal blog at calandroclan.com and connect with her on twitter at @MomCentralChat and @calandro5.

Eileen Calandro