The Worst Things About My Spring Break

Because no one will readily admit the horrors of traveling with their children....

I got back from a week away in Key West with my kids on Friday and throughout the weekend and at school pickup this week everyone always asks “how was your Spring Break?” And I hear the same stock answers: “Amazing!” “An incredible break” “So wonderful!”

Are they lying? Or is it easier to say the same standard tropes we expect to hear about a break or vacation? It reminds me of how we are trained to say, “good” and “fine” in response to “how are you?” instead of actually saying we feel anxious or sad or weird about the state of the world.

Instagram has made this blurring of the truth even more pervasive. We only ever post the beautiful pictures of trips rather than the reality and that’s a dangerous thing.

In this week’s paid subscriber newsletter I’m sharing the lowlights and highlights of our very first Spring Break trip with three kids. It was gross and weird and exhausting, but also wonderful and memorable and magical. I want to shares the HIGHS and the LOWS because that’s a much more accurate depiction of life than IT WAS SO GREAT!!!!

And isn’t it more fun to share the weirdest thing that happened to you? Or the grossest? Doesn’t that create a more intimate connection with whoever you’re talking to. I tested it out on the playground this week. When someone asked me how Spring Break was, I said THERE WAS SO MUCH POOP IN STRANGE PLACES……And you know what they said?

Same.

So why not share the reality instead of the superficial?

Here’s mine.