Sunday, February 13, 2011

Two Children vs. Three - The Great Travel Dilemma

It's no secret that we love to travel, but in our lives it takes precedence over things like a second car, or various status symbols. Those are nice to have, but certainly not above traveling. I suppose we kind of felt the same way about a third child until recently. Yes, three children might be nice to have, but not if it means a dramatic change in lifestyle. And then it happened. We now have about 6 months to come to terms with it.

Of course, we battled with ourselves because we knew that our time and attention would soon be divided in three ways, rather than two. But more than anything, each of us (independently) tried to picture exotic journeys with three children. Through South Africa's Garden Route with three in tow... a place where (small) rental cars make up a considerable cost of the journey, and it's not uncommon to come across lodges that don't accept children. Through Oz with three kids crammed in the back seat, wanting desperately to finally visit the Hunter Valley wineries, but unable to because of our "precious" cargo. Heck, just trips back to Florida to visit family will be challenging. How many people have more than one guest room, and how will FIVE of us cram into one room?

Not surprisingly, my blog postings have been quite infrequent lately. So much has been going through my head!!!

But now that we've had a couple of months to ponder these things, I'm determined to make it work. There's no way for us to stop traveling. So when baby #3 turns two and we have to pay for a seat, we'll need a second income. That's doable. And more planning will go into our trips. Gosh, there must be a ton of blogs and books out there about traveling with a big family... and if there's not, maybe that's my calling!

At the end of the day, travel is something we want desperately to share with our children, and where there's a will, there's a way. "Live the life you've imagined."

4 comments:

Rachel said...

congratulations, Liz! That's wonderful news. I look forward to reading the continuing adventures of the five of you!

Viera said...

Hi Liz

What a fantastic news. Tobi and boys must be excited.
Do not worry you will be upgraded to a bigger room in our place.
Hugs to you all.
X
V

Liz Kraft said...

Viera,
You're too kind! It's so nice to know that - no matter how infrequently we talk - we have wonderful, thoughtful, friends in Brizzy!

How are rebuilding efforts going? Are Gregor and Miro still helping out, or is most of the work finished now?

And Rachel, fabulous writer that you are, it means a lot to me that you read my humble little blog from time to time. Wish you had a blog of your own, so I could frequent it and learn from one of the best! :) Hope all is well in Melbourne!

Hugs to both of you from sunless Germany,
Liz

Anonymous said...

Wow- I googled because I am having the same dilemma!Family of four will hopefully soon be a family of 5. Was great to read this post- look forward to hearing about all your future adventures!