Going on vacation with our kids can sometimes be even more exhausting than our day-to-day lives with our kids. Still, having that quality time together to do nothing but have fun and enjoy each other's company is well worth getting up at the crack of dawn and packing the entire day full of all sorts of activities.
And that's why, for the life of me, I just don't understand the concept of hiring a "travel nanny" to go on vacation with you so you can relax and unwind while somebody else takes care of your kids 24 hours a day. Heck, forget the travel part -- why on earth do parents bring any sort of nanny on vacation? Doesn't that kind of defeat the whole purpose of taking a trip together as a family?
Ok, I'm not a complete idiot, because I get it. I really do. Parents deserve to have a little time to themselves while vacationing too, but if you aren't planning on spending barely any time with your kids during the trip, then why even bring them along in the first place?
If you need the downtime that bad, then it probably makes more sense to start separating your trips with the kids from adult trips you take alone where you leave them behind. Plenty of parents leave their children with family members or a trusted nanny in order to take a vacation where they can solely focus on being together as a couple and relaxing.
Just because you have children doesn't mean they have to accompany you on every single vacation. If you take your own vacation without them instead of paying for their travel expenses in addition to the nanny's travel expenses and salary -- you'll save a ton of money and have enough cash left over to take another trip with the whole family. (It's not rocket science.)
But if you don't have time to take two separate trips, you can still get the best of both worlds by forgoing the travel nanny and choosing a resort that offers a kids' camp so that you can squeeze in a few hours to yourself while still enjoying plenty of time with your children.
Last summer, my husband and son and I spent a week at the Spruce Point Inn in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, and one of the reasons we chose the resort is because they offered a kids' camp a few days a week. While we spent the majority of our vacation doing activities together as a family, we did put our son in the kids' camp for two days during the week.
He went from 10:30 to 2:30 and played games and had all sorts of fun while my husband and I relaxed and read by the pool, and it was wonderful for everyone. The inn also offered a pizza and movie night for the kids on Friday, so we sent him to that as well while we enjoyed a lovely adult dinner in the hotel's fine dining restaurant. It was truly the best of both worlds, and we can't wait to go back.
Bottom line, if you are going to take a family vacation, then take a FAMILY vacation -- without the nanny -- otherwise you're totally missing the whole point of the trip.
You can hear more about the new travel nanny trend in this video clip.
Do you agree? Or do you think it's ok to bring someone along to take care of your kids for your entire vacation?
Image via Mary Fischer
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Comments 24
The travel nanny thing is not new. People who have more than most of the rest of us can afford to bring a nanny along to help out. What's so terrible about that? The kids know the nanny already and are familiar with her/him, the nanny looks after them if the parents want a night out by themselves or with other adults. How terrible and selfish of them. I bet the poor nanny hates going to some tropical local with her employers, all the while being paid her salary too.
Included with every major life event - birthdays, recitals etc - so why not vacation? Furthermore, it's fun for each kid to get one on one time. We often split up - one kid with each mom, dad and me. It makes wonderful bonding time and individual memories! What do you do at Disneyland when one kid is school aged and can ride the rides and the other is too scared/short/etc? This just sounds snarky. Parents want to take family vacations but that doesn't mean they need to be with their kid 24/7 for it to be meaningful by your definition. Furthermore, if you don't have local family to watch the kids while you're gone, do you realize how unlikely and expensive it would be to have your nanny spend 24 hours a day with your kids for an extended period of time? Not all of us live in the residence (I never have) and its highly unlikely I'd agree to that unless its on vacation - in which I get my own down time and the trade off is so worth it.
Wow. No, having a "travel nanny" isn't how I would choose to do it, but how is it your place to tell other parents how they should travel? This piece reeks of self-righteousness and uninformed sanctimommy-ness of the highest order.
This isn't about bringing a nanny or not, this is about some people who get all worked up and pissed that others have more than they do. They they want to find a target for that blame, and the best way they can think of is to elevate how they live their lives and raise their kids, as some sort of sanctimonious thing so they can slam the others who they envy and feel better. I think most of us, myself included, would love to be able to afford a nanny from time to time. I don't envy those who do, and who have more than I do. If you look at those who have more with spite and envy, then you have lowered your possibilities of ever being able to achieve the same. And if you don't want to live like they do and choose another lifestyle, so be it. You're not better or worse. Just a person living your life.
Thank you so very much for getting out of bed today and teaching the lemmings like me :)
I'm sorry, but you don't know what the hell you're talking about. I went on several vacations with the family I used to nanny for, and it wasn't so they could have someone deal with their kids 24/7. I helped them wrangle their kids and all their stuff through airports, entertained the kids while they checked into the hotels, and was there mainly as backup and so they could go out to dinner once or twice during the week AFTER the kids were in bed. This article reeks of jealousy, maybe you should've talked to some actual nanny's before you basically made up a whole story that isn't the reality for the 98% of people who actually have nannies come on vacation with them.