There was a time, not too long ago, when I took it upon myself to be the sole travel coordinator for our family. From planning the trip, to booking the transportation, lodging, to packing, cooler prep, etc.—all on me. Or was it? I came to discover that this was yet another area in my life that I was creating a lot more drama than there needed to be.

Here are 5 tricks I’ve learned to stop complicating the crapola out of our travel:

1. Group Conscience: The entire family has an opportunity to have input into our plans and activities and we divide up the travel arrangement tasks.

2. Plan B: The only thing I knew to do if Plan A didn’t work was to get pissy. My husband taught me to roll with it—ALL of it. We do come up with a departure goal but I no longer make up fantasy departure times. We only create hard leave times if a flight or major event is in play, and in that case we try to leave a ton of “screw-up“ time.

3. Pack for Myself First: A good deal of my martyr-stress was coming from feeling like I wasn’t going to have time to pack what I needed for the trip. I don’t get this right every time, but just the notion has helped me a ton.

4. Everyone Pack for Themselves: I just let them know what they’ll need. HUGE exercise in letting go, but I was getting so resentful having to punish the children on vacation when comments like, “You forgot my goggles,” would fly out of their cute little reckless mouths.

5. Last Minute: I do as much as I can last minute. Yes, you read that right. The fact is, I’m going to fret a little, so I’d rather leave it to the least amount of fretting-time possible. 

My frenzied travel-prep and vacation temper tantrums could have easily been the focus of the TeamDe travel folklore. Acknowledging my part in the chaos has completely changed my approach to time away with our family. And there is a little extra sprinkle of Mommy-Magic in being able to say, “I’m so sorry you forgot your goggles honey, I’m sure you’ll remember them next time.”
 

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