Waking up this morning to face yet another day of school runs, household chores and work made me realise why it's so important to have holidays and breaks away from the stress of every day life! Sometimes, even going out for a meal or ordering a takeaway takes the stress out of cooking at dinner times, so imagine having a all inclusive holiday with no extreme cleaning and not one bit of cooking!
Now Spud's a little bit older, I am starting to feel comfortable with the idea of taking him abroad. I've never took him out of the UK before and have always holidayed at home, now he's getting more older, I think he would be able to cope with the flying and will actually enjoy the sights from the sky!
We've picked up so many holiday brochures from the travel agents, and whilst Spud isn't particularly old enough to make holiday decisions, I do let him have a look in the brochures and he points out to me where he would like to visit one day. For me, wherever we holiday, whether at home here in the UK or abroad, the destination has to be children friendly and great for families!
After considering our options and narrowing down our choices to the ones that caught our eye the best in the brochures, we've both decided we'd like to visit Tenerife. I've never been to Tenerife but my parents have been and have said it would be great as our first holiday abroad together with Spud! Of course, I'm sure Spud is just looking at the water slides and all the swimming pools and not so much the beaches and scenery like mummy!
I've heard the backlog at the passport office has started to calm down, and even though this holiday I'm planning isn't until the school summer holidays 2015, I like to be prepared. First of all, you need a passport to go abroad, and mine expired when I was 16 years old, eight years ago, whilst Spud has never had one.
Then there's also choosing the dates, I won't have to worry about Spud's school because it would be in the school summer holidays but I need to think about work for myself. Also whilst it's summer over here (or so it's meant to be) during the summer holidays, I really don't want to be going abroad for some fun and sun whilst it's nice weather back here in the UK!
Then there is the need to look for suitable accommodation, again wherever we stay would need to be child friendly with some children activities of some sort taking place. Sunbathing, reading and relaxing is for the adults, when you've got children, you need to think about them, it's their holiday too!
Next up is the flights to Tenerife and back, it would be Spud's first time flying and I'd like it to go as smooth as possible for him! Of course, I'd appreciate a smooth journey too, and when I say smooth I don't mean just the flight itself, but the whole experience! I know some airlines have some on board activities for children to enjoy!
Then there's the saving money part, which ideally should be starting now, like this minute, but that's near impossible with Christmas just around the corner! I need to go into my bank and speak to the manager about opening up a savings fund I can't access until a week before our holiday!
There's also shopping prior to the holiday, for clothes, suitcases, shoes, accessories, suncream and other essential holiday bits and bobs! Then there's the packing and sorting out who's going to watch the house and pets and all the rest of it!
So actually, there is quite a bit to do prior to the holiday, but lets just think about it. As soon as you step off that plane, you've landed in a different country ready to enjoy your summer holiday!
Jada x