SideShowCecil
08-12-2005, 04:39 PM
All this thought about travel has provoked the following rant:
This spring we did a two week tour through Atlantic Canada and Eastern Ontario to visit family. The total cost was somewhere around six or seven thousand dollars. Three flights, the train, four rental cars, hotels, meals; it all adds up quick. This represented our recreation and entertainment budget for more than a year, not to mention using up a huge chunk of my wife’s vacation time.
We felt it was important for William to meat his surviving Great Grandparents. We had travelled to Northern Ontario the previous September to visit my Grandparents. This spring it was my wife’s Grandmother in New Brunswick. Each trip culminated with a week in Ottawa visiting our immediate families; and this is where we’re developing a problem.
We both have family around Ottawa. My Mother lives an hour west of the city, my wife’s parents an hour east of the city and my wife’s sister an hour south of the city.
My wife’s parents get a little childish about how we divide our time among the families. If they feel they’re getting short changed (which is usually anything short of 100% of our time) the wailing and the guilt begins. Yet, while we’re there they seem generally indifferent to our presence. Ultimately the effort to keep her parents happy compromises the rest of the trip. We don’t get to visit our friends or get out and enjoy the city we grew up in.
With William turning two in March our travel costs will be increasing since he no longer flies for free. We’re just not interested spending all our money and vacation time just to listen to her mother gossip about her sisters and get scolded for arriving at the supper table 30 seconds late. We would really like to take a family vacation, just us, just our own agenda and not have to appease a dozen other people. Does this sound horribly selfish?
We’re seriously considering simply not traveling east anymore. Instead we’d have a large guest suite with a private bath and laundry built in the basement. The cost would be a little more than one two week trip home. Our families could visit whenever they want for as long as they want and every one has their own space. Even if we have to help them out with travel costs it’s still cheaper and easier for us in the long run. We’d also be prepared to take in one of our parents should the need arise.
We’ll be sitting on this idea, discussing it off and on for the next year or two; though over the last three months neither one of has changed our opinions. We’ve already told our families we’ll not be traveling east for at least three years. If they want to see their grandson in that time they’ll have to come here.
This spring we did a two week tour through Atlantic Canada and Eastern Ontario to visit family. The total cost was somewhere around six or seven thousand dollars. Three flights, the train, four rental cars, hotels, meals; it all adds up quick. This represented our recreation and entertainment budget for more than a year, not to mention using up a huge chunk of my wife’s vacation time.
We felt it was important for William to meat his surviving Great Grandparents. We had travelled to Northern Ontario the previous September to visit my Grandparents. This spring it was my wife’s Grandmother in New Brunswick. Each trip culminated with a week in Ottawa visiting our immediate families; and this is where we’re developing a problem.
We both have family around Ottawa. My Mother lives an hour west of the city, my wife’s parents an hour east of the city and my wife’s sister an hour south of the city.
My wife’s parents get a little childish about how we divide our time among the families. If they feel they’re getting short changed (which is usually anything short of 100% of our time) the wailing and the guilt begins. Yet, while we’re there they seem generally indifferent to our presence. Ultimately the effort to keep her parents happy compromises the rest of the trip. We don’t get to visit our friends or get out and enjoy the city we grew up in.
With William turning two in March our travel costs will be increasing since he no longer flies for free. We’re just not interested spending all our money and vacation time just to listen to her mother gossip about her sisters and get scolded for arriving at the supper table 30 seconds late. We would really like to take a family vacation, just us, just our own agenda and not have to appease a dozen other people. Does this sound horribly selfish?
We’re seriously considering simply not traveling east anymore. Instead we’d have a large guest suite with a private bath and laundry built in the basement. The cost would be a little more than one two week trip home. Our families could visit whenever they want for as long as they want and every one has their own space. Even if we have to help them out with travel costs it’s still cheaper and easier for us in the long run. We’d also be prepared to take in one of our parents should the need arise.
We’ll be sitting on this idea, discussing it off and on for the next year or two; though over the last three months neither one of has changed our opinions. We’ve already told our families we’ll not be traveling east for at least three years. If they want to see their grandson in that time they’ll have to come here.