Lessons Learned from Vacationing with Kids
Spring break is over. Here's what I'm taking with me.
Ahhh. Spring break is officially over. Every year it feels surreal. We spend months planning our vacation, dreaming about it, endlessly counting down. And then—it’s just over. It’s time to re-enter reality.
But there are always things I take away from each trip (and thankfully it wasn’t norovirus or covid this year!!). And because I just don’t want to believe that vacation is really over, I decided to share a few lessons I learned from our family spring break trip this year. Are you ready for it?
Your middle schooler's ideas of essentials will be different from yours.
As my kids get older, I am less and less involved in their packing. I give them an outline—bring 7 shirts, 3-4 bottoms, 2 sweaters/sweatshirts—but let them pick what they bring and pack it themselves. I usually tell them to “pack your backpack,” which implies any homework, fun books, electronics, power cords, and so on. Sure, this has led to some issues (like discovering that a child brought a long-outgrown windbreaker on our outdoors adventure vacation), but it contributes to the experience and helps build resourcefulness. At least that’s what I tell myself.
And to make things even more exciting, we always carry on our luggage, no matter how long the trip is. (One episode of lost luggage will do that to you.) So learning to discern what’s truly essential is part of the process.
As we collapsed into our hotel room on the first night, my middle schooler settled in by pulling things out of her backpack. That’s when I discovered that her essentials included 3 stuffed animals (including a stuffed croissant), 2 canisters of random putty from the dentist, and 2 NeeDohs.
My backpack essentials? An extra layer, an umbrella, headphones, books, a medicine bag, every cord known to mankind, candy and gum for ear complaints on the airplane, sanitizing wipes, and barf bags.
Admittedly, she used the goods in her bag much more than I used mine. And I could have used one of those canisters of dentist putty while waiting in the 2-hour immigration line at our 5th airport of the trip.
If your child gets any kind of insect bite, you will be convinced it is bed bugs, and worry yourself that it will lead to an infestation of your home that will involve having to get all new mattresses.
On the second day of our trip, one of my girls complained that her leg was really itchy. I looked and saw 3 nasty-looking bites. Did I detect the “breakfast, lunch, and dinner” pattern, where those little moochers feast for their blood meal while zigzagging their way across your body? Oh my god. Could these be bed bugs?
I spent the next hour inspecting her mattress and bedding, taking approximately one million photos of suspicious things, zooming in and realizing they were threads or Cheez-It crumbs, refreshing my memory on the typical timing of bed bug reactions, and vacillating between calling the front desk and demanding a new room, bagging up all of her clothing, and imagining the worst-case scenario of those little buggers hitching a ride home and infesting our entire house.
Thankfully, after listening to me fret for an hour, my non-medical and very logical husband weighed in on the situation and convinced me she absolutely did not have bed bugs.
And he was right. (At least this one time.)
Your children will lose their minds when they see an American staple abroad and will insist on going in.
It never fails. My kids always want to check out the McDonald’s or Starbucks when we are traveling internationally. In some ways I think the familiarity is soothing. But they also love to see how the menu is different—and honestly, so do I. (Did you know that you can get McCafe Macarons in France?)
We were unable to find a Starbucks this trip, which was genuinely upsetting to my middle schooler. She has a goal of visiting a Starbucks in every international destination and getting a fancy drink—it’s like the current version of the Gen-X Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt. Did you have one? I did. It was from Chicago.
Despite the lack of Starbucks, we did spot a McDonald’s on our first day. My daughter immediately noticed they had a Biscoff McFlurry, and that became a non-negotiable. So yes, we got one. Because getting ice cream on vacation happens at least once a day, and sometimes twice. And it was, for the record, absolutely delicious.
No matter what time you wake your child up, it will be too early.
I love to pack a lot into our trips. After all, we don’t travel across the world to sit in a hotel room. But, I’m not over-the-top about it—we usually have a goal of getting up and out of the room for breakfast by 9. Very reasonable. And I have learned that my kids do better with a few slow mornings built in. So, we always have a couple of days where they get to sleep in.
On one of those mornings, I finally woke them up at 10:30 so we could still make it to the hotel breakfast. I was met with groans and scowls and eye rolls. Of course, that was too early.
You can imagine how things went when I had to wake them up at 3:30 to catch our 6 am flight home. Now that really was too early.
Each trip you will add something new to your family's book of inside jokes.
One of the best things about traveling as a family is the shared memories you build… and the inside jokes that come from them. We still talk about the preschooler who forgot to put on underwear one morning and was then convinced she had lost them in an airport bathroom stall. Or the family member who forgot the word “tunnel” mid-sentence and blurted out a completely made-up word instead—which is now the only word we use for tunnel, forever.
This trip added plenty of new candidates to the running. Will it be the stray cat that tried to join us for our last lunch by hanging from the tablecloth by its claws? Racing the full length of the original Olympic stadium? Chuckling at a family member who simply could not master the pronunciation of our favorite place we visited? Someone’s repeatedly and passionately expressed desire to ride a donkey?
I don’t know which one will stick. But I hope I never forget any of them.
In my years of pediatric practice (and as a mom) I’ve learned that the exploits of family vacations are genuinely good for kids—building resilience, adaptability, and the kind of shared family identity that matters deeply for children’s wellbeing. So even the hard parts—the 3:30 am wake-ups, the immigration lines, the unsuccessful quests for Starbucks, the bed bug spirals—are doing something good.
Well, I could actually do without the bed bug spirals.
Safe travels, friends! And may your next trip be full of inside jokes, essential stuffed animals, plentiful ice cream, and absolutely zero bed bugs 💕
I'm Dr. Kate Harrington, MD, a board-certified pediatrician and the founder of Your Pediatrician Friend—a pediatric telehealth practice offering texting memberships and virtual appointments for Minnesota families. I also offer educational material on my website. Learn more at yourpediatricianfriend.com.
“my non-medical and very logical husband” - he sounds awesome.