Travel After Divorce

Traveling when divorced doesn’t mean that you will be without the responsibility of your children. It occurred to me that I wanted to travel with my kids, but being alone and having to watch 3 kids is more than a handful.

I decided that putting in my new model of travel adventures not having to be far or expensive can apply to a simple weekend evening in June.

GOING TO THE BEACH IS EASY (ISH?)

It’s the first time I’ve ever attempted to bring my 3 children to the beach, and to be honest it was spontaneous after getting ice cream one afternoon. We sitting in a parking lot when I asked them if they wanted to see the sun go down at the beach. The response was excitement to say the least.

Luckily we live an 8 minute drive away from one of the largest beaches in New York State, but if you are land locked, maybe you can replace “beach” with “lake” or “pond”. Once we arrived I realized I was in for it when the kids found the beach shop full of sand toys. “Cha Ching”, they really saw us coming 🙂

WHAT WE DID WHEN WE ARRIVED

My oldest had a new football in hand from the shop, my middle had a Waffle Ball Bat and ball, and my youngest had a giant sand shovel to begin the festivities. After running up and down the sand, throwing and catching, I realized just how beautiful our surrounding were. Looking to the west was the backdrop of sunset behind a boardwalk. I didn’t pass up the opportunity to make my children look and appreciate our surroundings.

GOING IN THE WATER?!?!?!

If anyone knows the northeast of America, the beaches do get up to 100+ degrees, but the water temperature usually doesn’t catch up until late July to mid August time frame. When these three had the dream and ambition to at least go in knee deep, how can a dad say “no”. Before we knew it, all three were soaked from the waste down but loving every second.

It was at that moment where I really appreciated the laughter coming from these three little babies. Something as simple as going in the waves created more fun and cost me nothing (minus toys)

WHAT I LEARNED

On that magical day with my three children in tow, I kept looking at the backdrop of the pencil water tower next to a setting sun and appreciated the moment I was in. It’s obvious that when we get on the other end of our divorces, that our main concern is our children being affected. The feeling of being in that moment, at that point in time, in such a simple environment made all the difference to me.

The other obvious thing I learned is that I should always have towels, toys, and snacks on hand in the back of my car for spur of the moment beach trips with a 10,7, and 5 year old. Go to your local wholesale club and keep large amounts of fun food that doesn’t spoil easily.