Vacation at Home

Keywords: home, relaxing, vacation

By Stacy DeBroff

Many people live near museums, zoos, and other sites that they don’t really visit very often. One spring break, my husband took several days off, and we made a series of day trips, no destination being longer than two hours away. It was great and relaxing—we slept better in our own beds at night than we would have on a trip! —Kathy Moberg, mom of Eric, 17, Sean, 14, and Kelsey, 12

If you don’t have the time or money to get away, and if you feel guilty about depriving yourself and your child of a fun escape, make a quick getaway for the weekend, overnight, or even for the day. Take a mini-vacation.

Even an evening spent just a few hours from where you live will help you get away from things. Book a hotel room in the city and order room service, or call a real estate agency in a local resort town—near the ocean, a lake, or a state park—and find out if there are last-minute, inexpensive weekend rentals available. Or just jump in the car and go, using your child as your co-pilot, to find someplace new without all the advance planning.

If you don’t have the time or money to have a night away, take a vacation at home. Ignore the phone, avoid the mailman, garnish your lemonade with fresh fruit and paper umbrellas, and laze around the kiddy pool pretending you’re at a far-away resort.

• Resolve not to do a single chore.

• Order take-out and eat off paper plates.

• Set up camp in your back yard or the living room.

• Fire up the grill and roast marshmallows and make s’mores. Or do it in your fireplace.

• Take pictures. Write postcards.

• Just a small break from the ordinary will make the day special.

Stacy, heralded as a “parenting guru” by the Wall Street Journal, authored four best-selling parenting books (Simon & Schuster) and launched Mom Central, Inc. (www.MomCentral.com), a company devoted to providing savvy advice to simplify and enrich the lives of busy Moms and their families. Stacy appears as a regular parenting expert on national TV show, including NBC’s Today Show, CNN, The View, Tyra Banks Show, CBS’ Early Show, The Daily Buzz, Mike And Juliet, Fox & Friends, and the Rachael Ray Show. Stacy also serves as a corporate spokesperson, trendspotting for the media on behalf of over 30 national brands.

In the 1990’s, Stacy founded and ran as an attorney the Public Interest Office at Harvard Law School. Stacy lives with her husband, Ron, and happily engages in imperfect parenting of their two teens, Kyle and Brooks, in Boston, Massachusetts.