A Matter of Perspective

We have never lived near family except for a brief one year stint after getting out of the army before my son was born. Even then we took regular trips to visit my husband's family which was a 2 and a half hour drive. The shortest drive we've had through the years was about 9 hours when we lived in San Antonio but the average drive has been between 12 - 16 hours. So my children are great travelers because they were well trained from birth. They often have a book either in hand or in the car for ANY drive over 5 minutes. When we leave on a trip, you can glance back before we make it to the freeway and they will both have found a niche and settled in with whatever entertainment they need for the moment.

This last weekend of spring break, my daughter went on a visit with a friend to her grandmother's home. They went to North Carolina. The trip was a whopping four hours. So I had to laugh when my daughter's friend started informing her of all the stuff she'd need to survive this horrible long trip. Even as her mother mentioned that it would be a long day, I was reminded of a 25 hour drive that I took with our four-year-old, an infant, and a dog BY MYSELF. That was a long two days.

How strange it seems to us for someone to think of that as such a long trip. I mean, you don't even have to stop to eat in a four hour trip. I can imagine my children thinking, "Are you kidding? That's only two movies." I wish that it did seem like a long trip to us because that would mean we would be that close.

Given - those trips have provided some fun and interesting moments. But at every opportunity we still look for the chance to move closer.

And children with good travel skills notwithstanding, I'd jump at the chance to narrow my perspective a little bit in that area.