When: Decide when you’ll go

One very important decision to make after deciding that you will take a momcation is to decide when. At present, my children are aged 10 and 6, so school plays a role in deciding our vacations whether the children are vacationing with me or not. For me, the two overarching options to consider for when to take a momcation are as follows:

When school is on vacation, so the person caring for my children while I’m away won’t need to take them to and from school. This works well if the person is older, is retired, works from home, or has taken time off from work to stay with the children, and so this person would usually not be leaving the house for work, etc.

NOTE: This is the option I opt for because my “go to” person to care for my children while I am away is my mom, and she is a retired nurse. While she can drive the boys around, if necessary, it is much more convenient if school is on vacation, so that she doesn’t have the juggle their two different school schedules while also managing cooking and cleaning for them as well. I know my boys, and they are a handful. While my husband would also be at home, he works, so having my mom care for our boys works best.

However, there is another option…

Moms Want To Run Away Too!

TV shows and stories when I was a kid would sometimes feature kids who wanted to run away… but listen… us mamas want to run away sometimes too… probably even more than the kids! Can I get an amen?!

I love my husband and children dearly - and for some reason, when getting into “real talk” about our feelings, us mamas always feel the need to preface our statements with the “I love my kids” statement. That, in and of itself, is a showing of the emotional and mental burden mamas carry around. As I was saying… I love my husband and children dearly, but being around them almost every single day at the magnitude that we’ve been around each other for the past 2 years has been a lot - from working from home while they were simultaneously schooling from home, to trying to make sure they’re taking their vitamins and being even more vigilant than my usual germaphobic self in the fight against germs, especially now that they’ve been attending school in-person, to managing health challenges in our household - it’s been a lot for them and for me. Can you relate?

How To "Getaway" At Home

As a working mom of boys, I sometimes find myself in need of a getaway from the day-to-day grind. Prior to the pandemic, knowing I had multiple trips lined up helped me to get through the day-to-day grind, but for obvious pandemic-related reasons, we can no longer rely on that. So, how do we safely get away now? First, the getaway starts by giving ourselves permission. I honestly think that our biggest hurdle as moms is allowing ourselves to step away. Once we resolve that battle in our minds and in our feelings, then we're in good shape.

Real Talk: Pandemic... 2020... How Are You Doing?

Hey, My Cruising Family friends, and fam!!! It's been an interesting year, to say the least!!! How have you been???

Having felt overwhelmed in one way or another, for months, I exhale right now to share with you and hopefully hear from you too.

Allan and I have noticed that challenges started almost immediately after we returned from our amazing 10th anniversary celebration in 2019. God knew we would need that “mountaintop experience,” and we’re thankful for it, and we are thankful for God’s faithfulness through every step of the way.

Starting around November 2019, our family, with the support of some of the best educational professionals, became engaged in a process to identify and secure the best school environment for our super smart, lovable, and loving younger son, LJ, and we also worked to provide the best support for our older son, AJ, through this time. This process was intense and stretched into March 2020, which is when New York City, where we reside, went into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and working from home and schooling from home all began.

We cancelled a cruise we had planned for March 2020, and it's a good thing too because, in March, Allan went into quarantine after working with a former coworker who tested positive for COVID-19, and that coworker passed away in early April 2020. Thankfully, for the most part of his quarantine, Allan was asymptomatic. For the safety of his family, and by circumstances only God could align, Allan’s quarantine went until the first week of June 2020.

Then, in June 2020, I had open-heart surgery.

Real Talk: It’s Been A While! Where Have You Been?

Well, My Cruising Family, LLC is still here. Prior to this, our most recent blog article is the one that showcases our most recent international trip, Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba, Colombia, and Panama, which was in October 2018. The year 2018 was a very busy travel year for My Cruising Family, with international travel in March, June, August, and October. While it was a blast, before the year was out, I had already started to feel as though, as a mom and just as a person, I needed to slow down on travels to focus on not just self-care, but family care. Travel is amazing for self-care, but too much of it can be draining. Balance is the key.

Updates: The Whirlwind of Juggling as a Mompreneur

This blog post is yet another untraditional post in that it is more of a personal note to those of you who have been following My Cruising Family’s journeys thus far, and who have come to expect regular blog posts. It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post as life has been feeling like a whirlwind. Whew!

What Do Mothers Really Want For Mother's Day?

A few days ago, as we are approaching Mother's Day, I came across the question: What do mothers really want for Mother's Day? Here's my answer.

As the working mother of two rambunctious young boys, age 3 and age 7, and being in the first year of building my blog and travel business, I would love a day of

Cruise Therapy?

If you know me or if you’ve been following this page, then you know I love to travel. Even if you don’t know me, but you take a look at this website, blog, My Cruising Family’s Facebook page, or My Cruising Family’s Instagram page, then you will see that I love to travel. In a recent conversation, what I’d been feeling inside for a while and what I’d been examining was called out when the person I was speaking with said that travel is sometimes just a band-aid for something deeper. Have I been using my travels and travel planning as a band-aid or pain-reliever? Well, honestly, YES, I have.

Some Reflections From Our 14-Day Cruise

I type this at tens of thousands of feet in the air, while my 3-year-old son is sleeping in my mom’s arms across the aisle from me, my 7-year-old is watching a JetBlue’s Disney compilation, and my husband is watching another JetBlue feature as we fly home to New York City from an amazing 17-day Spring Break, which included pre-cruise and post-cruise stays in Guadeloupe, and a 14-day Caribbean cruise from Guadeloupe to Antigua & Barbuda, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, the Dominican Republic, St. Kitts & Nevis, Martinique, St. Lucia, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, and Grenada, with multiple stops in Guadeloupe, Martinique, and St. Kitts & Nevis.

Why I Unplug During Family Vacations

As I write this, I am some tens of thousands of feet in the air, on the way to Guadeloupe for My Cruising Family’s Spring Break 2018 cruise. I will schedule this to automatically post on the My Cruising Family blog, and we will be enjoying a fun-filled, yet relaxing, family vacation.

On prior vacations, I did not even take my laptop because of my deep-rooted, genuine, desire to unplug, breathe in the fresh Caribbean air, and have not a care in the world, except to admire God’s handiwork and connect even more as a family.

It's Not Always Smooth Sailing

So, as I sat, reclined on our couch in the living room, after 9pm on a weeknight, excited about travel and all the information I’m preparing to share with you on this blog about traveling together as a family and how great and awesome it is, my six-year-old provides me with material for this particular blog post. It’s not what I had initially planned to write, but hey, if it’s one thing being a mom has taught me, from the moment a routine ultrasound appointment turned into an unexpected admission to Labor and Delivery, is that life, especially life with children, is unpredictable.

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