We all know that summer is coming to an end - except The Princess. She still wants to go to the beach.
She asked, over and over, this past summer if we could go to the beach. I made the (BIG) mistake of saying, "Maybe we could go once school starts. It won't be so busy then and it's cheaper to go to the beach after school starts." I said this, honestly believing that we may very well do this or believing that I could do this for her.
I'm just getting old, I think. I know there are times when I just can't stand the thought of the process - like going to the beach.
There we are at the hotel and the kids all want to go down to the beach. Sounds like a good idea; that's why we came to the beach. So, as their mother, I have to agree. But ... I have done the beach before, many times, with and without kids, and I am telling you ... going to the beach with my kids is exhausting! There is absolutely nothing I like, anymore, about going to the beach. Not the ocean, not the sand, not the wind, not the shells (well, I kind of still like the shells), not the sand getting into EVERYTHING, not the sand toys, not the sand castles, not the seaweed and not the SHARKS!
I think maybe there was a time that I must have liked the beach. But, after I had kids and have made that trip one too many times, I have come to not like the beach at all. And it is the process:
Get out all the swimsuits, put all the swimsuits on, gather up enough towels, find the sunscreen, slather the sunscreen on everyone, get the chairs ready to go, get the drinks in the cooler, get the snacks, get the sand toys ... drag all this stuff from the hotel down to the beach, in several several trips (because you can't possibly take it all in one trip and none of these goin'-to-the-beach excited children can help carry a thing without whining all the way to the waters edge about it). Walk way to far across the hot sand, helping the little ones as we go; hauling heavy coolers, chairs and towels, blah, blah, blah. And then we sit in the scorching sun with sand sticking to our sweaty bodies, sand all in our swimsuits and in our eyes, the wind blowing obnoxiously, make a few sand castles, worry if the kids are going out too far in the surf, worry about the under current, worry about the jellyfish, seaweed and SHARKS! And then when, after only an hour, the children are tired of the beach and want to go back up to the hotel pool, I want to MAKE them stay at the beach ... after all we have gone through to get them down there. But, I don't want to stay either ... so we pack up all the crap we drug down to the waters edge and haul it all back up, over the hot sand, rinse all the sandy feet and bodies off in the shower the hotel has positioned at the end of the pier, unload what needs to go back to the room and ... end up at the pool ---- right where I wanted to be ANYWAY! And then ... we do it all over again, the next day.
Camping is pretty much the same exhausting process, only worse.
I don't like to go to the beach (!) or camping or anywhere that involves a long process in getting us all there. I will do it though; just like I do those damned awful gaudy orange and black Halloween decorations in my house every year - for my children. But, I do sometimes look for ways around doing it if the end does not really justify the "crap I have to go through to make it happen".
If the payoff is to see my little boy build the best and most magnificent sand castle of all the kids on the beach, then I will do it and I will take pictures and I will be happy I inconvenienced myself, just to get those precious photos. I will do it just to over-hear one of them telling their friend, "Yeah, we went to the beach and we had so much fun." I will do it to hear my baby say,"I love going to the beach, Mama," and never once let her know just how much I don't. I will do it. I have done it - many times.
I haven't actually planned this trip to the beach that I promised The Princess - but, as you can see, it is on my mind. If we do it ... I'll take some (d***) pictures.
On the upside ... I've had A LOT of practice doing things I don't want to do and I've had A LOT of practice going to the beach - maybe this time I would love it.