One thing I find that never really gets easier is raising babies far away from family – I moved to Prince George in 2010 for university, met a PG boy, and here we are.
This weekend I had a good cry because it’s another holiday season away from my parents, my siblings and my grandparents. My husband’s family is here, but they aren’t as involved and don’t really have those big family traditions that I grew up with.
When my babies were little, we’d go to Vancouver regularly. Not always for the holiday, but every few months. Gas prices were different, and little babies were easier to travel with then big kids with opinions (serious, I miss travelling with screaming toddlers some days).
If the holiday blues are sweeping over you because your staring down 6-7 weeks of holiday prep alone, I feel you.
They say to build your own traditions, and create your own happiness – but I’ll be honest in that the good cries are still needed. It’s okay to have emotions about missing out, and it doesn’t really get easier because the kids get bigger and want to visit far away grandma and grandpa, but you have to say ‘not this year’.
I would love to move back home, but have you seen the price of a condo in Chilliwack, BC? Yikes. And my husband would have to relocate his job, and we’d have to try to find a family doctor again…. it’s actually the family doctor part that kept us from moving to Kamloops a few years back. So, I feel a little stuck in place, unable to move.
Anyways, we’re trying to make things work – maybe we’ll fly the kids down for two weeks with their grandparents, maybe we’ll hire a handful of teenage babysitters, maybe we’ll have big kids running the store this holidays.
Photo of the Bouwman family with 2 under 2, my parents had just left, and both children were needing the love, and parents needing a break despite their gorgeous smiles.
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