 Find Your R&R Style
What
kind of vacation do you really need?
Take the quiz to find out.
Before you buy tickets to visit Grandma or rent that same
old house down the shore, it might be smart to figure out what
kind of vacation you really need this year. Take our handy
quiz to help nail down plans for your ideal vacation.
WHAT’S YOUR TYPICAL WEEKDAY MORNING LIKE?
A. Wake up before dawn to kids screaming, run three-hour gauntlet
of getting everyone ready and out of the house, then start
working myself unless I have to be rushed to the hospital for
exhaustion.
B. Wake up to the buzzing of my BlackBerry, followed by answering
all overnight e-mails and working the cell phone until I reach
my computer.
C. Sleep late, read novels in bed, and if I’m feeling
really energetic, watch the fourth hour of the Today Show.
I don’t like to wear myself out before noon.
AND THEN HOW DOES THE REST OF YOUR DAY GO?
A. Shop, clean, cook dinner, do laundry, supervise homework,
placate spouse, and prepare for the next day. If I don’t
get everything done, I set my alarm for 3 am to beat the rush.
B. E-conferencing, iPoding, TiVoing, iPhoning—though
I think I may have heard my kid trying to talk to me somewhere
in there.
C. Watch the soaps and the game shows, order a pizza, and if
I’m feeling really energetic, lie on a lawn chair and
let the sprinkler wash over me. I don’t like to overexcite
myself before bedtime.
WHAT DO YOU NORMALLY DO FOR VACATION?
A. Pack the entire family and half the house in the car, drive
to a campsite or a cottage, and do everything we usually do,
except in less space and with more of a crowd.
B. Head to a hotel or rental house with WiFi and cable, and
work the laptop from poolside.
C. Sleep on the other side of the bed, order my pizza from
Nino’s rather than Gino’s, and if I’m feeling
really energetic, watch National Lampoon Family Vacation.
HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU RETURN FROM YOUR USUAL VACATION?
A. I’m so worn out I need another vacation.
B. I’m so wired I feel like I’ve never been away.
C. I’m so relieved I’ll never go on vacation again.
SO WHY DON’T YOU DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY?
A. No time, money, energy to pull together a different vacation.
B. Fear that if I unplugged I would cease to exist.
C. Don’t ask me now: I’m watching The Biggest Loser.
KEY
IF YOU ANSWERED MOSTLY A’s, YOU NEED A VACATION
FROM LIFE – You’re a typical working parent, overwhelmed
by too much to do, too little time and money. The kind of
vacation you really need is one where you peel away routine
demands and do as little as possible. If you can’t
send the kids to sleepaway camp or grandma’s, pack
them off to day camp and go back to bed yourself, with the
remote and a stack of old magazines for company. If you don’t
think you’ll be able to ignore the housework and the
e-mail, check out an all-inclusive family vacation at a Caribbean
resort—the kind with baby-sitting—where
low summer prices can make it as affordable as a week at
a local beach.
IF YOU ANSWERED MOST B’s, YOU NEED A VACATION
FROM ELECTRICITY – Sitting
on a mountaintop with a laptop may sound great—but you
may as well have just stayed in your office. Unplug your life
and get reacquainted with your inner self on an adventure trip:
Abercrombie & Kent (abercrombiekent.com) can arrange for
you to cruise the lost islands of the South Pacific or tour
Antarctica in comfort. Or learn something new that doesn’t
require electricity: Italian cooking, say, or watercolor painting.
You may find a window into your soul—and at least you’ll
have lots of e-mail when you get home.
IF YOU ANSWERED MOSTLY C’s, YOU NEED A VACATION FROM
YOUR PERMANENT VACATION – Taking it easy is one thing,
retreating from life is another. If going on vacation has come
to feel like too much effort for you, it’s time to make
even more of an effort and spend your vacation helping others.
Check out volunteer vacations at Charity Guide, charityguide.org/volunteer/vacations.htm,
where you can find out how to do anything from build houses
for Habitat for Humanity to travel to Africa to help save the
rhinoceros. Beats summer reruns any day
PSSSST: HERE’S MOM’S (AND DAD’S)
SECRET GIFT LIST
Every Mother’s Day, my husband and kids ask me what
I want for a gift. And every year, I suggest something modest
and boring, like a potted hydrangea, or (if it’s been
a really tough year) something lavish and boring: gold hoop
earrings, maybe, or a weekend at an inn.
What I never tell them is what I really want. Why not? Maybe
because, as we all know, Mother’s Day and Father’s
Day are really as much about the entire family as they are
about
the actual moms and dads. We hate to be seen as too selfish
and demanding; we want our children and spouses to feel as
good about what they give us as we feel about what we get.
Still, we have our secret desires. Here, what moms and dads
say they want on their special day, and what they really want:
WHAT THEY SAY THEY WANT
1. Breakfast in bed.
2. A new laptop.
3. An iTunes gift certificate.
4. Yet another regular
pair of earrings.
5. A digital camera.
6. Flowers.
7. A book.
8. A bicycle.
9. Nothing.
WHAT THEY REALLY WANT
1. The whole day in bed, alone, with
a giant bag of M & Ms and the entire first season of In Treatment.
2. A handwritten love letter.
3. A week at Fur Peace Ranch,
Jorma Kaukonen’s guitar
camp. furpeaceranch.com
4. Big honking diamond studs from Tiffany’s—or
earrings you make yourself at the local bead store.
5. All the family photos organized into
a beautiful album.
6. For you to rake and weed
the entire garden. From
now until Thanksgiving.
7. More conversation.
8. A Vespa. If they say they want a Vespa, they want a car.
If they say they want a car, they’d really like you to
walk around the block with them every evening.
9. Your time and attention!
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