GUILTY CHOCOHOLIC MAMA MY VACATION MOM MELTDOWN
by Elizabeth Spencer O n our most recent family vacation, I had a mom meltdown. The trigger was an activity we really wanted to do that didn’t work out (and didn’t work out in an unnerving, unsettling way). But that wasn’t the actual reason for my meltdown. The real reason was something my poor family did not understand, though they tried, bless them. It’s something I’m pretty sure only moms of big kids (or pre-big kids) can really understand: that the older your children get, the more time together takes on epic significance because you
know just how much it took to get to that place and you don’t know when you all might find your way back there again. Gathering an entire family (which may include teens and young adults) for any extended length of time is a feat of scheduling, negotiation, and preference management. International treaties have been worked out in fewer steps. The sheer number of details that have to line up is mind-bog- gling. The same goes for multigenerational family dinners and holidays and other moments whose casts include older kids who have other things to do (have to do, want to do) and other people to
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JULY/AUGUST 2022 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JULY/AUGUST 2022
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