Relax on holiday with twins? It’s so much Easier when I’m in work
‘That sounds like an ordeal’, a friend without offspring replied, when I told her we were going to Peppa Pig World for a short break.
Until then, it had slipped my mind how a younger me might have viewed herding children around a children’s theme park after a sleepless night in the same hotel room as hard work.
Over the last four years, I’ve grown to view ‘relaxing’ and ‘holiday with the twins’ as two very separate entities. My mind has relegated the myriad anxieties of our first trip away and those treasured memories are now viewed through rose-tinted spectacles.
To be fair, ‘ordeal’ is too strong a word for the holidaying with twins initiation, but I arrived home feeling a lot less refreshed than when I went.
We’d rented a beautiful Spanish villa, complete with a very deep swimming pool just outside the back door, and an open staircase with a decent drop to an attractive but very solid marble floor.
Thankfully, we’d gone with Victoria’s parents, who were happy to stop the twins from drowning or plunging onto stone while we washed or ate.
We still had a wonderful time watching the children enjoy new experiences like a sea that wasn’t freezing, sunshine, flying on a plane and, say what you like about the Spanish and their feelings towards bulls, with children, they’re marvellous.
It was so enjoyable, that when my mum and dad suggested another trip, we were more than happy to go with them to the party island of Ibiza.
We left the clubs and bars for a time when the entertainment will allow us to embarrass the children in public and chose a place in the middle of nowhere.
Naturally, we faced the same
challenges, with the added anxiety of a wasp’s nest in the hedge and a stunning, but lethal 20ft drop onto a sunken garden next to the front path.
It was a few months later in the year and Victoria spent hours of her day covering the twins with sun cream in case we cooked them.
A particular highlight of this holiday was Thomas’ newly developed love for the sea. As soon as we got to the beach, he’d sprint for the shoreline and leap into the waves.
Victoria dismissed my idea of a ball and chain to slow him down, so we covered him in myriad buoyancy aids, until he looked like the Michelin Man’s love child.
Then COVID struck, and we decided to avoid the anxiety and stick to staying with relatives – until now, when we’re venturing out into the slightly safer territory of a UK mini-break and I can’t wait, but I’ve come to realise my idea of a nice relaxing break from it all is a day in work.