My daughter, her husband and their children are on their way home. It is a long drive from Ohio to Mid Florida. I talked to them when they were north of Lexington KY and then again when they were north of Macon GA. From what I can determine that was about 12 hours of driving. They have 6 to 8 more hours to go. The father in me is waiting for that call to say they made it safely.
I’m not sure if I worry and fret more than most parents, but sometimes it does feel like I do. Then again, I am worrying for two parents.
My wonderful holidays will be complete when my daughter and her family make it home. Then I can worry about the more mundane things. Like daughters in College. Or daughters who just got married. Daughters who have been married for a few years. Do they have what they need? Are they doing well. Are any of them sick. Is there an alligator in the back yard? 😉
Yes, I love my children. All of them. The girls I helped raise, and the men they picked to join our family. I’ll continue to worry and wait.
I think it is natural for parents to worry… spoken as a child, but I think in hindsight it is a good thing that they do.
They made it home just before 8:00am this morning. Now, if they can get the kids to settle down, the adults will want a nap after the long drive.
Me I’m old, I want a overnight stop with an 18+ hour drive.
Glad to hear that they made it home safely – good luck on getting the kids to nap. That’s always our biggest problem – mom and dad stay up all night long driving the 20 hours straight thru, and when we get to FL or back to OH, we just want to crash, but that is never possible. Stopping at a hotel and breaking up the drive is even worse than driving straight thru when you have little ones. At least they sleep at night which makes some of the drive peaceful.
How often do they get alligators in the back yard?
No, they really don’t get too many alligators in the back yards. They are in drainage ditches along some roads. Since I drove down to Florida with the same to kids last summer, I didn’t mind the overnight stay. The kids were great on the ride. They had plenty to do. I just have two words. Color Wonders.
I, too, am glad everyone made it home well. I’m a worrier too when people have to travel long distances…
On another note…..I’m looking at the ads that are posted on the top of this post…..seems odd, and trying to figure out where they came up with it…. 😉
disregard…it doesn’t come up anymore. It probably figured out it was not appropriate.
My kids always have plenty to do; they especially like to watch movies in the car – Redbox is great for that, rent in one city, return in another.
I’ve had mixed results with Color Wonders; they mostly like to snap the markers together and build with them. I think those are made mostly for parents because of the mess-free feature, as far as my kids know, they are just markers that won’t color on regular paper. Add to that their expense, and I’d rather just buy some cheap little toys and puzzles at the thrift or dollar store. None of this applies to the little guy, and he is the one I’m referring to since he hasn’t been on a Florida trip yet and shows no signs of being able to tolerate 20 hrs in his car seat.
But I’m glad your daughter found something that works for their family – every kid has their “currency”, so they say…
On my trip to Florida, I didn’t have a DVD player with me. My grandkids were well entertained with the Color Wonders and Magna Doodle. But since they both like to draw, it was an easy thing to pick out activities they enjoyed.