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VACATIONING WHEN IT’S
JUST YOU Recently my daughter and I took a weeklong vacation to Cancun, Mexico. Yes, believe it or not – we single mothers do enjoy taking a break from all the hustle and bustle. Actually, children really like to have the same type of relaxation as we adults. We impose our schedules on them, along with their own busy lives, and expect them to always be cheery. Go figure! While on vacation, many adults admired and provided expressions about my daughter and me on vacation together. I began to question - Is this not supposed to happen? Has this now become an adult only endeavor? I was raised by a single mother, by way of divorce from my father. She believed in our family spending time together, whether big or small, traveling to another state, or taking a short drive to Colorado Springs. Basically, she was exposing my sister and me to environments outside of our own. My mother opened my eyes and created in me a palate to travel domestically, to explore my options to travel internationally, and see the world. My mother taught us not to believe everything we hear and read, but to overcome anxiety and develop the curiosity to further investigate. By this principle, one of my passions in life has become traveling both near and far to learn and satisfy this type of appetite. Now, I have the pleasure to bring my daughter along and share with her the world. While on my recent vacation located at a five-star resort, I noticed all of the African American vacationers who were without children. I am not one to quickly jump to conclusions; therefore, I figured they were recently married and on their honeymoons – had no children – or were empty nesters. On the flip side – other cultures present at the resort had children represented in all age brackets. Sure, you can assume that the other cultures and their families have the means to take the entire family on a weeklong – and some two weeks – vacation in Mexico. Do not get me wrong; but, in conversations with many of these vacationers, some did not have children present for some of those same reasons – honeymoon – anniversary – no children. Personally, I believe we do have the funds to vacation as a family, both here in this country and abroad; however, we choose not too – because we use the excuse lacking funds as an escape. My question, “escape from what?” Sure, there may be other criteria why we tend not to travel with our children – that is another article. Data from recent surveys shows us as African Americans spend more on clothes, cars and electronics than we do on investing and education, let alone taking a vacation and going somewhere outside of where we reside. When we do go on vacation, some of us are usually at home cleaning or catching up on stuff we can basically do over a weekend. I believe in wonderful weekends and vibrant vacations! In my perspective, for African Americans to compete globally, we must expose our children to other parts of the world besides our own. How do we do that? Begin by sparking curiosity and purchasing a World globe, United States and World map for your home. I must add, for those of us who travel internationally without our children, we are setting them up for global failure. Fear is not an excuse, and the world welcome mat is out for Americans – and especially African Americans. Unfortunately, we have been living under a myth – to wait until you retire to travel and take a real vacation. I beg to differ. I prefer to do it now while I am physically capable. Then, later, “chill” in the shade, while drinking some lemonade – looking at old vacation photos – and encouraging other young people to travel and see the world!
Happy travels!
Stephanie L. Cross
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