Three-Martini Family Vacation

Description

If "Three Martini Playdate" was aimed at getting parents to once again rediscover their own personalities, this little follow-up would like to get mom and dad out of the house more, preferably with a suitably trained travelling companion. It's not that parents don't adore cooking breakfasts and dinners and helping the youngsters with homework; it's not that they don't look forward every day to picking dried bits of food out of the carpet and waking up really, really early to make school lunches and tell their children to brush their teeth. And certainly listening to a five-year old scream for forty-two minutes at the dentist is excellent fun (the toothpaste was a teeny bit spicy!). But maybe it's time for a little getaway. Since there is never going to be the "perfect time" to go on a vacation, and waiting for the ideal moment would leave you old, gray, and too finicky to want to travel anywhere you can't have your shredded wheat and regular "programs," there is only one answer: Do not wait, go now. And bring this handy little book along to help you make traveling with a pint-sized tyrant just a little easier. The laundry can wait. It's time for a little adventure. For those parents for whom the word vacation is synonymous with being ripped off at Disneyland (in other words, just about all parents), here is a witty and practical guide to finally enjoying that time off you deserve - and with the kids, too!

Christie Mellor, author of The Three-Martini Playdate, is a writer and actress. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two always-angelic sons.