Babymoons Are A Thing

So Babymoons are a thing now.

My wife and I were on a flight to the Hawaiian island of Oahu in 2018. We were looking forward to spending some time in Waikiki (which honestly feels just like a very busy city now with tourists everywhere) watching the surfers on the North Shore (very cool) and visiting the Molokai to see what a non-tourist Hawaiian island was like (interesting for a couple nights to see what “old Hawaii” is like.)  We had the middle and aisle seats on a 757 from LAX to HNL. A younger man (28ish years old?) was sitting in the window seat next to us. He engaged in conversation with us and asked the typical questions you’d expect on a plane:

Have you been to Hawaii before?

Which islands are you going to?

What are you going to do on your trip?

Then, because apparently I felt the need to be courteous, I conversed back:

Me:  What are you going to do in Hawaii?

Him: My wife is two rows up and we’re going on our Babymoon!

Me:  <Rolls eyes>

Him:  It’s our last chance to get away before the baby comes.

Ok I didn’t really roll my eyes.

So Babymoons are a thing now. A Babymoon is a vacation a couple take before having a baby. The couple will typically go on vacation when the mother-to-be is pregnant but still able to fly. Apparently this is supposed to be a last hurrah before the baby comes.

To me, a Babymoon is basically like a farewell tour of your life. Or at least the next 18 years of your life. After they have their baby the new parents will be so focused on their newborn that they won’t even have time to think about going on another similar type of vacation. Instead they’ll be changing dirty diapers, feeding it, talking to it in that high-pitched baby voice (you know what I mean!), cleaning up vomit, and doing their best to make their baby stop crying. (Isn’t that really the number one goal of a baby? Trying to have it not cry?)

I’m sure the new parents will go on vacation, but their vacation will be seeing family so they can see their new baby. Or they might really branch out and take a long weekend away somewhere, but every second they’ll be thinking about their baby. Not exactly the type of vacations I enjoy, but to each their own I guess.

I would much rather take a vacation that I truly enjoy and not take one with the primary reason of getting away from their baby….I mean getting away from everything.

Then when the baby grows to be a child the types of vacations they’ll take will be a lot different. Assuming they have the money (don’t forget raising a child is very expensive) then they’ll be going to Disney World or Disneyland. Would I rather go to Disney World with thousands of sugar loaded children running around and screaming and crying or would I rather go to an all-inclusive resort and have cocktails served to me on the beach?

Finally when your child grows up more then you’ve graduated from the Disney vacations and moved to the classic Family Vacation. Don’t get me wrong, family vacations can be great and I was lucky enough to go on some when I was younger. They allow you to spend time with your family and bond. Ultimately the parents still have to look after their children. That might mean making sure the hotel has a swimming pool so their children have something to do. Or it might mean making sure the destination has kid friendly activities throughout the day. Nothing wrong with this, but it’s not the ideal vacation I prefer to take.

Living a Child Free Life is all about freedom for me. My wife and I enjoy traveling and like to take as many vacations as we can. We like taking vacations to places that we both enjoying going to. During the winter we’ll sneak away to a warm climate destination to get away from the Minnesota cold and snow. During the spring and fall months we’ll find destinations that are more geared to culture and sightseeing. During the summer we tend to stay in Minnesota because there are 11,842 lakes and 66 State Parks to take advantage of. We have the freedom to choose to go on vacations like these in part because we live a Child Free Life. If we had a child we’d be stuck traveling when school was off. Have you ever noticed that airfare and lodging are significantly more expensive during spring break? That’s not a coincidence. Airlines and hotels know this and increase their prices. We fully avoid traveling over spring break because of the increased cost and inexperienced travelers at the airports.

Is the Child Free Life for you or will you be taking a Babymoon someday?