"Make sure you take a babymoon!" is what I kept hearing while I was pregnant.
What the heck was a babymoon? I had to Google it. According to the Internet, it's a vacation taken by a couple soon before their baby is born.
I guess that makes sense. But what was all the panic about? We had taken lots of vacations. According to my mother, my whole life is a vacation. Did I really need a specific holiday just because a baby was coming?
We already had a vacation planned and I happened to be pregnant, so I guess it was going to be our babymoon.
The main part of our trip was to Croatia, but from there we planned on renting a car and visiting some of the surrounding areas.
My husband, a lifelong learner, suggested we drive to Bosnia and Herzegovina. He tried to sell it to me by explaining that it has a rich history and complex geopolitics. That's right, I said"'complex geopolitics." This is what I was dealing with.
"Ya, sure. Why not?" I said, shrugging my shoulders in defeat. Who needs romance on an exotic island when you can visit a cold, rainy, largely landlocked country still recovering from a civil war? That has romance written all over it, don't you think?
So we went, and let me tell you; it definitely was not Bora Bora!
My husband was in intellectual heaven. We were learning, alright, but wasn't the whole babymoon concept supposed to be about romance?
It was.
Now that I have two children, I think back to Bosnia and we might as well have been in French Polynesia. It was so romantic, it was like Valentine's Day on steroids when you compare it to traveling with children.
We went for nice dinners, just the two of us. We strolled the streets of Sarajevo aimlessly. We held hands instead of pushing strollers. We stayed out late and woke up mid-morning. We didn't have a care in the world. Talk about luxury living!
Of course we didn't know it at the time. Before you have kids, you have no idea how your life is about to change.
Our growing family is wonderful, and traveling with our kids is one of our favorite things to do. But for the love of God, if you're about to become a parent, take a babymoon!
You don't have to go to Bora Bora or Bosnia, but go somewhere. Go for dinner. Go to a movie. Go to the grocery store. Just get up and go. Just because you can.
No car seat, no diapers, no worries. You have no idea how good you have it now... and you won't until you join us on the other side of parenthood.
Don't worry, it's great over here. There's toothless grins and lots of laughter. But one day you'll be like me -- looking back and realizing that Bosnia and Herzegovina was the most romantic place on earth.
This was originally published on Canadian Expat Mom.