You need a vacation to look forward to? You and me both!
Office life can be too much sometimes. You reach a limit after having several meetings a day, a lot of errors to correct that your dumb coworker made, and a boss who doesn't treat you well and doesn't see the value that you give to the company. All that is too much. It is bearable on most days; you keep thinking about the paycheck, and everything is fine. But sometimes, the paycheck is not enough to make you look forward to and tolerate everything. You need a bigger excitement in your life to work hard towards it. That's when vacations appear in the equation. When you start to plan a vacation, everything looks as if it had a pink filter on top of it. Every day is sunny, every coworker is nice, every problem is not that big of a deal. That's why you need a vacation.
We are close to the holidays. Thanksgiving is this month, Christmas and New Year's are next. For some people, that involves traveling, even by plane. They take that time to go out of town to visit all the family members that live really far away. And that sounds like enormous fun, getting to be with family, traveling, getting out of work; everything sounds amazing. But it's not always like that. If you travel with little ones, you know that a flight is actually a mother's worst nightmare. The kids don't seem to be able to sit still; they get bored so easily, and the whole family gets stuck in seats that are pretty far from each other. But at that moment, when everything seems to be going in the worst possible way, and you think that the family vacation is completely ruined, at that moment you need to remember office life.
Every day at the office is far more stressful than any family vacation could be. At least you are with your loved ones instead of with some coworker you can't stand. So enjoy it, smile through the mess. Everything may seem to be falling apart, like always, but that doesn't mean that the vacation is already ruined. You still have time to enjoy, to relax, to bond with family activities. So relax, try to sleep, and let the kids be kids. They may be behaving awfully, but at least you are all together, and that is extremely valuable.