As more and more children have been added to our little family, I’ve loved staying in hotel rooms more and more.
Free breakfast? Yes!
No dishes? Great!
No laundry? Oh, darn!
Cleaning service? The best!
Problem is, booking a hotel for more children has proven more difficult as well. Hotel websites say they are full for the dates we want to stay. They say to try a different range. It didn’t take me long to figure out that the problem was not the timing. The problem was the children.
The idea didn’t occur to me right away because I live in an area where most of our friends have 3-4 children. However, the average number of children per family in America is currently at 1.89. If television shows and anecdotal observations prove correct, most traveling ‘families’ are couples. Many don’t have children at all.
And hotels reflect this. Makes sense; since a larger room that never gets booked would be a liability, compared to several little rooms that are often full.
When I posed the question online, many friends told me they “cheat.” They book one room and bring the rest of the kids in anyway. Some don’t even bother, like my relative with 8 kids who drives straight from the East Coast to the West on rotating driver shifts and only bathroom breaks. Most of those who travel with several children stay with friends or family, or go camping.
I’m an honest person, so don’t think I could sneak kids into a room. I can’t drive through the night and subsist on caffeine without getting ill. I do think the friend/family option is the best and we’ve tried camping.
The very best scenario, though, if I still want a hotel room; is to find the few left with suites or to rent someone’s place from an online service.
Once we found someone with a bed and breakfast, who was willing to rent us as much space as we needed for one cost. Another time, we did find a hotel with a family suite for about the cost of the other rooms we’d rented in the past. A third time, we stayed in a sort of KOA with cabins.
Sometimes I get frustrated trying to book our stay, but I am always glad for two things when I do: the internet, and the places that still support families with larger amenities.
It’s not easy paying for all of our children in almost all things. So thank you, family-friendly accommodations, for making it just that much easier.
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Here’s what I wrote this past week:
Sunday, June 16: Explained a bit of my absence in “Big Announcement.”
Monday, June 17: Wrote “A Pregnancy Poem.”
Tuesday, June 18: Shared a quote by Ray Romano.
Wednesday, June 19: Shared the secret of prepared food in Food Tip 2.
Thursday, June 20: “A Lecture on Mango Nectar.” You don’t want to know.
Friday, June 21: Discussed some frustrations with the dentist and some tips for when you go in “No One Likes the Dentist, But Some Kids Have Special Needs.”
Saturday, June 22: Shared Richard Dean‘s tweet about hugging his wife when she isn’t expecting it.
Sunday, June 23: That’s today!
Photo Credit:
Markus Spiske
Josh Wilburne
Arno Smit
©2019 Chelsea Owens
I Didn't Want to Be a Mother 