No Kids Allowed

So my friends and I have been talking about doing a mini-vacation sometime in the following year. We already have a 3 dayer booked for the end of April, but we are thinking something more Tropical for another 4 or 5 day get-a-way.

There is one problem in the planning of all of this. Half of us have kids, and have of us don't.

Now if we without kids had our way, they would have Mommy-and-Me type deals for everything. Flights, restaurants, stores, hotels, buses...You name it, it'd have a warning that kids-a-plenty were abound.

Don't get me wrong-I like kids. I had a big hand in raising three kids myself, but the three kids I raised knew damn well that whether we were at the movies or a restaurant, they had better behaved like young ladies and gentlemen or they were in biiiiiig trouble.

Unfortunately, the rest of the world is not like this. I feel for those parents for a bit, but then I wonder why the hell they didn't teach their kids some damn manners.

Maybe I'm just getting a bit less tolerant as I age, but it drives me absolutely crazy when a screaming kid is ruining my experience at a restaurant/museum/movie.

Now I know you can't just ban kids from ALL places, but the thought of a "No Kids Allowed" type resort is my version of heaven.

The half of friends that have kids are not exactly thrilled with this option, as they think our vacation should be more of a "family affair" since we are all just like family.

I wouldn't mind one bit if it were just their children there, as most of them pretty much know how to act in public. They are good kids, but if I'm going to be laying on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean, drinking some frozen alcoholic laden umbrella type drink, I really don't want to think of what activities we can do that will involve the kids.

Selfish? Oh yes, yes it is. The two couples in our tight knit group from childhood have kids, two couples don't, and I'm single and carefree. That would be 5 against 4 if put to a vote.

Maybe it's time for us to just do the mini three dayer and not a bigger vacation together. We are all so close, and have been close for so many years, that it's hard for half of us to do something and leave the other half out.

We have chosen different paths in life though. The ones that don't have kids have no intention of ever having kids. They have ambitious careers and like being independent. The ones that have kids relish their families, and are very involved in their children's lives.

Even though we are so different, the friendships remain. Loyalties like what we have are hard to come by. I can honestly say that I have 8 people in my life that would take a bullet for me without thinking twice. They love me unconditionally, and we have bonds that can't be broken. I'm talking about relationships that were formed 29+ years ago, since we were practically toddlers.

It amazed me to find out when I became an adult that most people do not have relationships like this. I then realized just how lucky I am to have people like this in my life.

We are so used to doing things as a unit that the thought of half doing this and half doing that never really occured to us. Yes, I've went on vacations without them a bunch of times, and they on their own.

Usually every 3 or 4 years we will do a joint venture, and they have always been my favorite vacations. We haven't done more then a 3 dayer in awhile, so we started talking about it. When M suggested a Disney Cruise, you could just see the look of horror on the childless people's faces, and the delight in the procreator's faces.

Fuck no. No way in hell am I going on vacation where kids are encouraged to be there. No fucking way.

I totally understand how they would feel bad if they left the kids home for the 5 day stint. After all, they are going on the 3 dayer at the end of April without them. Mabye we need to be more tolerant towards children, or maybe we just need to hang up the idea of bigger vacations together until their kids are old enough to drink with us....