Wellness is Taking the Plunge: Sea Turtles and Cenotes with a Preschooler in Tow June 30, 2023 – Posted in: Blog
If you have a child, you know how much of yourself seems to get lost in the abyss of exhaustion.
Wellness isn’t just getting to the gym, it’s connecting to the person you were before those 5am wakeups became the norm.
It’s getting on a plane and knowing you are going to experience something that isn’t part of your daily routine. It’s having experiences that can’t quite be put into words, but after you’ve had them, you feel renewed and re-energized.
I’ll admit it. We heard from everyone we know that traveling would never be the same with a child.
I’m here to tell you that you should file that advice under: “No sh$t”.
You know what else isn’t the same? Everything. So you might as well start adapting and embracing some of your favorite pastimes with a new twist (and a bonus of naps during vacation not being the battlefield that they may be at home). Staring at the blues of the Mexican Caribbean also doesn’t hurt, nor does some calming aromatherapy (lavender, please)!
Parenting in Another Location
Cruises, trips to Mexico, the Bahamas, 12-hour road trips to North Carolina and Georgia, we’ve traveled with him since he was wee months old. The majority of these trips weren’t “vacations”, they were just parenting in another location. Those early days of travel, bottle warmers, and other trinkets are not days I miss, I can’t lie.
Fast forward to now. I’m here to tell you how much fun it can become based on our recent experience during our adventure to Tulum and Akumal.
We weren’t sure if it would be an amazing idea or one that would have us wishing we could teleport ourselves home. Ultimately, we decided the risk was worth the reward. On Jasper’s last day of being three years old, now would be as good of a time as any to venture away from our Tulum resort for a few hours. It seemed like a pretty epic way to welcome age four…
It went better than we could have ever imagined and is now imprinted into our hearts how much excitement he had when he saw his beloved sea turtles, colorful coral, and bats (I’ll admit, not my favorite), but he was blown away. These weren’t the typical Disney days of magic that turn a child’s eyes into saucers, but Mother Nature at her finest.
Nora the Explorer
If there was a perfect person to have led our first big excursion in the snorkeling realm, it was Nora from Ocean Adventures Riviera Maya. She not only made us feel like this mission wasn’t impossible, but she graciously helped navigate us around with our son, including pulling him around with a life preserver to give his little fish legs a rest. She was a hero to us all!
If you’re nervous about a preschooler in tow, you might be pleasantly surprised to find him or her being the VIP of the trip, and inspiring many of the other couples who are on their much-deserved parents-only trips, to bring their littles back to experience some of this kind of soul-filling adventure. I now realize that wellness is…taking the plunge.
¡Hasta pronto, México!
