Pick up your shoes and other fatherly advice: Spring break boo-hoo

My daughter Haley and I have a few special bonds, interests that we share, just the two of us.

We both are infatuated with Disney World, we love to discuss the beginning of time and the end of space, and we both love the TV show “Friends.”

So when Haley, who is 17, told me she was going on a spring break trip to Florida this year, I could not help but think of the “Friends” episode when Ross’ much younger girlfriend, Elizabeth, was going on a spring break trip. Ross did not know if she was going on “a spring vacation in Sarasota with her grandmother, or to Spring Break Woo-Hoo!”

(I had to ask Haley the specifics of Ross’ concern. She knew them immediately.)

Haley and her girlfriends are going to be chaperoned by the mother of one of the girls, staying at a family-owned condo. That, in fact, is probably the only reason she is being allowed to go.

My wife, Janice, and I trust Haley. She has been the classic firstborn child. She has never given us a hint of trouble. But that doesn’t change the fact that I have seen the “Girls Gone Wild” commercials.

I have done a spring break trip myself, decades ago, and I honestly believe it was a simpler time. We were all of legal drinking age. We were at the end of our college experiences. We were not innocent, and the world was less dangerous.

I honestly don’t worry about what Haley will do on her trip. That doesn’t change the fact that the term “spring break” has officially changed in our home.

Up to now, “spring break” was our opportunity to get away as a family. But with three of our four kids in high school, and high school activities requiring participation even when school is not in session, spring break just isn’t what it used to be.

Back in the day, spring break trips were exciting for everyone. New experiences were easy to come by. The travel itself was exciting — first plane rides, first extended road trips, hotel stays, different amusement parks, different sights to see.

Just the thought of a trip got the kids excited. They loved the idea of getting up very early to start the trip. If we were driving somewhere, they loved packing up their things for the trip. If we were flying, well, we were flying. Who doesn’t find flying exciting?

As the kids got older, their idiosyncrasies became more pointed and obnoxious, and trips became more problematic. But two years ago, my wife, Janice, fixed that problem by announcing we were going to The Atlantis in the Bahamas. Once again, my kids were excited (although teenagers are, by law, required to hide their excitement about anything proposed by their parents).

The traveling was hellish. One canceled flight. Lost luggage once we arrived in Nassau, which meant a day without swimsuits and warm weather clothing. But we got through it and had a great time.

One good thing about traveling with older children is that they can, in most instances, take care of themselves. Our girls, Haley and Lindsey, hung out together at The Atlantis, and the boys, Dan and Kyle, spent all day at the water park (and ran into skateboard legend Shaun White). With little ones, every trip is about them — their safety, their enjoyment, their exhaustion — and you can’t take your eyes off them for a second.

Of course, with the little ones, it is also about their sheer joy at seeing something, almost anything, for the first time. Even when teenagers think something is extremely cool, they don’t always show it.

After our stay in the Bahamas, we packed our carry-on bags for the flight home with some snacks, and at the Nassau airport we were asked by the customs agent if we had any food to declare. I said no, but Kyle, who was 11 at the time, said loudly, “Dad has food in his backpack.” The other kids yelled at Kyle to be quiet, and Kyle felt chagrined, but it ended up being a very funny memory from what might have been our last family spring break trip.

So, enjoy the spring break trips you have with the little ones. While the individual trip might seem never- ending, the trips as a whole eventually do stop happening.

Ÿ Kent McDill is a freelance writer. He and his wife, Janice, have four children, Haley, Dan, Lindsey and Kyle.