Le Bon Plan – The Children of Others

We’re just starting our second full day of holiday here in Catalonia in Spain. The car journey passed off without incident and we’ve all been pleasantly surprised by the clean, well-organized and brand new resort. Yesterday all of our friends and their children arrived as well. Our kids have been very well behaved and have slept well in the evenings. Maxime even thinks that unloading the clean dishwasher is a treat. With one shoe and a cap already missing I wouldn’t say that we’ve got this kids holiday thing licked, and I’m pretty sure that at some stage they’ll have to get bored with the elephant slide pool, but so far so good.

On reflection I think the art of surprise is playing a critical role in our initial success. It was a happy surprise for the kids to have their favourite baby-sitter with us on holiday. 15 year old Abby from the riding stables is a guaranteed hit both with the kids and the parents. So when she agreed to take advantage of the spare place in the car which would also give her a week in the sun, there was a smile on everyone’s face. If our toddlers turn into teenagers like her, then we’ll definitely have done something right. Similarly the arrival of new adults and children yesterday also served to put the kids on best behavior, although it only took 2 year old Capucine one look at blonde haired and blue eyed Tom before she forcefully invited him to visit her room. (I personally was fine with this so long as they kept the door open). More generally it does seem to be the case that kids are always better behaved with adults other than their own parents. It almost made me think it’s worth starting a business where during those difficult toddler and teenage years, you can go on holiday with someone else’s children. However even the most cursory of research on the subject threw up quite a few legal and ethical challenges… So for the minute, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the elephants work their magic for another 8 days.