Monday, October 15, 2012

Australia

The life of a travel nanny ranges from a 3 day visit to a home while the parents enjoy a romantic get away to traveling with them on vacation.  But even that has variables and I am always surprised at how many ways there are to do travel!

In 2012 I had this wonderful opportunity to work with an Australian family.  I had never had an email from someone out of the country so I was intrigued.  I did all my checks to make sure it was legitimate and slowly we got to know each other.  One of the best things I ever did as this has been a wonderful travel experience with an extraordinary family.  It seems my father married this wonderful woman from Maine and as they had children, it was important to go back and spend time with their grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins.  So once or twice a year they make the journey back to Maine with the two children. " Traveling is stressful", he said, "last time we did this we only had one 18 month old child and even with my parents traveling, we were all wore out by the time we got there!"  He just wanted some traveling relief and found my website.

I would fly to Perth, Australia and have a few days to rest up and get to know the kids.  Then we would fly to Sydney, spend the night and fly early the next day to Honolulu where we would let the children rest up, get used to another time change.  From there it was to San Franciso with 2 nights to adjust before we took off for Boston.  In Boston I would say good bye and see them again in a month and make our way back reversing the route.

Jim and I on Sydney Bridge

Everyone should climb the Bridge!
The great news for me was when we went back, I could stay as long as I wanted to rest up.  So the first year I flew my husband over and we explored Australia for two weeks.  It has been my dream since a child to go to Australia so another thing was crossed off my bucket list.

Ollie sleeps through his first trip across the Pacific
One time we stayed in Orlando for a week as they attended a conference and I took care of the children.

Going back we went via Boston to Dublin, then to Vienna and then to Dubai where he had a cousin before we made our way back to Perth.  This time I took a 4 day rest in Melbourne before starting the journey back.

It's not your usual travel as this is not about the parents going out at night to have fun.  Everyone is trying to get to Maine rested up so they can begin enjoying their family for the month there.  Yet, I can coax them out during the day to do some couple shopping (clothes much less expensive in US) or just have a nice dinner together.

Everyone has different goals when they travel.  For some parents it is about having couple time and knowing your kids are being amused and happy.  They love doing family time with an extra helping hand.  When they want alone family time, I can amuse myself.

The Parkers and I will be friends long after they no longer need a travel nanny.  When you travel with a family more than once, you become an adopted member.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Would love to hear your comments or questions!