Kitchen Table Blogs
Name: Jeanne Wieland
Kids: daughter, age 13; son, age 10
Works: editor, MilwaukeeMoms.com
Favorite part about being a mom: Built up my tolerance for bodily fluids of all sorts.
Least favorite part about being a mom: Constantly telling my kids to turn off the TV.
Famous for: Not caring who started it.
"What is this?" my 10-year-old son asked in only somewhat mock horror as we checked in to our cabin in Door County. A trip to Wisconsin's Cape Cod is a staple of our summers, and we headed out last week to get in our annual trek.
This time we were joined by a large group -- my husband's brother and sisters, their spouses and children. And instead of staying at one of our usual condo places, this time we were all camped out at an old-school summer resort complete with rows of little cabins and a main building with a screen porch running along the back, just feet away from the water. Think "Dirty Dancing," only a little dirtier, I'm pretty sure.
We don't typically stay in Four Seasons type places, but my kids are used to a little, well, more. So it was a bit of adjustment to warm them up to the idea that for several days we were going to stay in this cabin that we quick dubbed "camping with hard walls" so that they would get the idea that this was not torture -- it was high adventure.
Sure it felt a little damp in there and the beds were really cots. The couch was small by anyone's standards, even kids, so between that and the TV that looked (and operated) more like a microwave than a TV, hanging out in the cabin wasn't going to be a great option.
After some light complaining, loud sighing and eye rolling (that all comes standard with a 13-year-old girl), we settled in and went off to find the rest of our vacation party.
Within hours, the mob of cousins was running off to the beach while the adults sat on the screen porch, chatting and watching the water as the sun went down. The kids (and some adults too) played board games and ping pong and rode the free bikes owned by the resort. They lit off smokebombs (thanks a lot, Uncle Bob), swam in the little pool and kicked soccer balls around.
What they didn't do was watch videos on YouTube or play The Sims or challenge each other on PlayStation3. Nope, these kids were forcibly unplugged and it was a beautiful thing to see.
My son no longer wondered what this was. It was vacation.
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