Check Out My Piece in the NYT Magazine

How children changed my favorite vacation pastime

Happy New Year!

I love this time of year. I find the cold invigorating, and it feels, even if briefly, like anything is possible in the upcoming months. I’m a big fan of big-picture resolutions. It’s so helpful to be reminded to stop for a second and assess what’s going on in your life and see if you can make any needed changes.

The older I get, and the older my kids get, I realize how much is dependent upon which stage of life everyone in the family is at. In my years of motherhood, I’ve found that vacation is a good barometer for where we are. It’s also a reminder that every stage, with both its joys and frustrations, is temporary. Vacation with a baby can be depressing, with you stuck in a hotel room with a constantly napping little one while everyone else galavants about. Then, with a toddler, it’s more exhausting than regular life and still feels so prohibitive. (I remember one self-pitying moment when I was standing in a piss-filled baby pool while looking longingly at the beach and ocean, which were so close, yet years away.) Vacation with elementary-age kids becomes a new thing, one that can actually include adventure and fun. That’s where I’m at now. (I imagine I need to appreciate this before they’re teenagers and I’ll have to endure them complaining about everything, or whatever teenagers do.)

In this spirit of observing where we’re at right now, and how things are changed by our children and by our own evolution, I wrote this piece for the New York Times Magazine. (The print version comes out tomorrow.) For me, it’s a reminder that we need to be flexible in how we view, well, everything, from our alone time to how we experience things with our children. I hope you enjoy it!

Illustration by Xiao Hua Yang for the New York Times Magazine

I’m looking forward to bringing you more interviews with brilliant women in 2024!