Vacationing with a purpose

When my father in-law passed away in 2015 my husband and I recognized it was important that we build on keeping the family connected and making memories. So I began to plan. What can we do together as a family  that would be new and different but also memorable as well.

Little by little I put money aside and made sure to get my request for vacation off. Then the research began. Where to go? When to go? How? Car rental? So many questions to answer and decisions to make.

So the first place to start was to ask the children where they may want to go. The responses varied. Hawaii, cruise, Paris, France, etc. It was great the conversations were started having but I knew we had to be realistic but the trip had to financially feasible. Fiji was the trip we were going to take. We would need our passports and would have to figure out air travel.

After a couple of months of discussion...Fiji was out and Orlando Florida was in. Disney World and Universal Orlando  were on and everyone was excited. Once dates were decided on the invitation went out to the grandparents and my siblings. Now the plan was taking shape. We would visit both Universal parks and the four Disney parks. Enough days were selected  so that we didn't have to visit the parks each day but could have some rests time in between.

Be ready for the unexpected......Such as work telling you the days you were previously approved for had to be changed. Yikes! Major stress on board! Rearranging flights, rentals, and hotel accommodations was frustrating. Be sure to know you company's policy on vacation time and requests. There may be times where you will get the short end of the stick. Plan accordingly.

Well I worked by butt off, trying to ignore my anger at having to rearrange my all my reservations, grateful for flexible family members and the blessing that there was no additional cost for all the changes I had to make.

Count down to take off! I'm a list maker. I like having everything organized so all I have to do is just check is off. Parking, maps, swim suits, sun block, aspirin. Check it off. Not every area may have a Wal-Mart or even a Walgreens.  As my dad would say, "Its best to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it."

Up, up and away! The day is here and its time to go! Tickets, check. Suitcases, check. Gonna have a good time, check!
It was the best vacation ever! We had a great time, even in the extreme heat we enjoyed the time together as a family and it was completely worth it!

To Vaccinate or Not Vaccinate

Ultimately it the parent has the final say but it is important that we parents make informed decisions and not solely emotional ones. Be Well.

Kim

COMMENTARY

A Child's Right to Be Vaccinated

Paul A. Offit, MD

 

Disclosures | January 11, 2016

Hi. My name is Paul Offit. I'm talking to you today from the Vaccine Education Center here at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Most of you know that the state of California eliminated its philosophical exemption to vaccines. Therefore, the only exemptions in California are medical exemptions. Why did they do that? The reason is that southern California, specifically Disneyland, served as the epicenter for a massive measles epidemic—one that spread across the United States, involving about 25 states and affecting about 158 people, mostly children. The epidemic also extended northward into two Canadian provinces, where it affected hundreds more people. What happened in California was, they asked the question, "Is it your right to catch and transmit a potentially fatal infection?"
They decided in California that the answer was no. This is the third state that now has only medical exemptions to vaccines. The other two states are Mississippi and West Virginia. The roots of this are in Mississippi, in a case that occurred in the late 1970s called Brown v. Stone. The question that came up in Mississippi was, "Is it your right not to be vaccinated?" and the decision was made that only medical exemptions made sense. It was a 14th Amendment argument—specifically, the second clause of the 14th Amendment—which states that all citizens of the United States should have equal protection under the law. Even if your parents have ill-founded beliefs about vaccine safety, that doesn't mean that children shouldn't be protected. Essentially it became a civil rights issue.
If you go to these rallies in California or Vermont or Michigan, you often hear parents say, "It's about my rights. It's my parental right to raise my child as I see fit." But what about children's rights? Who represents them? In this country, for example, if you are an African American and you feel that you are being treated badly, there are places you can go and people who will represent you. If you are Jewish and you feel that you are being defamed, there are groups you can go to who will defend you. But if you are a child, it's assumed that your parents represent your best interests, and that's not always true. When it's not true, as in this case where parents have a false belief that vaccines cause autism and they don't want to vaccinate their children, who do those children go to?
The answer is, they go to the state. That's what happened, frankly, in California, which basically used a child's rights issue as the central focus of how they made that change. A little boy who had leukemia would go out to those meetings and say, "What about me? Don't I have rights, too? I can't be vaccinated. I depend on those around me to be vaccinated." In the end, in many ways, this is a child's rights issue. It is a civil rights issue with a child, and it's a right that is protected by the 14th Amendment.
Thank you for your attention.