Last Sunday, the Contra Costa Times had a travel article about "babymoons"--the last trip that couples take before their first child is born. These parents-to-be aren't just getting away to the beach or a cabin in the mountains. According to one person who runs a website for parents interested in booking a "babymoon": "...but babymooners are looking for special gifts and tokens that will remind them of their trip." She said some resorts are providing those extras, including cigars for Dad, pickles and ice cream for Mom, or plush onesies with the hotel logo.
These trips are not cheap, ranging from $2000 a day to $200 for a trip to a day spa.
According to Patty Onderko, senior editor at BabyTalk magazine, "...babymoons help couples reconnect.
"Once you get pregnant, you're on an instant roller coaster of doctors' appointments, buying things, getting ready, taking care of things at work," Onderko said. "There's really not time to step back and reflect on the reason you're having a baby together -- because you love each other."
Hubs and I went on a short trip while I was pregnant with DS#1. The occasion was my 30th Birthday weekend. We went camping at Butte Lake in Lassen National Park. I was 5-1/2 months pregnant. On the last day I was 29 (which sounds more dramatic than on the day before I turned 30), we climbed Cinder Cone. It's not a particularly arduous hike, except that there's no shade and the cone is made of small pieces of pumice. The next day I woke to a campsite decorated with Happy Birthday banners and balloons and breakfast-in-my sleeping bag in the back of our pickup truck.We also ended up stopping in Red Bluff for ice because it was 110 degrees in the Central Valley and the truck did not have air-conditioning.
(Hubs told this story to DS#2 who just completed a 50-mile hike with his troop in the same area. DS#2, knowing that Hubs is a storyteller, wanted to confirm the story with me.)
The total cost of the four-day trip, in 1983 dollars, was probably $200.00. It would be a little more today, mostly due to gas prices and the increase in campsite fees.
The couples interviewed in the article had high-pressure and high-paying jobs. They could afford (I hope) the cost of their "babymoon." However, I wonder if articles like this create unreasonable expectations among those of us who are still firmly in the middle class who can't afford this. Because as wonderful as getting away from it all might be, it all catches up with you when you come home and the bill is due!
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