Happy Families

We’ve had some feedback on our blog – from readers who find it a depressing account of the perfect Williamson family happily tripping around the world, Michael and Karen gazing into each other’s eyes as we see the sights and our boys blissfully soaking up every cultural experience we can offer them and angelically reading the bible each night.

Of course, we have told the truth in our blogs about our holiday. We just haven’t told you about all the everyday, boring, frustrating times. Frankly, we didn’t think you’d want to read about that. But maybe you do.

So, if you want to know the whole truth about our odyssey, read on. If not… we’re glad about that too.

Here are some other facts about our holiday…
- we have had long, boring drives in our campervan lasting many hours.

- during those long, boring drives, one of our children talked incessantly about all sorts of nonsense. It gets wearing.

- one of our other children talked nearly as much, and twice as loudly.

- yet another of our children has a tendency to wet his pants when his brothers make him laugh.

- one of our children is a teenager. Enough said.

- two of our children are very grumpy when tired. So is their mother.

- one of our children is overly cheerful when tired. So is his father.

- getting our children to do homework was like pulling teeth.

- we usually travelled with our washing flapping on a line around our heads. Not ideal.

- one of the adults constantly hit her head/foot/leg/etc in the small space of the van. After 10 weeks of van travel, that’s a lot of bruises.

- the other adult tried patiently to cope with his spouse who didn’t seem to remember where she hurt herself the day before, and the day before that, and the one before that.

- there is no privacy in a campervan. We have all seen enough of each other in various stages of undress to last a lifetime.

- our children seemed to enjoy playgrounds more than the amazing sights we were trying to show them.

- our children grew to endure, not enjoy, art galleries and palaces.

- we grew to endure, not enjoy, dinosaur skeletons and toy stores.

- we have eaten way too much spaghetti bolognaise.

- camping ground showers range from the sublime to the ones where you need to push the button every 5 seconds to keep the water running, it’s lukewarm and all your clothes end up soaking wet.

- our London flat had a constant smell of stale smoke.

- one of our children refused to try any new foods. Hence, vast quantities of spaghetti bolognaise and nutella were consumed.

- we had to convince our children that every rock they found didn’t need to come home with us. Nor did McDonald’s toys, cardboard creations or empty chip packets.

- toilets in Europe leave much to be desired. No seats, no toilet paper and often no toilet. Just a hole in the ground.

- we were cold – really cold – for much of our time in the USA, despite wearing every piece of clothing we owned, all at once.

I could go on. But you really don’t want to hear the rest. Suffice to say, we are just like we are at home, and just like you.

Karen