We were blessed with three sons who are 18 months apart. So needless to say, when they were babies and toddlers, we were very busy. We valued our vacation time together and made sure we went somewhere every year as a family to expose the boys to different places away from home.

One of our brilliant ideas was to take a babysitter with us on our vacations. We would treat our babysitter as another family member. Instead of paying for their time, we would pay for their food, tickets to attractions, they would stay with us in the hotel, and we would give them some spending money.

When we would go out for the day, it was reassuring to have man-to-man coverage with the three boys at amusement parks and zoos. We would give our sitter some time during the day to explore on her own so she could have a break. Then at night when we would get back to the hotel, we would order pizza and she could watch the boys while we went out for the evening. Just the two of us.

There was one vacation where we took the family and our babysitter to Kansas City for a weekend. One of the days was spent at Worlds of Fun theme park. Everything was going really smoothly riding the rides, playing games, and eating fair junk food until the afternoon. We stopped for a moment to plan which area of the park we wanted to visit. Our youngest, who was almost 4 years old, decided he didn’t want to stay for the conversation and took off on his own (he has always been fiercely independent). When we noticed he was gone, we had our babysitter run in one direction (we were thankful she ran track in High School), my husband went looking in another direction, and I stayed put with our other two sons. About ten minutes later, my husband showed up with our youngest holding a lollypop. It seems as though he found a candy shop and thinking that everything was free for the picking, decided to help himself.

Having our sitter along for the ride was priceless for my husband and me. It was a way for us to be together as a family, to have an extra hand, and at night my husband and I could get away and be a couple, relax and have a date night.

Are there any tips, looking back on your parenting years, that you thought worked really well? Please comment below.