Traveling Worries

I don't really worry much when I am preparing to head out. I always leave detailed notes for the pet/house sitter.

We always fly. The only anxiety I have is when the plane takes off and until the "ding, it is safe to use approved devices on board". Once I hear that... I'm just fine.

I HATE take off because I've been on 3 emergency landings, 1 severe, all at take off. There's nothing like that feeling when you see grown men with tears rolling down their cheeks calling the wife to say we are in trouble and fire trucks lined up to chase you down the runway!'

I am perfectly ok after the ding.

No, I don't worry before I travel, but I do, however, procrastinate about packing (everyones' clothes and food), which stresses me out big time!

Not really. Being from the military side you don't always get a chance to worry about things you just do them. By the time you get through doing them it is all over.

You get notices of moves and you begin to eat food up (canned goods weigh a ton), clothes you don't want you get rid of, toys and odd stuff have to go because no one wants them, you begin to pack clothes in suitcases for where you will be next and on the way to that location. The rest of the time you are cleaning out and when the packers come, you are trying to make sure all of your meds and such that you need are out of their way or they get packed and you won't see them for 4 to 6 months.

Shipping cars and getting to the proper location or drop off point by a said date can become stressful especially if you have to rent a car to get back home.

So I guess my worry or stress levels are or were a bit different. You make sure you know where your kids are and keep them close especially in the airport. You watch them when you get out of your car and take their hand and go into the store/restaurant and come out as a unit. If you have a pet traveling you have all the paperwork and health records in your family file.

I haven't had any emergency landings just a couple of mishaps in the air when a plane didn't rotate down a level or another plane had to go before yours and you had to climb at a steep upward move to get out of the way. That can be a bit unnerving but the rest, no.

What will happen will happen. You can prepare the best you can but you cannot control the outcome. Just make sure your wills and such are how you want things are all in order and left with someone who can carry out your wishes.

the other S.

I used to be the worst about this, but after living overseas for almost 10 years and then moving to Alaska (meaning yearly trips to the states) I have just gotten so used to it and realized that in the end nothing will go so wrong that it can't be fixed or dealt with. I learned to stop stressing. But I still always get a little anxiety up until the point I am at the airport and at my gate. Once I know I made the plane the rest is whatever.

Yep, big time. Worry about everything, house, pets, kids (if they aren't coming with us.) But like you said I am fine once we get there!
After over 20 years it's better, but the anxiety is still there. I'm just better at visualizing how happy I will be once I arrive :-)

It's called Anticipatory Anxiety. It's common when we mom's think about all that could go wrong or what we might forget. Just go over your trip plan and maybe make some lists of things that are worrying you. Make a plan of how you're going to handle those things.

I hate being on the road with semi's. I hate heavy traffic and drivers that think they own the road.

So I plan my trips to leave at night and do most of my traveling at night. Almost all areas except right in inner cities will have much less traffic.

Are you worried or are you stressing? I stress big-time before a trip becasue of packing and work is ALWAYS crazy before I go away.

But worry, no, I don't worry.

I do hate to fly - like TF, only the take off freaks me out. Once we level off, I'm fine. I go a bit beyond the ding. Strangely, I'm fine for landing. When I went skydiving, I was more scared of the flight then jumping out! hahaha.

Not so much worry. But stress that I got everything. That's why I make a list.

What do you worry about? EVERYTHING or specific things? What I have found in my travels is if I have a check list for packing and assign people things to do - it goes better - for everyone...

We have a HUGE trip coming up. It's a VERY stressful trip for me as we are saying our final good-bye's to my mom by spreading her ashes in her home town. Then spending a month with my dad. It's been 9 months (yesterday) when we got the news that she had 3 days to six weeks to live. And 4 more days until it's been 9 months without her.

So I've been REALLY fastidious about my check lists, expectations, plans, money, etc.

And yep...I'm worried about my puppy dog...other than leaving for a month to take care of my mom and then dad after she died....I've never been gone from him...we adopted him when he was 10 weeks old...so I'm stressing HUGE over that...

Right now, I'm on day 16 of a 17 day vacation... I dread going on vacation starting about a week before we leave... I HATE leaving my big red Doberman boy :( Before this trip was the worst ever, we've never left for more than 10 days, and he's never stayed without doggy friends, but our other dog passed about 6 months ago :( He always has the same sitter, she lives in our home when we are away and loves him almost as much as we do, and our neighbor visits him daily also, but I still worry about him :( The kids do the same thing, but like you, once we say bye to him and get out the door, we are fine :) But I WILL be sooooo glad to see his cute little face tomorrow !!!!!!

Yes.

I love to travel but I get myself worked into a tizzy anytime I'm within a week of leaving to go somewhere. And it doesn't really matter where I'm going either.

Once I'm on the way I'm fine but up to that point it's rocky.

i am worried, and will be worried til my trip is done. i worry about my kids getting sick before travel, i worry about if they get sick while we are overseas. i worry about my baby pup, and how he will do. ugh. i need a xanax or something.

I do the same thing, I thought I was a weirdo for it. I stress about the planning and how the traveling will go, it's worse now that we are traveling with little ones. I always have a good time and am happy we went, so I just try to repeat that to myself when I start to get worried. Glad to know I'm not the only one!

i don't really worry that much.
actually, that's not quite true. i DO worry. not so much about the travel, but about leaving the farm. now that the boys have moved out and can rarely come home to cope when david and i go away i have to hire farm-sitters, and that's stressful. my mares are old and somewhat high-maintenance, and no one takes care of 'em just the way i want. then there are the inevitable crises. when we were in bermuda last year the pool pump went highwire and was rooster-tailing a spume of water. it got handled okay, but there's always the worry that the person staying here WON'T handle it calmly and competently.
now i'm getting stressed just thinking about it. we don't have anyone lined up for our trip later this summer. guess i'd better get on that.
:P
khairete
S.

Now that you mention, I guess I have not worried enough. We have a trip planned in August and hubby hasn't made pet arrangements. That is what I assigned him to do. It sounds horrible to assign hubby, but if I don't, everything is on my plate.

His last comment was, "We have time". I already mentioned the places fill up. It is hard to get a neighbor to dog sit a Rottie.

Oh yes! I can imagine everything going wrong. (This is before it all begins, of course.) Sometimes I have to think, "Well, if this disaster occurs, what shall I do?" That helps me get my mind off it.

Of course, when problems happen during the real trip, I don't freak out - I work on remedying them and on keeping other people from freaking out. So I know the pre-travel anxiety is my imagination at work.