When one of our camping friends died, his widow didn't want to quit camping, and since our son and her kids were such good friends, I suggested I would teach her how to tow her travel trailer. so, she got pretty adept at towing, so we'd go on short trips--us in our pickup & trailer, and she in her Station wagon & Trailer. Her youngest daughter sort of adopted me as her substitute father, so i treated her as good as her daddy did, or so i tried to do. (She still calls me Dad) We were up in northern Ohio on one trip, and upon seeing a sign for a campground, we pulled in, and as my wife stepped out of the truck, a beer can rolled out of the door opening! This wouldn't have been so bad, but the camp was a religious camp! And then, my semi-adopted daughter got out of the car behind us, driven by her mother (Not accompanied by a male!) and hollered:"Hey, Dad, is this where we are going to stay tonight?" Well, by this time, my wife had been talking to the man in charge, and when he heard Debbie say that, we got the "Bum's Rush!" I suppose he saw the beer can, too! A funny thing about that situation was--there was never any hanky-panky going on, but we'd kid about me and my 2 wives and all our kids, wherever we went! We all had gone to Westmoreland Mall one day to shop! I didn't want to do all that walking, so i went to an ice cream store, bought a big cone and went outside to eat it! i sat on a park bench, and began talking to an old guy there. And then, the 2 ladies and 4 kids came up, saying:"Dad, why didn't you buy ice cream for all of your kids?" The old guy gave me a funny look, got up, and walked away, fast! by: Rustyj

Are you sure this is what you want to do? It seems like she could really hinder your activities because unless you take her everywhere with you, you'll have to return frequently for potty breaks and exercise. Also, in a hotel you have to be sure she won't bark while you're gone. If she does, that will mean you can't go out for dinner or anywhere else she can't come. What I did when one of my dogs was a pup, was I took them with me on vacation and boarded them near where we were staying. Then I went to visit every other day and took them out to the local dog park. The rest of the time I was free to enjoy my vacation while knowing they were safe and not frantic over not seeing us for a long time. It was a perfect solution for us. If you do take them, try to figure out how dog friendly the area is. I would never take my dogs to our nearest beach in the prime season because it has such restrictive rules you really can't take them anywhere with you. I also own a mountain cabin in a gated community and they are very restrictive about dogs, too.

Oh Myrtle, I allow dogs (absolutely no cats!), and I'm also a dog sitter, and I can assure you that people will say whatever they think you want to hear when they want to bring their dog on vacation with them. Oh, they're perfect little bugaboos! At first I didn't charge for dogs (face it, toddlers do more destruction - or equal), but now I do, $100 per. I've also noticed that a lot of people actually think they should be able to bring their dog with them at no extra charge, which just floors me, considering they'd have to pay a kennel or dog sitter, which is MUCH worse than the fun of bringing Fido with you! So, yes, it's definitely a balancing act, and you try to hit that right cord. I'm amazed how many people have admitted to me that, when they go on vacation, they'll open windows and leave the AC on, for example because "I don't care." I'm putting central air in this spring, and I've got it in my rA that they're not getting their security deposit back if they do that. We've become so wasteful and unthinking about how our actions affect others, in this culture (obviously not everyone, but as a culture, we have). I find it so disheartening. Why does it take energy to think about how you're impacting someone or something else??? Same as, why is it so hard, as a homeowner, to consider that you are taking people's money, and they're paying to because they want a vacation, i.e.: relaxing time. Put some oomph into making your property a place you'd want to stay in yourself. That is the test. It's the ol' "Do unto othersâ¦" rule. NOT that difficult!

AnnPann - I have read that book Go the F*** to Sleep, and laughed out loud about it. It seems to sum up the desperation that new parents may feel when their lovely little darling won't sleep... However, I read an interesting article that asked if the book would have been so funny if it had been written by a mother/woman. Would people still think it was funny if the mum had written it or would she (the author) be considered whiny? Quite interesting to think about, really. It seems that a lot of new fathers in this day and age are patted on the back for being "involved" and taking their kids to the grocery store, when, in fact, this is an everyday occurrence for many of the mothers. Just an interesting point to think about. I still liked the book tho.