No Beach? You Live On An Island!!

Growing up, I loved going to the beach. A bunch of us would go on the weekend, bring food and drinks and hang out at the beach. I live on Long Island - we're surrounded by water. As a kid, I would go with my dad on the weekends. My senior year in high school, we had "Cut Day" and we all wound up at the beach.

So what happened? Why, as a grownup, do I never go to the beach? I'll tell you why. It's too sandy and sand gets everywhere. It's a long walk from the car to the sand, it gets too hot, I don't go in the ocean and it always winds up being too crowded. And then I thought, when, in my 33 years, did I turn into an 80 year old woman??

Two summers ago when my son was 3 and my daughter had just been born, we realized we had never taken our son to the beach. He had only seen sand because of the disgusting sandbox at the park. He had never seen the ocean. Never seen the ocean, can you believe that? Again, we live on an island! I mentioned it to my friend Claudine and she was appalled surprised "You've NEVER taken him to the beach? Isn't he 3" she asked, but even through e-mail, her tone said "What is wrong with you people?"

So one day that summer, we dropped the baby at Grandma & Grandpa's house, packed up our son, a gazillion toys, towels, some lunch, snacks and a book (for me) and went to the beach. It was a great day few hours, watching our son as he enjoyed his first beach experience.

We haven't been back since. This summer, my daughter will be 2 1/2 and I'm wondering if we can take her to the beach or if she'll try and eat the whole beach worth of sand. Maybe we'll go back this year, maybe not. It depends if the 80 year old woman in me chooses to surface, and how long she decides to stay.

This post is part of the Huggies® Little Swimmers® blog blast from Parent Bloggers.