Teacher wants a vacation, too

Dear Carolyn: My partner’s children, who are in middle school, will spend most of their spring break with us. (They mostly live with their mom.) It’s also my spring break — I’m a teacher — and will be the first time my partner and I have had synced vacations since moving in together.

My partner has planned an extremely kid-centric vacation to a place where most of the activities will revolve around the boys’ interests, which makes total sense, but he doesn’t want to plan anything he thinks is age-inappropriate. For example, he was uncomfortable with my suggestion that we spend part of one day wine-tasting, which we both love and mostly do when the kids aren’t around.

When I was a kid, our parents planned adult-centric vacations and we entertained ourselves or learned to enjoy whatever our parents were doing. I get that that’s an unpopular parenting philosophy these days. I get that my expectations of enjoying a vacation with him will have to adjust to include the kids, but spending almost five straight days doing only kid stuff is beginning to feel like a thankless chore.