Club Med Insider

When your kid makes a friend at the pool or in the miniclub, seek out the parents of that friend. It's a great conversation starter and besides, you never know who they might be able to fix you up with after your vacation!

If your daughter is in her late teens or early twenties, other people may assume she is your new wife. While this may be awkward in the moment, it is damn near hysterically funny afterward. Allow yourself to laugh about it should it happen during your vacation.

My dad was a planner. No, I take that back, he was practically a location scout. He knew all the ins and outs of where we would be visiting. Just keep in mind even the best plans may require change and remember to be flexible if they do. We may not be able to control the weather, but we can control our ability to switch to Plan B or be able to improvise quickly.

Try your best not to interrogate your offspring about a missing swimsuit nor jump to the conclusion that your ex is trying to sabotage your vacation by not making sure it was packed. Children under 12 still need a lot of assistance packing for a vacation but sometimes they will refuse the help. Avoid assumptions, just plan on doing some extra shopping for items that didn't make it into the suitcase for whatever reason. And really, which would you rather do on your vacation? Obsess about your ex or relax in the ocean?

Other people at your resort will ask questions about why you are traveling alone with your offspring. They can't seem to help themselves, especially if they see a dad alone with children. Your child knows you are a single parent and possibly how that happened. If you want to talk about that aspect of your life with other adults that's fine, but try to limit how much rehashing you do in front of your kid.