I openly admit I’m addicted to the Internet and my laptop. I know, I can get the Internet in lots of places without needing my laptop, but still, I like having my “baby” with me.
Yes, even on vacation.
A British psychologist has said that taking your laptop on vacation is stupid and can break up your family. I can understand where the guy is coming from, but that doesn’t mean I’m leaving my laptop at home when I go on vacation.
The assumption the psychologist is making is that when I (or others) take their laptop on vacation, they are using it to do “work” and that is not the point of a vacation. Well, I can guarantee you I’m not doing work on vacation! I rarely do anything for my J.O.B. at home, or anywhere but my office, and I keep my hours at 45 hours a week or less. The only time I break this rule is when we have a catastrophic failure or weather incident that requires us all to be involved in the repairs. They are not paying me to work at home, or the beach, or at a hotel room in the mountains with my family.
So why do I have my laptop? It is how I stay connected to the rest of the world. I like to check the news at home, to make sure there hasn’t been an insurgent uprising in my little town or military coup taking over the local fire department. I like to check the weather where we are, so I know how to plan for our days. This is especially critical if you’re going to be spending your day at the beach! And I like to keep in touch with the house sitter, who can send me daily updates via email. And most importantly, because I have a family and a digital camera, I’ve got a ton of pictures to deal with. I often keep travelogues of our vacations on my daily personal blog, for my friends and family to follow while we are gone.
These are things I do because I like to, and because they are my habit. Leaving my laptop at home would mean being disconnected from the things that make me happy; and trust me, if Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy, especially when our family of five is crammed into a hotel room on a rainy day.
There are people I work with that check email and voice mail when they are on vacation. I’m not one of them. My workplace won’t fall down in tatters because I don’t read my email for a week. What am I supposed to do about emergencies when I’m a thousand miles away anyway? No one is that indispensable.
I don’t think taking my laptop is “stupid,” and it’s certainly not breaking up my family. Years of vacationing with my laptop AND my family have proven that. Just don’t expect me to be checking in with W.O.R.K.