Five years ago, my husband and I took our son to Disney World. He was five and it blew his mind. I was six months pregnant and still suffering from morning sickness, so it was not such a magical world for me. However, my mother had generously given us the trip, so we went. I had never been to Disney World (I KNOW!!), so it was our whole family’s virgin trip to Disney. We had a good time, even if I did spend a fair amount of the trip trying not to spew on all the spinny rides.

Son had such a good time he wanted to know when we could go back. When he was 10 and his sister was five, we told him. At the time, that seemed like a great idea/delaying tactic. After all, five years is a LONG time. Guess who’s turning 10 next month? Guess who hasn’t forgotten our promise? Guess who tells his sister about it all the time?

Husband and I tried to figure out a way to make the trip happen (or, in Husband’s case, not happen). I thought about postponing it until next year, so that they both would still be 10 and five. And then it hit me: we were going to be two hours away, with a two day hole in our itinerary! I pitched it to Husband and he reluctantly agreed. I booked a hotel and paid the equivalent of the kids’ college tuition for tickets. We are going to Disney.

Here’s why we are doing it now:

• We will already be in Florida
• We only have to go for two days

To be honest, Husband and I aren’t the kind of people who like to go to places like Disney World. To start with, I don’t really like people, and people tend to be at their worst at places like Disney World. Also, we’d rather go somewhere less commercial where the kids will get some kind of historical and/or cultural benefits. That’s right; we’re snobs. Also, we’re cheap and Disney World ain’t cheap.

But here’s the thing: there’s a part of me that believes going to Disney World is kind of a rite of passage for American kids and I don’t want my daughter to miss out on that and have to spend the rest of her life embittered the way I did. You guys just don’t understand the hardships I have suffered, never going to Disney World until I was 33!

Kids are really excited. Not screaming and running around the house like the videos you see, but telling everyone we see that we’re going excited. And it will be exciting to see them so excited.

So next week, we’re spending three nights in Orlando and two days at Disney. We’ll go to Animal Kingdom on the first day and Magic Kingdom on the second. I’ve paid for the tickets and made the Fast Passes and it’s all happening. And I’ll tell you all about it. Unless we get crushed in the madness that is mid-February at Disney World.