On Tour With the Kid | Longing for the Country

I heard an interesting term to describe myself the other day. I'm part of the "sandwich generation."

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Apparently, this means that because I selfishly left it until later to have kids, I now look after older relatives while the Kid is still at school. I say selfishly because the implication, when it was used, was that if I hadn't put myself and my career first, I wouldn't be in this situation.

We shall skip over the fact that leaving raising a human until I had my life together and I was financially stable seemed like a good plan. In my case, it's my grandmother, and she would gladly point out the fact that she would have been older either way. Our family has a dark sense of humour that got us through some pretty hard times.

My grandma, who is well into her 80s, came from the Central West, which is where she spent most of her life. She loves the country and the landscape. Likes the sound of horses' hooves on the road and seeing livestock in the fields. She has been living with us in Newcastle for the past several years, so doing these things regularly has been more difficult.

We still have relatives at home, but when you want to bring a whole tribe of you on a trip, you don't want to put people out, and I like my relatives enough not to ask them to put up with my two gorgeous but constantly farting dogs. It's not their fault, they are old, but even so, they can clear a room in under 20 seconds. So the challenge was to find somewhere that had enough space for all of us and would take the dogs. Thanks to a quick Stayz search, we found the perfect country house.

Wonga, described as a secluded oasis in the heart of Parkes, looked perfect. It wasn't until we arrived that we realised how perfect it was. Once you drive through the gates, you wouldn't even know you had neighbours on either side. The property and the gardens are stunning and expansive. The dogs, thrilled to be out of the car after a 7-hour drive, went exploring before we did. I was worried they might take off being in a new place, but the yard was totally secure, so thankfully, we were free to leave them to roam around.

The house itself was built in the 1860s and was one of the first homes in the area. With six bedrooms, there was plenty of room to move. We chose the big master bedroom, which opened out onto the wrap-around verandah. With the door open, I could lay in bed with my coffee and look out over the beautiful established gardens and the huge inground

pool. I love older houses, so I was taken with the high ceiling and the stunning modern kitchen, which still included the old wood fire stove. The kid, however, was most taken with Alexa being connected in the house. Each time she asked, Alexa, are you my friend? Alexa would sing her a little song.

The weather was still slightly on the rainy side to really enjoy the pool, but once the owners told us that Alexa was connected to play music poolside, that locked in my decision to book again over the Christmas break to spend some quality with the family. We can't wait to head back with the dogs and enjoy our break from the city.