Our family recently took a trip to the San Diego Safari Park. I was excited to take our kids to feed the lorikeets. During our previous trip to the Safari Park, our kids loved seeing one of the lorikeets land on my head. I was hoping a similar happy memory would be made this time around.

Well, this time the lorikeets were a bit more aggressive and our youngest was a little too curious. One of the lorikeets ended up biting her finger. She was more startled than injured, but I felt quite guilty for not anticipating this issue ahead of time.

Now what?

I knew our youngest was OK. But I also knew this would be pretty memorable for our kids. How often do they get bit by a bird? I felt a lot of pressure to react appropriately because we were on vacation. We didn’t have another day to come back to the Safari Park during this trip. And I didn’t want this unfortunate moment to ruin the day for anyone.

I decided to just forget we were on vacation for the moment and treat the event like any scrapped knee or tumble. Comfort and calm down our toddler, finish what we were doing, and move on to the next thing.

It’s easy to get swept up in the moment on vacation. You want everything to be perfect. You want all memories to be happy ones. And any speed bumps, even very minor ones like getting bitten by a bird, can really throw you and your kids off course.

I’ll definitely remember when our youngest was bit by a lorikeet. Not because it turned into a momentous event, but because it didn’t. It really didn’t affect our trip much at all. It’s a memory that hopefully will help me keep my composure during our next vacation mishap no matter how large or small.