Cheers parents, to those vacation photo ops gone bad…

We’re sure you can guess the kinds of photos we’re talking about. The ones where your children are neither smiling in the photo, nor looking at it. Take this picture for example:

Taken last summer while Alicia was vacationing in Canada with her family. Although Montreal is a terrific place for young families to visit, it covers a lot of real estate. Visit more than one neighborhood in a day and you’re asking for trouble. On this beautiful day, outside the Notre-Dame Basilica, Alicia wanted to capture her children’s two beautiful smiles, which she got... kind of. But if we were to caption the photo it would clearly be her daughter squealing something to her brother like, 'don't touch me’… ‘get off me’… or our personal favorite, ‘your hands are sticky from ice cream.’

Most of us know that vacationing with kids, like getting the perfect photo on vacation, is a fantasy. One way we’ve learned to get over the disappointment is by lowering our expectations. A few other tips about vacationing (food and nature hikes) from our newest book, ""Sh*tty Mom For All Seasons: Half-@ssing It All Year Long":

"Take them to Nashville for the best BBQ in the country and they’ll scream for the frozen chicken tenders they get at their local suburban roller rink. Take them to Spain because their favorite food is ham, and they will suddenly become vegetarian. If you need a food experience, order tapas on date night."

"They can run ten miles in a soccer game, swim a thousand meters at practice, and dance under a disco ball for hours wearing a polyester hot dog costume. But tell them you’re going hiking – for no other reason than peace of mind – and their bodies go limp."

"Sh*tty Mom For All Seasons: Half-@ssing It All Year Long" is available on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. And don't forget to share your #ParentFail stories and photos at @ShttyMom on Twitter or Instagram.