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Family Vacations and Handling Stress When Traveling with Kids Better
Yes family vacations are suppose to be fun and stress free, but they rarely work out to be that way. The kids argue amongst themselves or don’t pay attention to what you tell them to do, and even you and your spouse get into those little fights. You know the ones that I’m talking about, the ones that are about nothing at all. Maybe the fight is that you made the peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the wrong kind of jelly. It happens to families that are new, and families who have been together for years.
You know what I always think about when I think of a family vacation? Yes, you guessed it, I think of National Lampoon’s Vacation, Chevy Chase as Clark Griswald, and Beverly D’Angelo as his wife, and of course they had the two teenage kids. That movie has got to be the epitome of the worst vacation someone could ever have. I mean think about it, what else could have gone wrong? Nothing really. I laugh now just picturing scenes from that movie and how Clark seemed to stumble and bumble through the whole trip. I mean couldn’t the guy just get a bit of a break?
I know none of our own vacations are that bad (hopefully). If family vacations were really like that, I don’t think that anyone would ever take one. There are a number of ways that you can cut down on the stress of a family vacation, number one being don’t put too much pressure on timelines. If you’re rushing because you only have five minutes to get to a certain location, but your 30 minutes away, the stress will escalate past the point of good. Go a long with a pace that is leisurely and never schedule something at a specific time, unless it is utterly unavoidable. Don’t try to fit too much sightseeing in one day, again you will only be rushing your family and causing a sure fight as everyone gets upset and tired. On the same note, you want to make sure that you don’t schedule too little to do in a day. Bored kids are unhappy kids and may cause a problem with another family member. It is a happy medium you have to reach for your family in making sure that you have the right amount of activities planned.
Also make sure that the places you are choosing are oriented towards a children as well as the proper age of your kids. A child will become grumpy and moody if they are bored. So don’t pick a place like Las Vegas where there isn’t a whole bunch of things that are targeted towards kids. Not saying they don’t have children’s stuff to do, heck Circus Circus is a great place for kids, but if you are going to be there a week this might become old hat for you kids. Instead, pick an amusement park, like Six Flags or something along those lines, the kids are guaranteed to be busy and happy campers. Like I said it just takes some proper planning as a family and you should have a relatively stress free time.
Something else to think of is how are you going to get to your destination? Are you going to be driving a car, taking your RV, or are you going to catch a flight? All of these are good choices, but some can cause more stress than others. Not that everything will be stress or problem free. So choose wisely when you decide how you are going to get to your destination. Every child is different, and you know best as to what your kids will tolerate.
A good idea for planning a family vacation is to gather everyone around to talk things over. You might want to speak with your spouse or partner first and then gather the kids around to discuss details. Either way, kids will feel better about the vacation if you include them in the decision making. Maybe what you should do is make schedule a family meeting. Discuss the itinerary and whether or not everyone feels that the pace will be okay with them. Vacations are short, but don’t try to pack everything into one day. Nobody will think that is fun so it’s always a good idea to discuss these things as a family … it is everyone’s vacation after all. Try to make it a peaceful relaxing time with no mishaps like the Griswalds.
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Posted on August 1st, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Airplane Travel with Kids, Car Travel with Kids, Entertaining Kids During Travel, Family Travels, General Travel, Travel with Baby, Travel with Kids, Traveling with Kids, Travelling with Infants or Baby
Great post! By the way, I’d add that for road trips, there are plenty of car games that families can play to pass the time (more “togetherness” than just letting the kids play their Nintendo DS or Gameboys). Anything to reduce the calls of “are we there yet” is useful to me!