Navigating Family Vacations
Posted by tom | Jul 11, 2008The National Center for Fathering weekly e-letter once again had some helpful tips, this week the focus is on family vacations. Last night, Theresa and I discussed stretches of time in the next several weeks during which our family will be away. Needless to say, various concerns were raised. Here's the section of the e-letter which I found a helpful reminder, I hope other families do likewise. Note: if you have any silver bullet travel tips for a short trip which can be applied to a family of four girls, let me know!
So, what can you do to help make your vacation the most excellent family adventure ever?
- Expect that things won’t always go smoothly, and decide to have a good attitude anyway. Try to relax. Smile and count to ten before responding to difficulties. YOU can set the tone for the entire family.
- When events are sold out, lines are long or you hit other snags, be ready to “flex.”
- No matter what, don’t give up. The next day of your vacation may be all apple pie and lights sparkling in your children’s eyes. Soak it all in, because you can be sure that more “reality” is right around the corner.
-
Capture the memories. Try the "Hi/Lo/Funny" exercise each evening, where every member of the family tells that day's high moment, low point, and funniest thing that happened. Then, a week after you get home, recall those highs, lows, and funny events during a family dinner. These events will become memories that your family talks about for many years to come. The secret is to talk about the misadventures in a way that makes them positive or funny when you think about them in the future.
The first thing which comes to mind to add to the list is to offer one's family vacation to God through conversation in planning, travel, time away, and especially the return trip. Also don't forget regular communication with one's spouse and one's children along the journey. Patience may be more present in certian individuals, families and less stressful contexts, but the fruits of the Spirit which bless the family at home and on vacation notably flow from God when faced with stressful times away. Join me in praying for an even greater measure of patience (and other fruits of the Spirit) in our family's home life and travels as we adjust embrace the gift of Lily Joy.
Hi Tom, thanks for sending me along to your blog-center! What a fun family you have. The Lord bless you.
We are still trying to figure out the family vacation thing, too. One thing that has worked successfully for us (and which we are actually doing this week) is to have a "stay-cation" -- we stay at home but do lots of fun things that we don't usually get to do, like visit the zoo, take a long bike ride, go out to a movie, things like that. When our girls get a little older, we hope to include museums and things in the mix too. But for now, it is nice just to make waffles for breakfast and make sure everyone gets their naps at the usual time!
Posted by Ann Boyd, Jul 23 2008, 17:35