[ad_1]
Family Vacations sometimes feel like a long forgotten fantasy of the past. Life is so hectic now, rarely do we have the time to actually go somewhere, let alone plan something.
Let me reminisce for a minute. My favorite vacations as a child were simple — camping and listening to the waves lick the sandy beach while I slept in the tent-trailer side by side with my sister. My siblings and I would spend the days swimming in the surf and the evenings sipping hot cocoa and telling stories by the campfire. Those are the memories I cherish the most and what I want to give my children. But I have to admit, I love amusement parks and the happy feeling that always goes hand in hand with the happiest place on earth. But are vacations really that necessary? Can’t we just get the same kind of bonding playing the wii side by side in the muted glow of the television? Here are the advantages of a family vacation:
- Strengthens families: Families learn to just be with each other — depend on one another — when away on a vacation. There are no work distractions or the superior playmate over siblings distraction. It’s just you and whoever else makes up your family.
- Creates Memories: Our time with our families can be cut short or just whiz by too quickly. Whatever the case, these memories we’ll treasure. Maybe they’ll be snapshots in our minds when we go through difficult times and these memories will sustain us for a time. Or when we’re so old that we resemble those crabapple dolls, it’ll be the time we spent with our children that will be the most important — not the big house we decorated perfectly.
- Education: Vacations can be all about learning also. We can point out poisonous plants, what safety measure to take on a boat, or just basic geography and culture lessons.
Now the question becomes, what kind of vacation should I take with my family? Statistics show that the favorite family vacations are a Hawaii vacation, followed by a Caribbean family cruise and then closely tailed by a Mexican family cruise. Disney vacations were also a little farther down that list. I know I don’t really have an excess amount of money to be taking my family of five jetting across the country and then renting a beach house or boarding a luxury liner. Some may, so there are the stats. But for others, this may be an unrealistic possibility — unless we save and plan.
I’ve noticed with my kids, it doesn’t really matter where we go, but that we go. My children are just as happy fishing in a little boat up in the mountains as they are when flying in the wake of Dumbo’s ears.
So now let’s make a plan:
- What’s appropriate with our children’s ages? Even if you had the money — spending x amount of hours on a plane with a toddler to get to Italy maybe isn’t the smartest plan.
- Evaluate our budget. Ideally, it would be great to mix it up and take cheap family-togetherness camping trips (or something similar), and then an entertainment frenzy at Disneyland.
- Talk — find out what your kid’s interest’s are, if they’re old enough to share. Maybe a simple camping trip to an old West ghost town is something the children have been dying to do.
- Relax and have fun. That’s probably the most important. With kids, sometimes we just have to go with the flow and not get our knickers in a knot. Be patient, it’s not the end of the world if your kid throws-up at the local small town Ihop because he ate too quicky — so that really happened in our family and now Ihops are lovingly known as Ihawks.
Don’t put a family vacation off. Statistics show the importance of spending time like this with your family. To build a stronger world, we need to keep building stronger families.
[ad_2]