Plan family vacations to make sure everyone has good time
Stress for Success
August 21, 2007

You love your spouse and kids but are you ready to spend 24 hours a day together?

Some families vacation exceedingly well together sharing common vacation goals; whether hiking every national park on your itinerary or shopping every mall. They also negotiate well when they don’t agree.

After my husband and I returned from our sabbatical a dear friend said we must have been glad we put so much planning into our trip given the incredible time we had. I laughed because all we planned was to be gone for a year in our motor home, ski Colorado for two months, and eventually travel to Alaska. Other than that we played everything by ear.

Other families don’t necessarily agree on what constitutes a good vacation. They’ll need to plan and negotiate more to keep everyone wanting to continue living together afterward.

They’ll need to discuss and agree upon their holiday goals; especially if they have very different interests. Rather than one person planning everything, leaving your enjoyment dependent upon how good a job she does:
· Get everyone’s input about what they’d like to do. (Be honest about what’s important to you. If you don’t and you end up not enjoying yourself you have only yourself to blame.)
· Accommodate as much as possible what each says they’d like more and less of on vacation (e.g., less time in the car, more exercise)
· Identify and then make your common interests your priority. If everyone wants to camp Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, make that the centerpiece of your trip. If possible, start there. Sharing the awe of this serene and natural wonderland together goes a long way in helping you negotiate the rest of your vacation.
· Encourage everyone to do Internet research on your destination to explore the possibilities ahead of time.
· Put each family member in charge of something; whoever is the best a scheduling keeps the calendar, the best navigator’s in charge of maps.
· Decide on a budget then allocate a daily average amount to spend and monitor how you’re doing. On days you under-spend, put the extra money into a general pot that you draw upon for extras. As you approach the end of your money you’ll either need to discipline yourself to cut back or decide how you’ll pay for any overage.
· Plan plenty of activities for your children. Keep them busy. Wear them out physically! It’s so fun to see them enjoying themselves to the point of physical exhaustion! Then when they crash for the night you can have private time. But don’t over-schedule them leaving them cranky and disagreeable.
· Include daily exercise to reduce everyone’s stress and to minimize weight gain if part of your fun is eating your way through a vacation.

Family vacations are a wonderful time to enjoy life together. Show your kids how to do it. Plan ahead of time if that’s your style or just wing it if that has historically worked for you. Most importantly, enjoy each other and this great land of ours.

Jacquelyn Ferguson, M. S., of InterAction Associates, is a trainer and a Stress Coach. E-mail her at www.jackieferguson.com with your questions or for information about her workshops on this and other topics and to invite her to speak to your organization.