Do you summer vacation with friends or family? If so, do you all get along all of the time? Or does sharing a campground/hotel room/beach house create tensions?”
I have been for five years now and we have usually vacationed with the in-laws. So much so, I only remember a couple times without them. We either are camping in a travel trailer or on a boat at Lake Powell. We didn't have our own boat/camper at first and now we do but when we stay with them it didn't matter. I think spending vacations with relatives depends on the family I can handle my husband's family for a week on vacations but not mine.
We vacation with different members of my husband's family quite often. All his siblings live in different cities, so it's nice to see one another for those short times. It CAN be very stressful, but it's always fun too. The key is to carve out different activities. Some time with just "our family" some girls-only time, some boys-only time, etc. I think we might get bored vacationing by ourselves. LOL
So far this summer we have taken a trip with extended family and another trip with friends. I think it is probably unrealistic to say that everyone gets along all the time (especially with kids!) but we do pretty well. I think the key is to make sure that you don't overschedule "group time" - even when we are on a group vacation, we try to make sure that each family gets some time to themselves...even if it means that we have to excuse ourselves from an activity every now and then to do something on our own. I think it helps. The flipside is that we have a really good time. It is great to have built in playmates for the kids...and when we travel with my parents, they always offer to take the kids at least one night on their own so my husband and I can go out to dinner on our own.
3 replies so far...
Flag as inappropriate Posted by lit-teach-ma on 16th July 2008
Flag as inappropriate Posted by BrendaG on 1st July 2008
Flag as inappropriate Posted by Jen S on 28th June 2008