POV: You’ve spent months, or even a year plus, planning the perfect vacation. You’ve made the reservations, booked the tickets, paid the many, many dollars. You’ve waited with anticipation for that glorious day when you put up your out-of-office reply, zip up your suitcase and kiss your responsibilities at home goodbye. And then, like a smack in the face… someone is in a bad mood… an underage someone to be precise. Can you relate?
I spent two years planning our family’s big vacation to Disney World with all my siblings, their spouses, our parents and cousins. It was VERY exciting and we looked forward to it for months. When we finally got there, one of my kids only wanted to be at the VRBO running wild with her cousins. Now, we had planned for some downtime at the house midway through our trip as a break from being on the go at Disney, but delayed gratification is not our strong suit! My personal motto though when we’re on vacation is to let most difficult behavior go. It’s not the teachable moment because 1. I want to enjoy vacation too and trying to crack down on a nasty mood is probably not going to turn things around and 2. There’s a lot of other factors such as change in routine, lack of sleep, heat, etc… that are contributing to the crankiness that we wouldn’t be seeing normally. Luckily things improved throughout the day as they usually do, and we still had an awesome day (a giant pink donut from Joffrey’s may have helped the situation)!
We’ve also dealt with a lot of siblings bickering on vacation. If you have more than one kid, I’m guessing you’ve experienced this to some extent! We had a lot of this on our most recent Aruba vacation and oh boy can it be tough. Like at home, taking time apart from one another usually helps. I can take one kid for a walk on the beach while my husband takes the other to play in the pool and when we come back together usually everyone’s in a better mood. Vacations are a lot of together time, which is wonderful but sometimes siblings just need a break. Another magic trick with one of my daughters in particular is if I let her pick out a treat for her and her sister. She may have spent the entire morning picking fights, but she gets SO excited to surprise her sister with a treat that SHE picked and it usually leads to both of them being happy.
Ski trips have also been a notoriously cranky time in our family. My husband and I love the whole experience but we’re still working to get the kids on board. I get it – it’s bitter cold, the gear can be uncomfortable, and we usually want them to take a lesson because they’re still learning, which they don’t love. No matter how much complaining and attitudes we endure in the lead up, it’s pretty much always the case that when we pick them up, they’ve had a great day. They got hot chocolate, they made a new friend, they learned how to stop better and they want to keep going for a few more runs. Why can they not remember they actually do enjoy it?! We keep hoping!
The funny thing is that no matter how much crankiness we’ve dealt with on our vacations, we still look back on the memories so fondly and it can even make for a funny story, especially when we have photographic evidence. As your friendly travel planner, I can’t guarantee you won’t deal with some kid crankiness, but I can take some of the hassle of planning and travel off your plate. Whether it’s making sure you’ve packed the essentials, providing detailed itineraries or helping you navigate last-minute changes or cancellations. You’ll always be glad you took the trip! Happy travels, friends!