How To Take A Trip With FAMILY...And Have A Great Time!
Plus, Book Club Is THIS WEEK!
How To Take A Trip With FAMILY...And Have A Great Time!
Hello friends and happy Tuesday! How was your Thanksgiving? I hope you had an amazing weekend! We spend Thanksgiving with my husband’s family every year, and this year we went to Universal Orlando and visited The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We saw the rest of the theme parks, too, and Mr. Baby did so well! Honestly, he slept better there than he does at home…which is making me rethink some things. But it was a ton of fun! And getting to spend time with my in-laws was a huge blessing - I am so lucky to have the best relationship with them.
But this trip definitely got me thinking.
How can you take a trip with your extended family and still have a great time? We all know that family is wonderful and spending time with them can be a blast. But at the same time, spending a long period of time with family (or really anyone, for that matter!) can drive you crazy! Now, my husband’s family has seemingly perfected spending time together - we all have a great time and don’t feel absolutely exhausted by the end of a reunion.
So what are “best practices” for having a great family vacation? I think I’ve figured out some great rules to keep family reunions all fun and low stress. So let’s get right into it!
Schedule downtime. Jacob and I have hosted many friends over the years, and when I first started creating itineraries, I would book every single second and there would never be a moment’s pause. After a couple trips where we ended the weekend exhausted, it became very clear that you MUST schedule downtime for people. Everyone needs time to relax, especially on a vacation. Running around so that no one ever gets a break is a recipe for disaster. Everyone is tired which only makes people irritable. It’s important to give people a chance to recharge and be alone. If you live far away from family, it can feel like you have to take advantage of every moment and see each other every second of every day. But if you force that, you will find that the time you do spend together is much less pleasant than if you simply gave people a chance to go to their bedrooms, lie down, and chill out. It’s so important to remember human nature when scheduling time with family, for even though you all love each other, people also need time to relax.
Not every activity needs to be done together. This is a big lesson. Let’s take the example of going to a theme park. When you go as a family, or in our case, as multiple families, there’s a desire to spend the whole day together. But, as with scheduling downtime, it’s important to let every family have a little bit of togetherness on their own. That may mean telling everyone to go their separate ways for a couple of hours in the middle of the day, and then having everyone reconvene for lunch. It may mean spending the morning together and then splitting off for separate activities in the afternoon. But simply providing room for the possibility that not every activity will be done together is a great way to give everyone breathing space during a family trip.
When you are together, be together. After agreeing that it’s important to give everyone enough space, when the family is together, everyone really needs to be together. That means no phones, no distractions, nothing. Be with one another. Focus on reconnecting. That will make the times you do spend together so much more meaningful. Instead of people looking to escape while they’re with one another because they haven’t had any alone time the entire trip, they can dedicate their attention to each other precisely because they’re not overwhelmed. So when everyone meets for lunch or everyone goes shopping together, encourage your family to really be together in those moments.
Lower your expectations. It’s important during a family trip not to take offense too easily. Everyone is out of their normal state of being, so your family might be late for scheduled activities or they might be more tired than normal. When we look forward to seeing family that we don’t see very often, we can raise our expectations too high in anticipation of spending time with them. Make a conscious effort to lower your expectations instead. If someone is late, forgive him. If someone is too tired to stay up and hang out, that’s okay. Don’t hold grudges or get too frustrated because, for the most part, people are trying their best. Just be grateful to spend whatever time you can with the people you love.
Be more sensitive. With that in mind, don’t be the person who lets everyone down. Don’t be late if you can avoid it. Don’t stay up gratuitously late the night before your trip so you’re struggling with being tired the entire visit. Be as good of a family member as you can be, and don’t take your family’s kindness for granted.
If you do these five things, I think you’re much more likely to have a wonderful family trip. What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Book Club Is THIS THURSDAY at 8:30 PM EST!
This Thursday night (12/1/22) at 8:30 PM EST we will be be meeting for our book club! I learned so much from this book and I look forward to discussing it with you all!
This Month’s Movie Club Selection
Our Movie Club discussion was great this past month and I’m so looking forward to the next one! This month we will be watching Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a fun Marilyn Monroe film I’ve never seen. If you’d like to watch it with your friends, have them join the fun by becoming premium subscribers!
What You Might Have Missed At Classically Abby…
Quote of the Week:
“Kindness is the only service that will stand the storm of life and not wash out. It will wear well and will be remembered long after the prism of politeness or the complexion of courtesy has faded away.” - Abraham Lincoln
Classic Style Inspo
Yes, I am wearing these pants on repeat and I don’t even feel bad. 😂 But the thing I really wanted to point out is my belt bag! Belt bags are so great for any woman, but especially moms. Wearing one across your chest is so convenient and it holds everything you need. Plus, it makes everything so readily accessible, it’s a gamechanger!
Things I’ve Been Loving: Lovevery Play Gym
If you or someone you know is having a baby, I highly recommend the play gym from Lovevery! This thing has stood the test of time - Mr. Baby is still using it and he’s almost 9 months old. I love that it has relevance from newborn up to a year. This would make a great gift for someone or for yourself!
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Taking trips with anyone, or even by yourself, requires a lot of work, but scheduling downtime is SO important! All 5 were amazing tips, but I think the biggest one (at least in my experience) is definitely scheduling downtime. I've had so many trips where I came home and wanted "a vacation from my vacation" because there was too much going on, everyone was stressed, etc. Scheduling time to relax and just enjoy where you are is SOOO important!!