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| Family Vacations: The Do’s and Don’ts |
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By Dr Linda Koh
Here are some Do’s and Don’ts that may help you make your vacation an enjoyable experiences:
The Do's
The Dont's
The Do's
• Do Plan To Have Fun
It is important to think ahead what the children and the adults would like to do. Ask them for some ideas and put them into your planning. If everyone in the gets together for an activity they agree on, such as exploring the mountain trails, it is more likely that they will have fun.
Be careful not to let your vacation deteriorate into a “watch-TV-in-a-motel” week. You don’t need to go all the way to Australia, Europe or Katmandu to watch TV! So plan well for family enjoyment.
• Do Plan Vacation According To The Ages of Children
Young children prefer to go to places where they can play with other children. They enjoy activities in which they can climb, run, ride, scream, etc. Taking them along antique hunting would be most boring and disastrous! You’ll probably end up listening to several hours of complaints!
It may be wise to spend part of the day on children’s activities and then have some hours when the adults can go out to enjoy African art or antique hunting on their own.
Older children, who often times know how to occupy themselves, may wish to enjoy a common activity with you and then go shopping or exploring on their own.
• Do Bring Along A Fun-Bag
Whether you are travelling by air, rail, sea, or in a car, it is always useful to have a bag of fun things for your kids. These thing should not be their everyday toys or books, but something new in order to give it the novelty. Colouring books, crayons, activity books, crossword puzzles, word games and finger puppets are some worthwhile considerations. The secret to success in the use of a fun-bag is during long periods of travel – it helps to keep the kids occupied.
| • Do Involve Children in Learning Experiences
It is more meaningful for the children to know something about the place they are going to visit. Before the trip, examine travel brochures with them; encourage them to find out more about the place of visit; and help them check up on historical sites and places of interest the family can visit during the vacation.
• Do Develop Children’s Money Management Skills
Vacations provide opportunities for children to learn how to manage their money. Give your children a specific amount to spend and teach them to budget carefully. Provide them with notebooks to record their spending. It is a good learning experience for children to handle actual cash transactions.
• Do Expand Children’s Writing Opportunities
Encourage your children to take notes throughout the trip. You may want to let them use your camera to take photographs of the places visited so that they can make a vacation scrapbook out of these. They can write a few lines below each photograph/picture in the scrapbook. Writing postcards can be fun for the older children.
• Do Be Adventurous
Set the examples being willing to try new ideas, new foods and new ways of doing things. By being adventurous, you are opening yourself and your family out to new experiences.
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The Don'ts
• Don’t Be Rigid With Your Schedule
Family vacation is the time to enjoy one another in a more relaxed environment. You don’t have to stick rigidly to one schedule, like rising at 6.00 am, doing your daily exercises, going sightseeing, and going to bad at 10.30 pm. This is the time to sleep in a little and spend your day as you like it. It is not the time for discipline. If you can’t complete what you had planned for the day, you still have the next day. So don’t stress yourself out on a vacation.
• Don’t Get Uptight Over Irregularities
You can blame them on the weather, the travel agent, or even the country you are visiting, but errors or unforeseen accidents may happen at times to offset your vacation. Be tolerant, patient and compassionate. If you lose your cool and start blaming and scolding your children or spouse, the spirit of family enjoyment will be tarnished.
You can instead seize the opportunity of such experiences to teach your children how to solve problems as a family. If the car breaks down, or you have lost your direction, or the kids are hurt, get together as a family and try to find a solution. Your children, especially your teenagers, may offer some ideas you may have never thought of.
• Don’t Nag!
Mothers more often than fathers tend to nag at their children and spouses. Don’t spoil the vacation by constantly nagging over how slow everyone is; why Daddy wastes his money on renting a fishing boat; why the kids choose to have a sunburn; why Johnny can’t sit still; etc, etc
• Don’t Complain; Just Accept
If you want to enjoy your vacation with your family, stop complaining. Don’t compare the food, the hotels or the shops with those back home. They will never be the same – “There is no place like home!” So why complain about the terrible food of the junk hotels. Learn to make do with what is available. If you like venturing into Third World countries, don’t expect them to be of the same standard as Singapore. They have their own beauty and indigenous flavour.
• Don’t Carry More Than You Need
Travel lightly and conveniently. Carry clothing that is appropriate for the season. Lugging too much baggage makes it difficult to move around. Don’t forget, all of you will be adding more to your luggage as you shop from city to city.
Family vacations are precious experiences that we share with our spouses and children. Many such experiences leave an indelible mark in the memories of our children which can go far in teaching them the value of family togetherness and happiness.
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Extracted from Families Today
Issue No 3/94
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