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What I Love About Family Vacations

Of course I am a huge fan of relaxation, white sandy beaches, and plenty of sunshine! But this is not the best part about vacation for me! What I love most about family vacations is the FAMILY part! There is family bonding that magically happens on vacation that I believe would not happen otherwise. Smiles creep onto your teenagers’ faces – a smile you haven’t seen in what seems like ages!!! Imaginations start to run wild in your preteen’s brain and you actually see him playing games that do not involve a chord, WiFi or a hand-held device. New skills are picked up by your youngest children that they have learned from interacting with their older siblings! And more importantly hands are held with your spouse without children running through them like a game of break the bridge within the first 5 seconds of them touching.

As a mom, I crave for my family to be a close unit and to genuinely love and care for each other. During the normal hustle and bustle of life, sometimes I feel that we do not make enough time to engage with each other in a non-prescribed manner as often as we would like. While on vacation – I plan to not plan every hour of the day! I want there to be downtime where the kids are forced to be bored. Yes, they complain – but that’s ok. They complain because they want me to fix their boredom. They want me to schedule something to make them occupied. Nope – not this time. I want them to figure it out. This uncomfortable period for them causes them to engage with each other. Causes them to actually have a conversation about something other than one that mommy and daddy initiate. And if I wait long enough, eventually MAGIC happens! They start to actually play with each other – laugh with each other – and make up games with each other! When this happens – I sit back and enjoy the moment – taking in the joy of what is my family bonding.

One lesson that I have learned is that I do not totally prohibit electronics on vacation. Electronics are nice when there are layovers for flights, lengthy drives to various locations, and as a distraction for the little ones when they start to argue every five seconds. But I also ensure to bring along tried and true non-electronic games. On vacation, every night we play cards games as a family. We have done this as a tradition for the last few years. It is amazing to see how the children have matured over the years and how they have learned to strategize and joke with each member of the family. Another gem that I treasure is how they also get to interact with their grandmother who accompanies us on our vacation. They give her a hard time about how she makes mistakes by putting down the wrong card when she wasn’t quite paying attention or when she gets skipped or have to pick up loads of cards on every rounds. They also learned to stick cards on their forehead like their dad so that the next person could see what was coming for them when they played the next round. This year was especially wonderful because all five of my children got to participate in the card game! My 4-year-old knows his colors and numbers and could play almost independently! And my 5-year-old actually won 3 games in a row against us. We all laughed so hard each night playing cards with each other. It was truly medicine for the soul!

My advice here is to look for ways to spend quality time with your family– no matter what age your children are at the time– they want to feel loved and want to be an important part of the family. Family bonding can include time with spouses, children, and extended family members like grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Children learn a lot from all members of the family and can form special bonds with them as well. Time with your children living at home is way too short and creating memories on which they will look back on and laugh at is priceless. As a mom – this is exactly what I want to build for my family and pray that my kids will continue this tradition with their families in the future.