Making Family Vacations Memorable

If you drop thousands of dollars on Disneyland vacations, are you guaranteed to have a good time? Of course not! Follow these simple tips to make ANY vacation much more memorable and enjoyable for all.

Have the children save up money beforehand. For children under 6, having them save a few dollars each week for a month before will suffice. For kids 7-12, a few dollars a week for 3 months is good, and for those over 12, a few dollars a week for six months will give them a good little stash with which they can buy some souvenirs on their vacation.

Allow the children to spend that money indiscriminately. Having them save a few dollars each week means nothing until they can relate that to how fast money disappears when you spend it without thinking. Do this on a few vacations and your children will learn the value of money.

Let the kids make a few bad choices here and there. Vacations are not to be perfect; they’re just to be different than day-to-day life. Let them go ahead and eat too much ice cream and get sick to their stomach. Let them buy a cheap plastic toy that breaks in five minutes. Let them spend their money on an attraction you know is going to be a rip-off. Mistakes are how we all learn and vacation is no time to stop learning.

Structure the time. You may cherish and enjoy a week free from obligations and activities, but children need to have lots of interesting things to do or they get antsy and start behaving poorly. If you plan to spend all day at the beach, break the day up into some identifiable segments of different activities so the children don’t get restless.

Take everyone’s attention span into consideration. Yes, the Smithsonian Museum has enough interesting exhibits to keep you occupied for about 4 solid days, but your 7-year-old is only going to be able to spend about 3-4 hours there before they are going to want to go do something else. Plan to break up long days with other activities. Most attractions have a get-back-in free sort of option that would allow you to leave for a few hours, maybe go back to the hotel and go swimming, eat, and come back later.

In your planning, vary the activities. Don’t spend 3 solid days at Legoland. Although your kids will say they want to do that, they won’t. They will like it for a while and then they will need to do something else. Include a little bit of relaxation for yourself, some play for the children, and some educational activities for everyone. Vacations are a great time to learn about other people and places.

Let the children choose some of the activities. Even if some of the choices are unpopular, in a family with many children, each should be able to pick out at least one activity that the whole family has to do. Anyone who behaves poorly just because they don’t like the choice loses their next turn to pick the activity or doesn’t get to buy a souvenir at the gift shop, etc.

Eat well. Something that is generally overlooked on vacations is the concept of nutrition. We’re on the road and at attractions where the options may not be that good. A day or two of poor choices isn’t going to kill anyone, but you really have to remember, especially with small children, a child’s system simply isn’t as hearty as an adult’s. Children need to eat regularly and they need to eat well or they can really suffer some serious physical consequences. In addition, kids who don’t get proper nutrition and well-timed meals are cranky, groggy, can be confused, and will cry easily. If a healthy sandwich will ward that off, choose that over the cotton candy and ice cream!

Drink enough water. It is very important to keep everyone in the family properly hydrated. If you are visiting a different climate, you may neglect to drink enough water. Your schedule will be more relaxed and you may not think of it often enough. You and your kids need to drink a lot of water on vacation, especially if you are more active than normal. Keep fresh water with you at all times. You may want to buy bottled water as you travel to avoid shocking your system with the tap water in different locations. There doesn’t have to be anything wrong with the water to mess you up a little. The change alone can bother your system and you don’t need that on vacation!

Take photographs. Some people don’t need to be told, they take tons of photos and / or video everywhere they go. For those of you who really aren’t photo enthusiasts, at least get a little disposable camera and take a dozen photos along the way. A child’s memory fades over time and photos are a great way to preserve your children’s memories into adulthood and guarantee that you continue to get a good value for your vacation dollar.

Marlo J. Archer, Ph.D
Licensed Psychologist
1250 E. Baseline Rd.
Suite 102
Tempe, AZ 85283
480-705-5007
DrMarlo.com