Planning for Family Holidays
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by: Stebee
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Word Count: 547
When you are planning for family holidays it is important to think about the people who will be part of the experience. People of different ages have different entertainment needs. If you think through what different people need in order to enjoy themselves, then your family holiday will be a source of good memories for a long time.
Children need toys and opportunities to move around. If there is a long car trip involved, kids need to have regular breaks and to play some kind of very active game (even tag would be good) for fifteen or twenty minutes. When everyone is together, children need to have an opportunity to go outside and run around and play because when they are in such a confined space they could become antsy or whiny. At the same time, children below the age of about eleven need constant supervision when they are outside running around, particularly if there is a swimming pool or other attractive but potentially dangerous object. Adults need to be willing to take turns supervising carefully—this task shouldn’t be assigned just to teens who may become distracted easily. Teens much prefer the company of other teens — so family holidays work out better if there is more than one teen. If there isn’t a second teen in the family, it might be a good idea to allow the teen to select a friend to come along.
Entertainment for teens is easier these days — an mp3 player goes a long way to keep a teen happy. Younger adults who have young children need relaxation. To the degree possible, it would be great to make sure that these parents gets at least a couple or three hours a day to enjoy themselves among adults instead of constantly supervising their own children. It might be a great idea to hire a baby sitter to help with the children during the family holiday. Middle adults also enjoy the company of adults and they may be going through the stresses of being parents of teens. However, they are probably getting more sleep than parents of younger children, so their needs for relaxation may not be as critical. Elder adults need to feel competent and wanted. Our society tends to assume that once a person reaches retirement age, he or she has nothing to contribute. Yet adults of this age may enjoy playing with a small group of younger children or interacting with teens or discussing things with any of the adults, depending on their individual characteristics. While there should be opportunities for people to divide up by age group for the type of joy that only comes from being with a person one’s own age, there are also times when everyone needs to get together and do things together. Teens, in particular, need to understand that while they will get time to do teen-ish things, they also need to be willing to be part of the whole group. Having a number of games that are appropriate for multiple ages (e.g., Parcheesi, Monopoly, cards) will help to keep people interacting happily with one another. Also, family members with musical ability, especially with guitar or keyboard, should have their instruments ready so that the whole family can sing together.
About the Author
If you plan ahead for activities that are attractive to all the participants in your family holiday, everyone will enjoy the event. If budgeting your holiday is a problem, then the solution is simple - make it a self catering holiday!
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