Making summer trips better

As we move into the summer many of you will take or have already taken a summer vacation. As we think about those summer vacations, fill in the blank of the following sentences: “Don’t make me” or “I’m going to down the middle of the back of the seat.”

It is not a stretch to say that the best planned summer vacation can lead to memories of stress and anger. Here are five ideas to help you with a vacation that strengthens the family instead of leading to family break up and divisions.

1. Plan what you can afford, but plan something. It is important that families make summer memories even if it is budgeted ones. You will guarantee yourself stress if you tackle a vacation you really can’t afford. Dave Ramsey encourages, “With all those summer extras poking a hole in your wallet, a fancy vacation isn’t really in the cards. But with these cheap vacation ideas, a well-oiled budget and some creativity, you can still hit the open road, making family memories that will last a lifetime.” (www.ramseysolutions.com)

2. Plan for the trip boredom by thinking about what you can do when kids ask, “Are we there yet?” or other frustrating questions. Before you head on the vacation talk through with the family about how to deal with boredom and expectations. For example, ask them at the dinner table something like this, “We are going to Branson in a few weeks. What should we do on the road when we get bored? I want you to help me know what to do when we start to argue?” The point is you won’t head off all of this, but you can minimize it by getting the children on your team.

3. Establish that you are going to limit the big elephant in the room. The elephant I am referring to is social media and phones. To have a great vacation you must decide to limit the amount of time everyone is on their phone. This is done by talking about and agreeing what the limits will be. For older kids and teens explain that you want to have some relating time with everyone and that means you need to have down time from the phones (iPhone and Androids need a vacation as well). This is probably the most difficult for the adults to follow more than even the teens. If boundaries are established and enforced from the beginning, you will be amazed at well everyone communicates.

4. Decide what you will do ahead of time. Rediscover board games or hiking or something that all the family can enjoy. For those that are reading this, and don’t play board games, look at them as a vehicle to getting the family relating. 

5. Ask them open ended creative questions. 

6. Choose to see value in interruptions. Kids will have a great time on every vacation if their parents and grandparents decide to be positive. That means if the car breaks down or the flight is changed that interruption becomes part of the vacation. Some of the sayings that are great to remember are: “Oh well we will be doing this”, “It could be worse”, “I guess God has other plans” or “who is up for a game while we are waiting?” 

7. If you know Christ as Savior pray for your vacation to be meaningful. Also, during the vacation still make time to attend church.

If you have a question you would like answered for future columns email mathewvroman@gmail.com