How to enjoy family vacations

Tips and guidelines to learn how to fully enjoy the vacations with the family.

Throughout the year, when we are immersed in the daily routine of work, school and extracurricular activities, there are many occasions when we think "when summer comes... I will rest, I will do this task, I will spend more time with my children, etc.".

However, can we carry out all these plans? Can summer be a stressful time?

Possible family problems in the face of the vacations

Although, in general, we associate vacations with relaxation and enjoyment, there are many families that can feel some anxiety or stress during the summer.What are the main causes?

• School vacations are longer than those of fathers and mothers.
• Children, since they have more free time, have a greater need for attention.
• The planning of trips or activities to be carried out during the summer.
• The family living together for a longer time than usual.

Therefore, it is important that each family spends some time to identify if any of these factors may be affecting their children. identify if any of these factors may be negatively influencing the family dynamics, causing greater irritability or irritability in the family.making them more irritable or angry.

What can we do to enjoy the summer vacations with the family?

Here are some tips that can help you help you enjoy your family vacations.

• Identify the needs of each of the family members, both adults and children or teenagers.
• Provide a space for communication in which you can express how you feel and what you need to enjoy family vacation time.
• Evaluate resources to facilitate family reconciliation (activities, camps, going with other family members/friends).
• Establish a routine: on vacations the structure can be more flexible, but it is important that the children know what the organization of the day is as it provides them with security.
• Maintain rules and limits that favor self-regulation, taking into account the behaviors they want to maintain during the summer.
• Encourage collaboration in household chores, delegating responsibilities according to age. In this way the autonomy of the children is favored at the same time that a cordial family atmosphere is achieved, with more time for leisure and rest.
• Propose activities and games that allow children to entertain themselves, thus favoring their creativity and individual time for the father and/or mother.
• Dedicate special time to the sons and daughters. Agree with them at what time of the day or week you are going to play or do some activity, it will help them to be less demanding knowing that you will spend time together.
• Carry out activities with other children so that they continue to develop social skills and emotional regulation strategies through peer play.
• Establish individual rest and leisure time; as adults you also need a space for calm and disconnection from the day to day.
• Organize what "pending tasks" you want to do during vacation time, adjusting expectations to be able to finish them.
• Plan the trips and activities to be carried out during the summer taking into account all the members of the family. The final decisions will be taken by the adults; however, if the opinion of the children is taken into account by favoring the negotiation of some aspects, they will feel included and the family atmosphere will be much more pleasant.

To conclude...

Enjoying the summer as a family, taking into account the needs of all family members and encouraging communication and favoring communication, generates a higher level of trust, well-being and strengthens the emotional bonds established in the family nucleus.

It also favors the evolutionary development of children and adolescents, rest and the feeling of belonging to the family structure. Disconnect from the daily routine, to connect with yourself and your family!

Author: Victoria Jariego Cordero, General Health Psychologist and member of TAP Center..