. . . being a very special Tuesday Tip, where you can choose your favorite of two contradictory suggestions -
1. When planning a vacation, make sure you tell your kids a week or so in advance, so they can experience more joy, get mentally prepared and be excited.
2. When planning a vacation, make sure you don’t tell your kids a week or so in advance, or they will dwell only on that and be largely dysfunctional until vacation happens.
Which one do you choose?
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We’ve chosen both. Sometimes we can’t hold it in and then we pay for it. Sometimes we wait and wonder why we did.
We’ve always waited. But our oldest is not quite 3 so she wouldn’t really get it much ahead of time. More practically, if we are going to visit her grandma in the afternoon, I won’t tell her until after her nap. Otherwise, she wouldn’t want to go to sleep.
We always tell! And they are huge help with packing, planning, etc. The kids aged 7 or 8 and up make packing lists, pick clothes with guidelines from me, pack small bags for the car, etc. Even help with food packing and planning. Even before they were a help and were quite young, we always planned and hoped and looked forward together. Honestly, it would never occur to me not to tell, how would they not notice while I’m getting ready? (It takes us at least 3-4 days of active packing, laundry, house cleaning, store shopping, list making, etc, for a road trip! I’m usually obviously working on it a week in advance). Last year we had three major road trips. Exhausting and good. This year none are planned and that’s good, too! It is hard to get 11 people on the road.
We definitely choose the joyful route of telling. The excitement and preparing are part of the great memories of any trip. Yet I understand why people may choose not to let them know.
Sorry, I typed the wrong website and address earlier . . .