Saturday, July 17, 2010

Vacation Drama

Take four kids (2, 3, 4 and 5 years old) two sets of parents, one set of grandparents and stick 'em all in a house for the weekend during a heat wave and what do you get?  Drama.

I guess I can't complain.  I know many families have much worse dynamics with their relatives and overall we are pretty civil and reasonable with each other.  The problem comes with the "gotta get out of the house" folks vs the "I'm on vacation and want to take it easy" folks.  You may have guessed that Hubby and I are on Team IOVAWTTIE while the others are on Team GGOOTH no matter if it's 100 degrees in the shade and simply stepping outside for 5 minutes results in heat exhaustion or not.  The two senior citizens have insisted on going out for several daily walks (by themselves, thank goodness) and come back in fanning themselves with their hats and marveling about how unbearably hot it is outside. 

We are staying in a nice suburban house - they have a lovely sizeable, shaded backyard with a great wooden swing set, covered back porch and plenty of water toys/activities.  What's wrong with the kids playing out back, the adults sitting on the shaded porch and calling it an afternoon?  Why do we have to pack everyone up and leave the premises in order for it to count as a fun activity "for the kids"?  It's not for the kids, it's for the adults.

I just about lost it trying to negotiate with Team GGOOTH and figuring out the logistics of how to fit in a visit to the pool, a visit to the Science Center and celebrating the 2 year old's birthday in between naps and feeding times for the kids.  I'm steadfast in not giving up my children's nap times in favor of doing a bunch of activities to keep the adults happy.  Nope, not worth it.  You will always end up paying for it later and it's just not fair to the nap skipping kid either.

After much discussion I stayed home with the napping 3 year old while the 2 year old went out with Team GGOOTH (of which his parents are members).  We will be meeting up for dinner once he wakes up and I'm enjoying the quiet until then.  Rest assured that dinner will be full of the antics of an over-tired 2 year old; I will relish my role as just the aunt and can stand back and let his parents juggle him in between bites of their cold dinners.

1 comment:

sue said...

knowing what works for you and yours and sticking too it makes vacation all that much more enjoyable. Let GGOOTH gooth if that is their choice just remind them that yours is to NOT. Have to say though if that is the worst of your family dynamics you've definitely got it good.

Enjoy your vacation.