The Importance Of Taking A Family Vacation

I hate to generalize, but I can confidently say that vacations are the highlight of everyone’s childhood.  Most of us remember being sent off to the grandparents’ every year, and I am sure many of us also send our kids’ off to their grandparents’ every summer. While this is an important bonding experience for grandkids and grandparents, there’s nothing like a family vacation – by this I mean the nuclear family – parents and kids, vacationing together.

Why is it important for parents and kids to holiday together at least for a few days every year?

1. Even though we live together through the academic year, the environment is different – parents are caught up with work, hobbies, gymming, etc. Kids have their school and extracurricular activities. We bond, sure! However, a vacation frees us of the above schedules, and helps families to spend all their time together.  There’s a touch of magic because parents are completely relaxed and there’s nothing more that kids cherish that one-on-one time with a relaxed parent!
2. It is very important for your kids to see how you spend your vacation. In this world of rush-rush and hurry-hurry, kids rarely get to see us unwinding completely. When they grow up and step into their own busy work schedules, their own vacations are so important to give them that sense of balance. That’s when they will look back to their own childhoods and remember how their own parents relaxed and bonded with them. It is a crucial life lesson, and every family needs to teach this to their kids, by example!
3. Vacations teach kids many other life values –  traveling skills, sharing a room, empathy, sharing food, changing money, learning a new language. A vacation is a great way to explore interests and hobbies together. And, experiencing new things as a family is a great way to build strong bonds.
4. Children come out of their shells and share more in the presence of relaxed parents. You will learn more about them during a short vacation than you learnt during the long academic year!

So go ahead, take that week off this summer, go somewhere special, and make beautiful memories that your kids will cherish for a lifetime!

Sharon Colaco D’Souza is a mother of two kids, a girl and a boy. She is a business management post graduate, and works as a content strategist for a living. She is passionate about home decor and design, and blogs at The Keybunch. Parenting is ‘that continuously-unravelling mystery’ for her and she views Parentous as a great place for parenting information, as well as a place to share her own parenting discoveries. She is currently working on a book idea on indigenous architecture and hopes to see it to fruition!