Three Reasons To Love Holidaying With Family
We're halfway through our week long holiday on Hamilton Island and while I'm in no rush to go home, the days have been long and lazy enough that I'd be happy if it were a four night getaway too. The place we're staying is a lovely 3 bedroom house with stunning views of Dent Island and the ocean.
We're with one set of grandparents (Roly's mum) plus my brother-in-law and his wife and son. The place is the perfect size for us to feel together but not cramped.
This holiday has been so good for us, especially Roly, who has had 6 months of flux with work which had taken its toll on his stress levels. I'm pretty sure the rest of us are also feeling the most relaxed we've felt in a while!
I've been thinking just how nice it is to have a holiday together as a group. Often when we're all together it's for some reason like Christmas or other event and so there's a big build up and a lot of busyness, which equals stress! (Which can equal false family tension!) This time around we are all here just for the purpose of being together and slowing down the pace for a few days. It makes all the difference!
There are a load of reasons why I love family group holidays but these are my favourite...
1. Family bonding. Seeing Max have special moments with his grandparents, Aunty, uncle and cousin is so lovely. It's important to me that he has meaningful relationships with them. It's also been wonderful to spend some time with our nephew, whose the most delightful and relaxed boy you ever did meet.
Equally as special is the undivided attention Max has from Roly. In day to day life, long and stressful workdays can take over and I know there are days when Roly feels he didn't get any quality time with Max. Seeing them have so much fun and coming up with their own private inside jokes just melts me.
There's also the bonding between us adults too of course! Long chats, shared meals, memories made.
2. Couple time. One huge benefit of staying together as a group is being able to take time out just Roly and I. We had a round of golf just the two of us, which is our favourite thing to do on holidays. It's one of the first proper times we've had together since Max came along. It was so good for us!
3. Shared efforts and experiences. The place we're staying is a little on the pricey side if it was just us but sharing the price between the three families makes it much more affordable (although this time around our share of the accomodation was a wedding present from the grandparents!). It also means we can share the cooking, cleaning and other chores so we can relax even more.
The luxury of a hotel is that someone else does most of that for you but we all enjoy and prefer the self-catering mode of holidays. So having the kitchen has been great. It means we can stay in for meals if the babies aren't in the mood to sit in a restaurant!
Its not just all about who does what though, it's nice to create shared memories of fun things like breakfast with the koalas or putt putt golf - things that wouldn't be as fun if it was just us. One day we can say 'remember the time we..'. Plus with beautiful surroundings it's nice to be able to point out this or that and share in the delight.
What are some of your reasons to love family group holidays?
Rachelle xo
