Dear ones, when I spoke to my friend on the phone on Monday to talk about how our holiday with teenagers went and I asked her about her adventure trip, she said that her son summed up the difference between a trip and a holiday like this: With a holiday, you say „Oh, how nice“ all the time. And with a trip, it’s more like „Oh, how cool“. Isn’t that the perfect description?
If there’s one thing that really unites the five of us in our family, it’s a very pronounced love of travelling. We love discovering the world, our big girl learnt to walk in Namibia, my brother got married in Mexico and we are always completely fascinated when we can think outside the box.
But travelling doesn’t necessarily mean relaxation. Travelling is exciting, exhausting and provides input. Holidays, on the other hand, have a completely different purpose. You’re also away from everyday life, but it’s more about slowing down and pausing, clearing your brain and living unplanned into the day.
Some people can do this well at home, but as a self-employed person who works from my own living room, I personally find it quite difficult to switch off and do nothing within my own four walls. So it’s fantastic when there’s a place outside your own home where you still know everything.
Yahaaaaaa, that sounds stuffy. I never thought I’d write something like that, but there is such a place in our family. I’ve been there since I was a child, I know practically every nook and cranny, I know where the cutlery is, where we get the most delicious baguette in the morning and I don’t have to figure anything out anymore.
Holidays with teenagers can be so wonderfully relaxed
This is exactly how my family feels. They know which hike they like, where to find the best view and the best frozen yoghurt ice cream, some of them know the waiters in the restaurants and know their way around, the Wi-Fi password comes automatically. This means that the holiday, rest and relaxation can begin on day 1. We don’t have to discover anything, we can just be. A dream to really switch off…
I’ve heard the same from others, Shari also wrote earlier this week that they will probably be holidaying at the same place for the third time because everything there is familiar and approved with four children, one of whom needs special conditions. And maybe you know that too?
However, we now find ourselves travelling there in different constellations from time to time. Sometimes my husband was only with us for one of two weeks because of work, sometimes the older one was at uni or wanted to have a break at home, this time it was the case that only one of the twins came along because the other was travelling with a family friend.
This was incredibly new in terms of the feeling, as the two had never been apart for more than a week. They both really enjoyed these days in their own way. They texted each other in between („Werder sells Burke, WTF“, that sort of thing), but were able to be themselves for once.
One of them told me that he saw twins at his holiday destination and thought, ha, they must be looking at us – and only then did he realise that he was travelling without his shadow this time. There was no competition, no arguments, no eating faster so that the other didn’t eat anything, no talking faster so that the other didn’t continue or interrupt the story.
There were no complaints when it came to excursions, everything was more relaxed than we had ever experienced before. Our daughter had her boyfriend with her, our middle child went completely downhill and our youngest kept sending photos from his week and was very happy when he was able to tell us everything he had experienced during the week.
I think it was a new experience for everyone. And it was wonderful for everyone. So I would like to encourage you if the holidays feel even more exhausting than the working days. It was like that for us for years. And now it’s even possible to lie around and read on holiday again… so somehow everything will come back. At some point.
