I am very fortunate that I get the opportunity to travel a lot and much of the time I get to bring my family. In my opinion, having a vacation or even a short break together as a unit is key to staying tapped in and relevant in each others’ lives. However, one of my favourite kind of trips is the Mother/Child vacation. I have had the opportunity a few times to travel on my own with just one of my children and seeing your child outside of the sibling relationship and family dynamic is a huge opportunity to get to know them on a deeper level.
Recently my 12 year-old son and I were able to go on a press trip together to beautiful Beaches Boscobel in Jamaica. Now, if any of you have tweens or teens you will know what I mean when I say that getting their undivided attention for any length of time is nearly impossible at home. With the distraction of friends, school work, technology and extra-curricular activities life kind of gets in the way. However, my son left all of these distractions at home and we were travel buddies for a few days!
Me and my boy.
Run 7,843. Seriously…hours of fun!
And as far as adventures go, check it:
But his all time favourite of the whole trip – the catamaran ride. Sailing out to sea, snorkeling in the middle of nowhere, dancing on deck. While I stayed back feeling seasick just thinking about it my boy enjoyed the high seas!
The best part is we got to hang out and chat, just the two of us. In fact, by the end of the trip, I had had just about the perfect amount of togetherness and we were both ready for him to get back to his gang of buddies. What a great gift it was to have a little time away from the everyday stresses!
A whole vacation may not be possible but maybe as part of a family trip or even just lunch can give you that togetherness. What do you do to get a little time one-on-one with your kids?