Steph Peters How long have you lived with a family member as an adult? For me it was 18 days with my mom staying with us on vacation here in San Diego. I know you might be thinking “18 DAYS?!” but there were several fun trips we had planned that I wanted my mom to be able to be apart of, and told her “I lived with you for 18 years, we can handle 18 days.”
Here’s how we did it:
- Communicate ahead of time! That includes spouses and any other adults involved in this trip, making sure everyone’s voices and opinions are heard ahead of time to help eliminate any disagreements. My husband and I laid down some “ground rules” which included my mom communicating with us before she would clean anything in our house. (I was secretly happy when she offered to clean something since I hate cleaning!)
- Plan fun outings everyone would enjoy. From trips to the beach, daughter-mother time, playtime with the grandbabies; this kept it fun and exciting as opposed to becoming super routine and making the 18 days drag on.
- Plan some time apart. My time away was at work, my husband also had his job, and my mom got away to the pool and time by herself watching her favorite TV shows while kids were napping.
- End the trip by writing down all the fun things you did together. It was so great looking back thru our photos and then sharing what experiences will now be life long memories. I loved taking my mom to her first trip to Disneyland, but also loved our family movie nights eating popcorn and watching her play with her grandkids on the beach.
