Vacations should be the time in your life when you de-stress, taking some time away from the daily grind to rest, recuperate, explore and most importantly have fun. This however, is easier said than done when you have children with you and planning for a stress-free family vacation needs to be done with precision. Naturally you want to have fun and you want the exact same thing for your children but very often the excitement of it all can lead to misbehaviour on your child’s part and can often spoil the good times. To avoid such a situation, here are some tips that can help you keep your kids from being naughty on vacation.
Lay Down the Rules
It is important that before you leave for your vacations that you let your kids know what is going to be happening when you’re away. You can use these talks to let them know that there will be more flexibility than normal, perhaps later bed times or food that they usually wouldn’t be allowed to eat will be available to them. Coupled with these benefits, you need to also let them know that these extra luxuries come at a price, their behaviour, It is far better if you speak with them before your vacation as if you need to do it during, it will take the child’s sense of freedom away and could lead to worse behaviour. Doing this also creates a point of reference that you can point to during your vacations.
Watch What They Eat
Naturally we relax a little with the rules when it comes to a vacation but you still need to be mindful of what your child is eating. Your kids will be excitable enough when they are away and the last thing that they need is a body full of sugar and E-numbers which can make them grumpy after the sugar rush.
Sleep is More Important
A day spent bombing in the pool, at a theme park, on an adventure playing sports and meeting new friends is more than enough for any kid to handle and they will be wiped out by the end of the day. Whilst you can relax rules around bedtimes, it’s important to ensure that your child still gets sufficient sleep. Lack of sleep equals grumpy child who will be more likely to misbehave.
Time Out
The excitement of the holiday can sometimes be too much for a child and therefore it is vital that you take them out of the madness for an hour a day. The excitement of the holiday can sometimes be too much for a child and therefore it is vital that you take them out of the madness for an hour a day. Perhaps take them back to the room, let them play some online games on a tablet or watch a Disney film for a while, anything to turn their attention elsewhere. This will calm your child’s
Recently we have watched together “Finding Dory” and there’s plenty of free online games related to this friendly-but-forgetful fish: check out our favourites here! This will calm your child’s mind down a bit before they head back out into the fun.
Incentivise
This is the key to a happy holiday, an incentive, perhaps there is a theme park or an aqua park that your kid really wants to go to, organise this for the last or penultimate day. Doing this means that you have something to negotiate with your child when they begin misbehaving, remind them that if they are naughty then you won’t be going to the attraction that they want. Carrot and stick seems to be a harsh way of treating your kid but this theory works well.
