Pre-holiday anxiety

[alligatorsmile]

Does anyone else get into a tangle of nerves before going on holiday? I've tried looking it up on Google but it all seems to be about anxiety ABOUT being away, being in a foreign place etc. But what worries me is the arrangements, the terror that something will go wrong and I will be late and ruin the family holiday.

I think it's because I always end up doing all the arrangements, booking flights and connections and car hire and all that stuff, so it's ALL MY FAULT if it goes wrong. I try to be as organised as I can, but fret for weeks before going away and I can't relax until I get there.

I always have this. Until I am at the airport, through security, or have arrived wherever I am going, I would tell you I don't want to go. I always have to be mega-early to the airport. I would rather have hours to kill than risk being held up and missing the flight.

Yes me too. Agree it's because I'm doing all the washing / packing / logistics / booking too.

I also need a bag where I don't panic every two seconds I've lost my purse / passport / phone / tickets!

Yes!, we go away in 9 days and I haven't started packing. I'm convinced someone is gong to get ill or some other tragedy or a passport will be lost.

Yes this is me too but I am a worrier anyway. I hate the run up to the holiday, all the packing and arrangements etc and I'm also terrified of getting stuck in traffic and being late and missing the flight. Once I'm through security i relax a bit and start to enjoy things but there's always the luggage collection at the other end to look forward to. I get a bit tense waiting for the bags.

So OP you are not alone.

Me!

Oh God yes. I'm awfully stressed before we go away. Only if we're flying abroad though, I'm not too bad if we're going somewhere in the UK although it's still a bit stressful having to pack up the car and tidy the whole house, sort the dogs etc.

We are going away on our first family holiday on Sunday ds4 and dd1 and I am terrified. I just keep thinking something will happen with the transfers or the kids will be a handful and hate it.
I have an issue with thinking everything is my fault anyways and this is just stressing me

Oh everything people are saying is so spot on! How do we fix it?

Yes!! I actually regret booking in the week or so leading up to it and would happily cancel the whole thing. Flew a few weeks ago and found the whole airport/bag drop/security thing horrendously stressful with the kids to wrangle too. And that’s after days of stressing and list writing and procrastinating about packing. I hate it!

The actual holiday part is fine and nice. Once we are driving away with car packed, or through security if flying, I actually feel the tension lift. It’s just all the prep and faffing.

I do. But I tell dh that although I've organised everything, it's not my fault if things go wrong and he says he knows that, and it helps. And I try to rationalise it: if we're ill, if a train is late, it's only one week. It's only a holiday.

I also make a list of things we need to take on holiday that I update every year as the dc grow. That means I remember everything we need and I feel organised.

I have this a bit for the holidays I organise. With the holidays DH organises, I don't worry at all, or very little. I think as some have said it's about the sense of responsibility to everyone else - but then he worries! If he organises the holiday and something were to go wrong, I'd be entirely rationale about it and just deal with the problem, and vice versa. I try to remember that when I'm worrying about the possibility of something going wrong on the ones I organise.

We check all the bookings together before we click confirm (eg dates, correct passport entries, etc). That way the responsibility is at least shared a bit.