AIBU to hate family holidays?

[fishnchips1987]

The stress, the packing, the travelling, someone always gets moody, the passive aggressiveness that comes with said moodiness, the expectations which always turn out to be dissapointments, the strange smells, the homesickness, missing home comforts and my cats. Just me? Everyone I know seems to be excited at the thought of them, whereas I dread them. This quote sums it up perfectly for me:

"Travelling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are completely off balance" Cesare Pavese

Am I alone??

Yes! Yabu!
Perhaps you're not taking the right kind of holiday to suit your family?
What sort of thing do you normally do?

I know what you mean. Although I also find holidays result in the best memories even if at the time it was marked by whingeing children and stress. Ours are teens now so we just do a weekend away twice a year.

My family do not travel well together. We all want different things so it's hard to keep everyone happy. After a few disasters decided to join up with my friend and her kids and now it's much easier. We only do a week and find places with lots for teens to do.

Maybe you need to look at where you holiday? Travel less distance? It really should be more enjoyable. We have cheap holidays in the UK which are always brilliant fun, often educational and don't take hours of airport queues to reach. Car trips aren't bad, can be broken by travel lodge stops if need be. Try to find a way to taken pressure's off yourself.

I reckon i should have said family holidays with the in laws or my parents. Too much going on. Too many people to please. Always at a caravan which I have bad memories of from childhood. We have 0 disposable income so a free holiday cannot be sniffed at! But I just find them so difficult!

Divorce sorted this out for me.

Okay, what you describe is torture, not a holiday.

YABU! I love it all (apart from the packing)

Yabu
Where are you holidaying?!
Holidays are important - they stick in kids’ memories. Cheer up!

It's because you're staying in a caravan. This is not a holiday in my eyes.

No moodiness or silliness from my lot. There were 17 of in a massive house last year, no issues. There are lots of people to bounce off, you can be in a different room if someone is annoying you. I do prefer to stay in different accommodation if it’s more than a couple of days then meet up for outings. Maybe that would work better for you?

I love holidays, but I always struggle with insomnia when away, either because of jet lag or because the stress of travel sends my adrenal glands into overdrive. That part definitely sucks. But otherwise, I do love to travel.

Maybe you are just a homebody and that is completely fine. My holidays are nothing like that, so I love going, but clearly we have very different experiences and expectations.

I find airports really stressful, they just seem really unfriendly places and I feel trapped in them x

Oh well there you go! You're going away with people outside your immediate family and to a caravan! If you were writing a recipe for a shit holiday, they would be the top two ingredients!

Dh and I have been together 30 years nearly. The closest we ever came to divorce was on a holiday with extended family and that was in a nice place with plenty of space!

yanbu, but for me it's the holiday not the family. none of us love them. we'd rather be at home and do the occasional day trip. the logistics of travelling is a ballache and if you don't love hot weather or tourist attractions, there's nothing intrinsically entertaining about being somewhere else without all the things you like. but people are mad for holidays so you'll get a lot of yabu's here.

Just seen your update - christ no, that kind of extended family holiday in confined circumstances is hell, esp when you have to be grateful for it!

Don't go if it's that bad
I would rather stay home than go to a caravan or camping.

I can relate totally to some of what you’re saying! I, in particular, cannot stand the tiled flooring that runs throughout nearly all holiday accommodation (I fully appreciate the reasons why it is necessary!), but I love the home comfort of carpet 🤣

It really does depend on the holiday though, and luckily no one in the family gets moody.

This is where your going wrong op.

Organise your own holiday. The Sun Holidays coupon deal is always really good and cheap. Work on putting away £30 a month and you will have enough to book somewhere and have spending money left over.

You aren't unreasonable to feel like that, but I don't feel like that. The quote you posted is about travelling, but a holiday is vacationing. It's different. Travelling and the quote is for a holiday like backpacking, not one with luxury comforts and lounging by a pool. What kind of holiday do you usually take? If you do busy self catered holidays would an all inclusive resort type thing be worth a try?

I think the problem is you have an idea of perfectionism about a vacation. If you stay home, surely someone still gets moody at some point?

I personally don't get home sick. I am an introvert but I love the novel factor of going to a different country, of staying somewhere that isn't home. Just thinking of an airport gets me excited. I love them. I absolutely love packing and will start writing lists months before a holiday. My favourite part of a holiday is probably the excitement that builds while I research it. I am not a naturally organised person with the exception of holidays where I plan itinerary's and possible days out and trip adviser and travel blogs are my best friend.

I don't have any expectation of well behaved children and constant bliss though, I know things will go wrong and they will be tired and demanding. I'm just glad it's not at home.

Ok, I take that back. I don't know if I'd be excited about a caravan holiday in UK with my in-laws either! Your travel quote is hardly relevant there .

So you are in fact not talking about family holidays in general, but about a particular set of family holidays with a particular set of people. A bit difficult for the rest of us to vote then, seeing that nobody is asking us to go on holiday with your ILs and your childhood memories.

I've always enjoyed family holidays because dh and I both have happy childhood memories and enjoy the sense of (modestly priced) adventures together. But what you describes sounds the stuff of nightmares.

We holiday in the UK to avoid lengthy travel/airports etc.

We have had some lovely times which is great.

In a few weeks, we are off on holiday with MiL/SiL/MiLs friend. I love them all dearly and get on with them, however, I admit I have my reservations about how it will go. Trying to do things to suit people of varying ages/ability to walk will be tricky I think.

I suspect me and DS might end up doing quite a bit alone while DH amuses his family.

I have booked a week in Oct for just us though so at least I can look forward to that

Your first post - totally disagree, love holidays.

Your update - fuck that for a game of soldiers, free or not that is not a holiday!