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Holidays

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Help needed to avoid family rift

7 replies

llareggub · 06/06/2008 16:28

My mother is 60 in October and my brother and I thought we would pay for us all to go away together to help celebrate. He has 3 children, I have one son. All together, we will be travelling with 5 adults, 1 child, 2 toddlers and 1 infant.

Sounds like a plan, doesn't it?

However my brother and I are like chalk and cheese. He is a typical Brit abroad, football shirt, lager, etc. His last holiday was a package to Torremolinos.

We like city breaks, cottage holidays in this country and lots of National Trusting.

If asked to express a preference, my mother would probably want something in between. She loves walking, but is a red head who sensibly avoids the sun.

My brother (and I suspect my sister in law is the decision maker) wants us to book a villa in Lanzarote or Tenerife. I was thinking more like a cottage in Cornwall or the Lakes.

So. I need to come up with a sensible compromise to present to my sister in law. I suspect my mother will hate the villa idea but will go along with it because she is divorced and won't travel alone. I have a very strong feeling that we'll be left babysitting every night as well.

Can anyone suggest a compromise? I'm inclined to pull out totally and just invite her along to our next holiday, but I thought I should make an attempt to come up with something as my son would love to holiday with his cousins.

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llareggub · 06/06/2008 16:29

Just thought I'd add that there is nothing wrong with packages to Torremolinos, I've just put that to illustrate our holiday preferences.

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GrapefruitMoon · 06/06/2008 16:37

Tbh it doesn't sound like much of a treat for your mother! Could you not just have a family meal to celebrate the birthday and pay for her to go away with a friend on a holiday she would actually enjoy?

Or else book a villa somewhere where there is stuff to do apart from sit in the sun - maybe a Greek island?

hanaflower · 06/06/2008 16:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SNoraWotzThat · 06/06/2008 16:42

I would book 2 separate apartments instead of a single villa and you have your mother on your booking. If one party can't go for various reasons, the rest don't have to pay the huge balance. Keep your finances separate what ever you decide.

Sometimes it works, sometimes not, for vaious reason that you can't foresee.

llareggub · 06/06/2008 16:46

Family meal sounds far, far better. It does sounds hideous, doesn't it? We are not a close family and I'd hoped that this holiday might help bring us closer together. It will be difficult to get out of because we went on holidays with my father and stepmother last year, and it worked well.

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GrapefruitMoon · 06/06/2008 16:52

Did your brother and his family go on that holiday too?

llareggub · 06/06/2008 17:01

No, they didn't. We went with my step-mother's family. Her daughter is 19 so was out clubbing all the time and we barely registered her presence. We also stayed in a very large villa in Mallorca and spent our time driving from village to village. It was great. We couldn't suggest the same villa as it belongs to a friend of my father.

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