Advantages and disadvantages of spending holidays with other families

The enthusiasm is preserved throughout the holidays. Because, even if a couple of people are tired or in a bad mood or get lost in the car, there will always be someone with energy and desire who will find the way. Or call to ask or make a reservation, take care of the children when they are tired... In short, someone who reminds the group of how lucky they are to be able to afford a vacation and how important it is to enjoy the moment.

Your children will have friends (if you go with people in their class) or children more or less their age (the children of your friends from before they had kids) to play at all times. Or to get bored together while waiting for lunch or dinner.

Adults will have company and help to manage everything much faster (if everyone is effective).

Everyone will have a good conversation guaranteed.

You can share the care of the children. When there are several competent adults you can delegate the care of the minors and have a little moment of relaxation. Maybe you can even read a few chapters of that book you've been dragging up or down for months. Or more prosaically, you can go to the toilet without having to carry your bag, stroller and children.

When you go in a group and take advantage of offers or buy large quantities wildly, everything may end up a little cheaper.

If you are distrustful, afraid, cautious, paranoid, have seen too many horror movies or everything at the same time, in a group you will feel safer. Especially in bucolic places far from civilization, which during the day are a haven of peace, but at night are a remote and dark place full of shadows that could be a tree moving with the wind or a serial killer with a lot of free time.

When there is some anger with the couple, it is possible that the other families will understand you, support you or, at least, give you an understanding and silent look that implies "I'm with you,

, but I don't want them to scold me too."

If in the hotel or the apartment pool or on public transport you are going to end up meeting and chatting with someone similar, or if you are going to sign up for an organized trip with strangers, why not bring those you already know from home and let them be friends ?

Finally you will be able to appear in family photos of your own family without having to leave your cell phone with a stranger and fear that they will run away with the phone.

When children get annoying, which comes sooner or later, you have to put up with more children (especially children who are not yours and who, perhaps, you would educate differently).

If children from different families get angry or fight, and things are not resolved well, this can affect coexistence and friendship in general.

For a few days different parenting models will coexist and, sometimes, they can be totally opposite. Furthermore, there is always the shadow of a doubt that is never spoken: if necessary, can each adult correct or scold all the children or only their own?

If you are a large group it is more difficult to find a place. A table for 8 or 12 is not as easy as a table for 3 or 4. This forces you to reserve in advance or wait longer for everyone to sit in, while the children complain in groups.

Synchronizing schedules is quite impossible. Some get up early and then their energy runs out in the middle of the afternoon, others go down late to have breakfast, but then at eleven at night they are more alive than the DJ at a wedding. Some get hungry before others, others take longer to get into the car and drive away. In the end, some will have waited longer than others and their patience will run out.

Everyone spends money at their own pace and according to their possibilities and tastes. If you spend many days and half-pay for everything, at some point one of the families will frown when they bring the bill and think: “With a few sandwiches and a bottle of water we would have spent until nightfall and we would have saved this pasture.” .

The more people, the more diversity of interests. Some will want to see museums; others, landscapes; others, TV. Some will prioritize the tastes of their children while others will do so with their own interests. And if all the activities are done in groups, there will always be a couple of people with a bad face complaining that they want to be somewhere else.