Familyation

Whoa, another silly word. Today’s new word took me a few iterations to come up with something that you could pronounce out loud. Yes, sometimes it is difficult to come up with a brand new word. I mean, Webster’s has been around for a very long time and they pretty much cornered the market on acceptable language. So today, Family and Vacation are the two words. Put them together and you have one of the greatest past times of the American civilization, the family vacation, or better said in this corner of the internet, familyation. What can I possibly talk about concerning this subject? It’s a pretty inane subject isn’t it? No conspiracy theory here… or is there? Nah, I’m not going to head down that road, today anyway.

Most American families are blessed through the years to have the opportunity to go on at least one major family vacation throughout their childhood. However, over the years, this opportunity has dwindled from a potentially lengthy vacation stay multiple states away, to something closer to home and less time intensive. In past years, families would load up their vehicles and stock their luggage full of beach clothing, ski clothing, or casual wear. They would fill up their coolers with snacks, sandwiches, and soda in preparation for travelling miles upon miles between stops for refreshments or restrooms. It was a very large undertaking for families going on their summer vacation. Everyone was excited at one point or the other, more often than not though, at separate times. Family vacations were notorious for conflict and irritating conversations. Think about it. If you place people who already live together in a small and usually uncomfortable space, they will be irritable. It’s a basic fact of our humanity, we like our space and our personal bubbles to be large.

Well, that sounds great doesn’t it? Sure, it was and for some, it still is. But, like I mentioned above, the existence of the family vacation is fast becoming a story of folklore. Families that are together are rare. Families that are able to take enough time off together to go on a lengthy vacation is becoming rare. Access to the funding necessary for the family vacation is becoming harder to acquire. Sure, there are still ways to take a family vacation “on the cheap,” but the majority of vacations have become insanely expensive. Depending on the age of the family and the people involved, trips to the fun parks and the hotel accommodations are sometimes upwards of several months’ rent for most families. Even for the older families, the associated site seeing adventures are usually costly and with today’s fuel costs, there are not many “on the cheap” vacations. Fuel costs alone for any substantial distance can drive the family’s budget into the ground.

Is there a problem with this? Vacations are and always will be a luxury. There is no disputing that. However, I do believe there is a problem with the impending extinction of the American vacation. Families, even though they may often be irritated, grow closer together by going on the adventure. It is a very intense journey through relationship building. Also, the families learn a vast amount about the society in which they live. If we spend our entire lives centralized in our local vicinities, we fail to experience what the rest of the country has to offer. People on the east coast are much different than people in the south. The people in the west coast are much different than the people in the midwest. There are different ideologies, different opinions, and much different environments. If we never experience what the rest of our country has to offer, our points of view are very limited and skewed. We must expand our boundaries to include the great experiences our country has to offer.

The only way to experience what our country has to offer is to take adventures. The family vacation is the primary solution. Also, children are usually involved in the vacation and this is the best time for an educational experience. Young minds absorb so much information at a very high rate that a vacation is so much more than entertainment for them. It is a very interactive experience for the young people. If we cannot take our family vacations, what exactly are we replacing it with? Video games, movies, time on the internet, or some other time waster? Sure, children learn from all of these things, but it cannot compare to the real world experiences of a vacation. On top of this, there is another major issue with removing the family vacation from our families. Families need time to get away.

Time to get away, or better said, escape from our everyday lives. People are continuously living under stressful situations and their family pays the price. Our relationships are stressed, our families are stressed, our budgets continue to be stretched, and we fail to experience the greatness the rest of our country has to offer us. We NEED to get away. Our minds need to be released from the daily, weekly, and yearly responsibilities that follow us everywhere we go at home. Time off is not the same as a vacation either. Take some time off, but stay at home, and your mind has no vent, no release. We must remove ourselves physically from the surroundings that we know on a daily basis to truly alleviate the stresses of our local environment. I am not saying that we can forget or dissolve all stress by vacationing, but I am saying that by doing so, we can greatly diminish its place in our life. This stress also affects our children. Children’s lives are also impacted by the stress levels of the parents. Environment is a major component in anyone’s life and even more so in children.

Families should work hard at taking a true vacation as often as they can. Maybe not every year, or even every other year, but a vacation needs to be undertaken to ease the burdens we are all under. Yes, it is tough to make happen, but so is most everything in our lives. If we put enough energy in planning and saving for our family vacations, we can bring back the American vacation from extinction. Not only will our children reap the rewards, but our state of mind will also receive dividends from our vacation experience. We all need time to get away. Vacations are not only one of the most functional ways to do it, but they also allow us to physically experience the world and country we live in. If we never leave our boundaries, we might as well be living in a fish bowl. Personally, I’m an adventurer, not a fish.