From Toddlers to Teens: Keeping All Ages Happy on Family Vacations and at Holiday Parties

It can be a difficult job to find ways of occupying the different ages of children within their families. Now that we have 8 kids, from ages 16 down to 1, and everything in between, we find ourselves having to put more effort and thought into different activities that we do as a family, for the sake of everyone being occupied and happy. There are some good ways of doing that and its not as bad as one might think, but it many times requires the parents going in 2 different directions. These are some ways of going about this.

First of all as you plan your activity, maybe its a family vacation or just a outing for one day. Put some thought ahead of time into what the facility offers that you will be visiting. Call ahead if you need to, and ask about all the activities they provide for kids. Then you'll be more able to make a plan ahead of time and move right into execution of it upon arrival. With a large family, being able to move right into execution when you get there, works much better than not knowing whats available to you. When your unsure of whats available to you, and start the process of looking into it after getting there, your going to find your kids going in all directions and keeping track of them becomes what your spending time doing, rather than just being able to begin your day of activities. Figure out which things are more suited for your older group and which are for the younger group. Then plan which parent will do which activity so your able to move ahead right away. So don't leave without knowing the options, this is a real time saver and well worth the effort put in ahead of time.