Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Reminds me of an episode of "Thirty Someting".. Hope's mother is coming for a vists. Hope and another of the characters (sorry, can't remember the name) are in the kitchen, talking about it. Hope says "I love my mother, I honor her and cherish all that she has done for me and all that she has taught me. But, I can't stand to be in the same room with her for 10 minutes." The other character says "Ten minutes! What's your secret?"
That would be me. Unless it was clear going in that everyone could do their own thing, there is no way I would want to share a house with 13 other people.
I couldn't take a week at a beach with or without family members. One day at a beach is more than enough for me. If it was something more active like visiting some National Parks and doing some hiking/white water rafting or something similar I'd be more likely to be interested.
OP, I gave your vote a slightly higher score before I read what the accommodations would be. We have done a similar thing with my wife's side of the family - 8 adults, 7 children and it worked out OK. Was fun the first time we did it, but by the 3rd or 4th year in a row it had grown tired and we didn't want to go anymore (and in our case it was being completely funded by wife's parents) - some of that was the interpersonal dynamics between my wife and her siblings, some due to age of children, but mainly due to it becoming repetitious.
What made it bearable were the accommodations. We went to Myrtle beach and stayed in one of those ocean front high rise units, 1 4br unit, 1 3br unit - different combinations of families each year. If we were forced to all cram into a 4BR unit, it just wouldn't have happened. Our "family reunion" may have continued if we had switched to a beach house instead of condo units, but my in-laws only want to stay at a particular resort (and since they were funding it, they were in control). You need time to get away from each other and decompress which I'm not sure 4BRs would give you.
A few suggestions:
- find a more remote location where you can rent more space for the same amount of money (outer banks is nice, myrtle beach has lots of multi-bedroom options, the extra drive time might make it worthwhile)
- shorten the trip to less than a week (at a week long beach vacation, I am ready to go home after Wednesday)
- keep the same 4BR place, but rotate people in and out so all of you are there only for part of the trip (say mid-week) and half the people are there at the beginning, the other half at the end.
- Have a different family responsible for meal provision each evening and have everyone on their own for breakfast/lunch. Stake out a "group" area on the beach early in the morning and let people come and go from that area as they want.
Good luck to you, if you can make it worth it is a worthwhile endeavor every few years
I've done it, there were 12 of us; 9 adults, one pre-teen, a toddler, and an infant. 5 bedroom 2 1/2 bath, 5 nights. One fight, where I ended up throwing a phone book at my brother (it was the local so it wasn't that big, and my point was for him to get a rental car), and the rest was not too bad. I think it depends on the family dynamics.
I couldn't take a week at a beach with or without family members. One day at a beach is more than enough for me. If it was something more active like visiting some National Parks and doing some hiking/white water rafting or something similar I'd be more likely to be interested.
I tend to agree. The most fun we've had was when there was some surf, so you could actually boogie board. The days that were calm were absolutely boring. I cannot just sit on the beach and roast. Also, I would tend to use the middle of the day to do off beach activities, swimming in the early AM and then coming back around 4 when the sun was receding.
Despite the fact that our family has huge parties, I prefer smaller gatherings. I hate large group weekends with 10 or more people. I prefer more manageable group sizes like 6 to 8 people at most. You get better conversations, less crowding and noise, and less squabbling over who's going to do what and when. I don't like all the waiting involved in trying to get 10 people ready to do something at the same time. It's like herding cats.
Do I get to choose the 14? If so, yes. If not, hell no.
That could be odd. Like say, your brother and one of his kids, but not the rest. Your sisters husband, but not her. Three out of 4 cousins. Your uncle, but not his wife. How do you do this? Who you exclude could cause some really hard feelings if you only pick who you really like.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
