Found an error?
Report now
PeopleWhy you notice how you're becoming more and more like your parents when planning your vacation
Summer vacations often require a lot of planning for a family: so many needs, so many factors to consider, so little time.
Image: Axel Heimken/dpa
Summer vacations with family require planning. This year, the blue News columnist wants to take care of it early - and when it comes to choosing a destination, she realizes that she is becoming more and more like her own parents.
If you have school-age children, they are fast approaching: the summer vacations.
I remember how much I looked forward to it every year as a child. Six weeks off school, swimming and barefoot, staying up late and eating too much ice cream.
The last day of school was bursting with tingling anticipation when the vacations were still untouched but just around the corner. Six seemingly endless weeks, two of them in Ticino like every year.
Just like the winter vacations in Valais, summer vacations in Italian-speaking Switzerland were a tradition in our family. We always stayed in the same accommodation, visited the same sights and knew the restaurant menus from the previous year.
I loved it.
Bild: Privat
Michelle de Oliveira is a journalist, yogini, mother and always in search of balance - not just on the yoga mat. She also has a soft spot for all things spiritual. In her column, she reports on her experiences with the incomprehensible, but also from her very real life with all its joys and challenges. She lives with her family in Portugal.
Until I got older and found it annoying that we always went to the same place, never flew to the sea or explored exotic destinations.
Now that I'm a mother myself, I know that vacations are one of those things. They have to be planned.
First of all, there's the childcare while the parents are at work: Who watches the children and when, and puts sun cream on them from head to toe?
Will the carefully constructed organization card house hold or will it collapse at the first downpour - with the first sick person, for example? Have we really thought of all eventualities?
Then there's the travel planning. A luxury problem, I know. But I know many families for whom vacation planning, including a stay outside their own four walls, is a challenge and often leads to a minor crisis in which the parents wish it was the end of August again.
What are the needs? What is possible - financially, in terms of what is on offer and suitable for the family? What do you really want to do?
Our son announced a while ago that he wanted to go to Spain. Nobody knew why. Neither did he. But he wanted to go to Spain and was already learning Spanish words with an app.
From then on, he called the bird "el pájaro" and every now and then he greeted us with "Buenos días". Spain, why not, we thought at first. We sat down at the computer in a spare minute and scrolled through the offers.
The destination should only be far enough away that we could reach it in a short drive - after all, Spain is our neighboring country.
It would be nice to be by the sea, but if possible less windy than here. Otherwise we can stay where we are. We discovered some nice options, but we weren't convinced yet. We closed the laptop and postponed the venture.
I also hear this from many families. Planning is put off until the choice is minimal and the price is maximum. Spontaneous vacations in the region are often the last resort.
It can be wonderful: You get hold of an inexpensive last-minute offer, save yourself long travel times, the weather plays along, your mood is good and you discover new favorite corners of your own country.
But it can also rain for two weeks and you curse your own carelessness every day anew when you put your feet in damp rubber boots instead of hot sand and the rubbery sandwich can't keep up with foreign cuisine.
We ventured a second attempt. I mentioned how nice it had been glamping in Alentejo last year. Couldn't we go there again? We know what to expect.
Suddenly I have to think of my parents: every summer they go on vacation in Ticino. Suddenly a lot of lights come on for me.
Because my glamping suggestion only found a few supporters, I asked ChatGPTI for help. Family vacation in Portugal was my keyword. Not the Algarve, not the Silver Coast.
The artificial helper actually spit out some useful tips: National parks, hiking areas, bathing lakes. All accessible by car, we don't have to fly and save on car rental. That could be something, we think.
But we don't book yet. We still have time. Until then, my son will keep practising his Spanish. Adios!
