My parents made a point to do one family vacation per year growing up. I think nearly every one was a failure.

RustyGriz wrote:

Yeah, my parents would always take us on vacations.

Once we were driving in our big station wagon to this theme park and along the way my grandmother died, so we tied her to the car and dropped her off. We didn't really get to see much of the Grand Canyon along the way. It was so bad that at one point our car was tagged when we ended up in E. St. Louis.

When we finally arrived at the theme park it was closed. My father berated a security guard and forced him at (toy)gun point to let us ride the rides. Man.. what a disaster! I wont even tell you about our trip to Europe.

Little Rusty on the details, Rusty? It was your Aunt that died, not your Grandmother.

Precious Roy wrote:

The problem these days is that people have so little time for a vacation that they become high pressure events for families. When I was a little kid in the 70s, we would rent a house spend two weeks at the beach in the summer. It was great because we had tons of time and could just do whatever. If it rained, so what. Still lots of time to play on the beach and the boardwalk. Now, a family is lucky to get a full week and people often bring work on vacations (both parents and kids). Everyone is still on edge and cannot enjoy themselves.

You hit the nail on the head

not strange at all wrote:

It depends on the luck of genetics. An ambitious parent and laid back type offspring probably will end up tearing itself apart. A laid back parent and ambitious offspring usually creates a very harmonious situation. Its the luck of the draw the level of happiness for any individual.

Personality differences definitely play a big role. My mother and I both like to get out and do things. Left to his own devices, my father would only leave his recliner to go to the bathroom and get food during a week long vacation. Dad would always get grumpy and start throwing temper tantrums during vacations because he felt like he was being rushed and pushed to do things he didn't want to do.

Of course, my father could have just hung out at the hotel while we went out, so he could have avoided the stress if he really wanted to. That would have been preferable to doing every activity and complaining the whole time.

always fail wrote:

I can't knock my parents too much because their heart was in the right place

Heart being in the right place would mean they would go out of their way to make others happy but sounded like they were miserable too and did not want to be there. Face it there is just mutual dislike all around and going through the motions.