Magic Vacation Tool Every Parent Needs

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We all have dreams of the perfect family vacation, but let’s face it sometimes it’s not always perfect.  With so much to see and do it’s easy to become tired and grumpy.  Years ago when our children were young we discovered a magic tool that helped to smooth over the rough spots of the cherished family vacation.  As a travel agent I have shared it with my clients with young families and now I am going to share it with you!  We lovingly call this tool the “moaning minute”.  We actually learned about the moaning minute from a tour book we had purchased for a dream trip to Disney World.  I had some real reservations about it, but low and behold it worked!  It was like magic!

 

So what is the moaning minute and how does it work?  It’s quite simple.  In every vacation there comes a time of day when everyone starts to get tired and cranky.  Maybe you have been standing in line too long, maybe it’s time to eat but it’s going to take a while to get your food, and maybe you just packed too much into one day.  When you reach this critical moment gather the family around in a circle and give everyone permission for the next minute to complain about everything that is bothering them.  We actually kept time but found that we ran out of things to complain about before the minute was up.  We actually encouraged the children to keep complaining for the full minute.

 

There is something magical about being given permission to complain with no judgements and no repercussions.  Even as a parent I felt a wonderful release of tension and frustration by the simple act of being allowed to complain.  With everyone speaking at once, no one is actually listening to anyone else but themselves.  It was nice to just get it out of your system and then move on to better things.  Don’t get me wrong, we got some really strange looks.  After all, we were at Disney World – the happiest place on earth – standing in a circle, everyone talking at the same time.  But it worked like magic!

 

So give it a try the next time you are on vacation and you have played yourself into a grumpy mess, stand in a circle and enjoy a moaning minute!  It works.