What it means to go on vacation with a big family

Summer time is family time! Whether you just graduated from your university and decided to go on vacation with your big family or you travel home after a long time – how sweet it is to finally hug each of them and go on road trips together. But going on vacation with your parents and your older and younger siblings also means:

(Note: post contains irony)

Luxurious suites with ocean views.

Traveling as a student forces you to stay at hostels and use Airbnb (not the Malibu version). Thank god you have parents who travel in style. And who decide to put all the children in one room so that they can enjoy their stay in the suite without all the noise. Well played, parents. If your siblings are the same age as you (or above legal drinking age) you just kill the minibar with them and get drunk. When you have siblings who still buy happy meals at McDonalds you will be busy giving orders: “Brush your teeth. Take a shower. Go to bed. Don’t snore. No, there are no monsters under the bed. I don’t care who hit whom first.” And all that while you try to kill the minibar by yourself.

Dining in fancy restaurants.

You have been waiting for this moment far too long! Putting on a classy dress or shirt instead of your worn out jeans and chucks. Ordering an Argentinian steak, foie gras and good wine instead of tacos and Pacifico beer at a shady place in the Mission. Soaking in the taste with all your senses. Absorbing the expensive lifestyle. Dream on. First of all, kids hate restaurants. What they do in restaurants instead: Order the most expensive course of the menu just because it has a funny word in it. Spill the coke over your fancy dress and then cry because you are pissed (that is kids logic, do not argue with that). And while your mom is trying to order something organic, non-fat, non-existent that is not even on the menu you ask yourself why you did not take them to Chipotle.

Relaxed road trips and long journeys with stunning landscapes.

“Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? I need to pee. Are we there yet? Where is my iPhone?”

Deeply intellectual conversations with your parents.

You made it through the rebellious and puberty phase and now you are ready to have adult conversations with your parents without fighting and screaming. No more unfair accusations. No more green vegetables at the dinner. You can finally date whoever you want to and you can feel free to have any job you like (No judgment for being a pole dancer/bartender/surf teacher). FREEDOM! Not so fast. As soon as one wine bottle is empty questions arise: “Are you sure you want to be 10.000 km away from home?” Yes. “When we were young it was so much easier to get a job.” Good for you. “Have you tried online dating?” No. More wine, please.

Deeply intellectual conversations with your siblings.

You are a role model. You do “cool stuff in California”. When I graduated from business school my little 6-year-old sister told me: “You are done with school now… So that means that you are a mom now but without kids and a husband.“ Deep stuff. Usually you also hear: “Idiot”, “Go away”, “Leave me alone”, awkward noises and snoring at night. Oh, and the range of mean, sarcastic and weird faces they give you is endless.

Creative decision-making process.

The estimated time to make a reasonable decision rises exponentially with the number of family members. Mom wants to go shopping, sibling 1 wants to see Disneyland, sibling 2 wants to sleep due to hangover, sibling 3 is crying, sibling 4 lost his iPhone and can’t find it. Oh, where did dad go? It takes a lot of teamwork and organization skills to find a solution and meet in the middle so that nobody is left behind.

Love.

In the middle of all that craziness and hungry screaming-at-everyone behavior you pause and realize that you have the best family in the world. Well, maybe you realize it in retrospective. Because when all else fades they remain. I asked my other sister once what the best part of having a big family and spending time together is. She replied: “It’s obvious. Multiple people love you at the same time.” And nothing on earth can beat that.