The Extended Family Holiday - 5 tips to make it work

Last week I talked about the preparations for this holiday and now I have just crawled out of my darkened room I can tell you how it went last weekend.

Well, it worked *said with an amazed tone*, helped hugely by the fact that the British Summer finally arrived on 28th September and lasted right through until the 2nd October. This meant that we were not all on top of each other and the ankle biters could "burn off energy" ad infinitum outside.

The excitement beforehand and on arrival was inversely proportional to age. The grandparents (or "shrivelleds" as they became known, apparently my generation are the "wrinklies" or the "olds") were bombing down water chutes before any of the rest of us had battled our way through the UK motorway system to get there.

I had thought the combination of a one year old, 2 four year olds, a five year old, a seven year old, an eight year old and 3 teenagers was a recipe for all sorts of potential strife. I only once heard "he's not sharing" (and that was "Uncle A, H won't share your iphone with me", to which Uncle A jumped!), and I wasn't aware of any "they're leaving me out". Of course that could be because I am the mother of the teenagers, may be the other mothers had that whined in their ear. The little ones even allowed those lazy teenagers to sleep in without disturbing them, although they were a little astounded that anybody could possibly stay in bed THAT late - 10am, which my lot thought was early.

We attempted the family bike ride en masse.

We ate every meal outside and yes, there was enough

We swam...LOTS, we bowled and the Dads slept

Only hysterical incident was when a squirrel got in to one of the villas invoking much screaming and standing on tables by some of the girls (the oldest of which was 40!)

So really a success. The secret of our success? I'm not really sure but tips for anyone doing a multi-generational family holiday like this would be
1. Don't plan to do too many activities - it will take ages to get you all organised
2. Don't feel you must do everything together
3. Have meals planned and prepared beforehand, preferably by outside caterers!
4. Do whatever it takes beforehand, bribery, threats, whatever to all children and spouses to make sure they play nicely.
5. Take lots of alcohol and cake.

The devil eyes are a coincidence.....honestly

Would love to hear your experiences of these types of holidays. Please feel free to comment.

The Extended Family Holiday - the planning

Three generations: nine grandchildren (aged 1 - 18), four children, three partners and two grandparents all in the same space for a weekend. A weekend to relish or a recipe for disaster??

This is what we are doing next weekend in honour of my brother and his family's return from a year in NZ and my eldest teenager's coming of age. The latter happens at 18 not 21 these days, although there is a movement  amongst the teenage section of society for it to be 16 with the nauseating American "Sweet Sixteenths"...but that is another blog for another day.

OK so some call me a control freak, I like to think "natural leader". Either way I struggle with the balance between my desire to organise everybody and everything in my life and not hack all my friends and family off. So when my sister in law (who I suspect has a similar personality type to myself) suggested I organise activities in advance I was given permission, and off.

We are visiting one of those Truman Showesque holiday parks: glass dome, water slides, smiley happy people, bikes,trees and squirrels. You know the ones......we certainly do having spent most of our family holidays there when the teenagers were tots. We decided on three villas between the 18 of us and therein lies the first mistake. Whilst it worked out cheaper this way it would have been less of a logistical headache to just book one per family. We all have odd numbers of children (except youngest sister who has the more conventional two but her 1 year old doesn't count as a bed.) so this meant cousins going in with cousins. Without boring you with the details it was a bit like that how to get a fox, goose and bag of beans across a river puzzle. Having solved this dilemma I am moving on to Palestine and Israel this week.

Then comes activities. There are hundreds to choose from and although the spreadsheets were beckoning me (get behind me Satan) I suggested we opted for mainly the pool and bike rides. Not only are they free it means I won't have to spend the weekend marshalling people with a whistle. Ok, ok, we all know that's what I really want to do but for the sake of family harmony I will resist. Getting us all in the pool, together should be challenge enough in itself.

Travel plans were another cause of paracetamol ingestion. My youngest and eldest teenagers are away at ballet school on Birmingham and we live in the North East. Next sister down (I am the eldest...had you guessed?) is coming without her dh as he will be windsurfing in Ireland so she and daughter are coming on the train. Brother is coming from North Yorkshire with his three offspring but his dw will be coming up from London where she is on a course. The nearest train station is about half an hour away. Bring in fox, goose and bag of beans again.

And finally food. There is a genetic thing passed down on the X chromosome in my family about providing food. My grandmother had it, my mother has it and so do I. We NEED to do it and we are never knowingly undercatered. So having fought my mother off I am doing the catering. Parameters are one vegetarian, one teenager on a no/low carb regime, one small child who likes very little to eat when away from home, requirements for breakfast, morning tea (its a kiwi thing), lunch, afternoon tea and supper;kids version and adults version. I have compiled a menu of food that I can precook and freeze and mountains of cake....that is this weekends task.

So all suggestions for, and experiences of, this type of holiday gratefully received:)