Staying Fit
There are very few excuses for not keeping up with your adult kids these days, what with email, texting, Facebook, Skype and good old-fashioned phone calls.
Still, quality face time may be limited. If your kids live far away, you may see them just a couple of times a year — maybe on a holiday weekend or a short summer visit. And chances are that time is layered with preparing feasts, playing with the grandkids and catching up with other out-of-town relatives.
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Even if your child lives nearby and the hours you spend together do add up, they’re likely spent cheering on the grandchildren at soccer games or gathered with the rest of the family at a noisy pizzeria.
How, then, to stay connected? The best way might be to get away on a trip, just the two of you.
“Multigeneration travel is booming,” says Kristen Korey Pike, an Atlanta-based travel adviser. “The baby boomer generation has made travel a top priority, and they want to travel with their kids.”
Choosing a destination where you and your child share an interest, perhaps an ancestral homeland, may jump-start planning, Pike says. She recently arranged for a couple and their two daughters to travel to Italy, where the family has ties. But lots of people have a great experience planning everything themselves.
Timing is Everything
To get started, resist the urge to start a fresh Google search. Instead, get your child on the phone and brainstorm a little. Where have you both always wanted to go? Mull the list over for a while. Then grab your calendar and make another phone call. Finding a stretch of time that actually works for both of you is perhaps the biggest hurdle of organizing a trip.
“It can take a year to find a date that works,” says Pike. “And that’s OK. It’ll give you time to plan, but also to get excited.”
Choosing the right number of days is key. Generally, you want to find that sweet spot where you feel as if you’ve had enough time together but not too much time together. Erring on the short side isn’t bad, given the overall goal of making the trip so successful you’ll both want to do it again, or even make it an annual tradition.
