Staying At Home This Christmas
J Gardener
Remember looking forward to the holiday season? Remember, when you were a child, the anticipation of Santa Claus's visit and how your mom and dad seemed to have all the time in the world to make your Christmas perfect? Times have changed, haven't they? Especially for young families, today, the holiday season has just become way too busy.
Somehow, though, most families manage to survive this busy season, fairly intact. And though the way the Christmas season is celebrated may be different today than it was for their parents' generation, today's young families manage to form their own traditions, which they'll pass along, to be adapted by the next generation. Even so, there's one holiday aspect that will never change for modern couples.
Grandma and grandpa still want to see the little ones, every holiday season. And, like every generation of grandparents before them, they expect that, whatever traveling is necessary to make it happen, will be done by the young couples with the little children. It's the kind of pressure that, though it comes from the heart, every young couple has felt.
But Grandma's house isn't usually just "over the river and through the woods", anymore. Young couples may have moved across the country from their hometowns, for career, for school, or just for the adventure. Or, Grandma and Grandpa may have retired to Phoenix. And while it's relatively easy to stay in almost constant touch with faraway relatives, today, long-distance travel is fairly problematic.
And for young families with young children, holiday travel can be more stressful than any other challenge. Besides the cost and the delays, the efforts to coordinate time off from separate jobs, and the stress of travelling cross-country with toddlers, young couples who feel pressured to visit grandparents for Christmas necessarily delay starting their own family holiday traditions.
It's wonderful to be with extended family during the holidays. But when the effort to travel great distances with small children, in order to please grandparents, is more stressful than enjoyable, young parents should feel comfortable staying at home with their new family, and making the holiday their own. Grandma and grandpa will be just as happy to see their grandchildren at a time when everyone can relax a bit more and really enjoy each other's company.
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