Guest Post: You CAN Survive a Vacation With Your Inlaws – True Story!

Denise is on vacation and she graciously asked me to guest post. I’m Diane, and I “run” the blog One LoCo Mommy. In the interest of full disclosure I should add that we are indeed related. Otherwise, what I’ll write further on won’t make much sense.

Denise is my sister-in-law. The “Husband” in my blog is her brother.

As the old adage goes, when you marry someone, you marry their family. So, I’m extremely lucky that my in-laws are great people.  We get along quite well, especially since we live “relatively” close to each other.

Seriously, no one paid me to write that. Stop laughing.

Besides your basic holidays and birthday celebrations, we even went on vacation together. And survived. Actually, I am quite surprised that we haven’t killed each other, even if we do get along. Vacations have a tendency to be rife with conflict when you are in potentially tight quarters.

The first trip together, kinda, was 2003 – Husband and I spent a couple days with her family and their parents in a three bedroom condo in Ocean City, MD.  We stopped there on “our” vacation to Atlantic City and New York. It was for two days, and it was perfect – because any longer and it may have been disastrous. Namely, I got to experience a new realm of gastrointestinal noises from various family members.

I guess you could call it the initiation into the family, since we got engaged the following year.

We decided to truly vacation together in 2006. We convinced them to try the Outer Banks, since we loved it there so much. Due to conflicting needs, we ended up in different houses. Kinda in different towns (since one house was in Kitty Hawk and one was in Kill Devil Hills). Since we now had Jack da dog, we wanted a beach that was more dog friendly and Denise needed a larger home for her family. It wasn’t THAT far (what, a mile or two?), honestly, and we were separated far enough to do our own stuff yet get together. That time, their beloved dog Meg had an “episode” and had to go to the doggie hospital for a visit – poor Meg!

Denise, A and Husband in Outer Banks, 2006. It’s crazy how young everyone looks!)

In 2009, we went to Myrtle Beach. They convinced us this time because they liked going down there. It almost was a disaster, as the condo we chose ended up going into foreclosure. Denise might have to refresh my memory, but I’m pretty sure it was within three weeks of going down there. Luckily Denise was able to work something out – we ended up with house with a private pool. Since it was further from the beach than we originally planned, she ended up getting a golf cart thrown into the deal as well. While we enjoyed the time together, it was a bit long for us to do the drive, especially with the dog.

A, T, and B goofing around the house in Myrtle Beach in 2009.

I think successful vacations take a LOT of planning, a LOT of patience, and a LOT of respect. One needs to understand the other’s family dynamics and potentially compromise. For example, Denise has a much larger, blended family, and now we have our own family plus the dog. Seriously, I don’t know how she does it with all her kids. Just the two of mine (three if you count the dog) drive me around the bend!

Maybe we’ll do it again one day in the future. But you know, we’ll definitely need a big house, with a pool, pet friendly, wifi and close beach access. In a reasonable price range. Shouldn’t be THAT hard, right?

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About One LoCo Mommy

I live outside Washington, DC. In many ways I’m the stereotypical suburban mom. I drive a minivan. My son just finished his first soccer season. I’ve been a Room Mom and Playdate Coordinator. I also work full-time, try to work out, and love my Book Club. On top of all that, I am also trying to be a better advocate for my son. I’ve begun blogging on my experiences on our ASD, SPD and ADHD journey, mainly for my sanity.  I have a lot of catching up to do.

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