When taking vacations with the family, people focus mainly on the excitement and the familial duties, but don’t often stop to think about the actual impact a vacation can have on everyone, especially children. Studies have shown a positive impact and suggest that parents should spend more time thinking of fun places to go with their kids!
Spend Money on Time Together
Best-selling author, Oliver James, says parents should think twice before deciding what to spend their money on. Many people believe the best thing for their children is to have lots of toys, so they spend and spend and spend. However, that’s wrong because children get bored with toys. If you spend on a holiday, however – that will leave a lasting memory!
Better Brain Development
Dr. Margot Sunderland, a renowned child phycologist, explains the effect traveling with children has on their brain development. Experiences such as walking through a forest, playing on a beach, strolling through grass, and such can turn on the genetic expression in the frontal lobes of the brain. Your children will have better cognitive, sensory, physical, and even social interaction after they experience being somewhere with you.
Vacations as Happiness Anchors
According to a study done in 2015 by the Family Holiday Association in Britain, vacations serve as happiness anchors. A third of the respondents said they still vividly remember the holidays they took with their parents, and some of them said they use the happy memories when life gets tough. Problems are easier to approach from a new perspective when we hang on to those memories and use them to cope.
If you didn’t know these facts about vacations – now you do! It’s better to spend your time and money on creating shared memories that allow you to be together for as long as possible. That will make everyone happy and leave memories in the child that will last forever. They will develop much better interactions with the world overall. That sounds like something worthy of money and time! As John MacDonald, director of the Family Holiday Association, explained – leave your children with memories to help them cope better with the life that awaits!