The Search for Patience

Vacation Day Seven:

Vacations - these are the times that try mens' souls. Today was day seven of a family vacation.

(The "try mens' souls" comment was taken wrong by my Queen - it was merely meant as a humorous attempt to convey the difficulty that I allude to a few paragraphs below - I love to vacation with my family.)

This one did not involve flying - we loaded everybody up into the family chariot (minivan) and made the journey of less than 300 miles. We are owners in Worldmark, a timeshare of sorts, and we booked a 3-bdrm condo many months in advance. It's a good way to travel, because it provides you with a sort of home away from home, rather than cramming everybody into hotel rooms.

Anyway, we have made the best of this one, in spite of some rather acute colds, coughs, etc. We have spent time in State and National Parks, and really spent a great deal of time outdoors enjoying the relatively warm weather (it was single digits at night at home, whereas the nighttime low here at the condo wasn't quite freezing, and the daytime high today was over 60 degrees.)

My biggest challenges come with the chemistry between myself and my two oldest sons, who are 9 and 7 years old. It is a constant rivalry, never letting up for more than a few hours at a time. This becomes more apparent to me since I spend more constant time with them on vacation, and since even a large condo like this is tighter quarters than our home. I realize that it is completely natural, and will most likely find a good outcome in the way of boys growing and learning, but the constant at-each-others-throats just gets under my skin so badly that I can't let it go - I am constantly intervening and probably not helping. The intervention is probably needed - just not in the form that I usually employ. I get angry, often yell, take away privileges, etc, etc. I am convinced that I will get this figured out - just haven't found my touch yet.

Tomorrow is the journey home. Thank goodness for DVD players.

(An editorial comment after arriving home - the rivalry continued in the backseat of the van - and the DVD player was cut off for periods of time in an attempt to control behavior - I'm not sure who suffered more, the boys or the parents!)