With older children, trying to coordinate schedules for a family vacation is nearly impossible. My wife and I decided to do shorter vacations with just some of the kids.
We threw around ideas like a girls-only long weekend or maybe a jaunt to Europe with the boys to catch a sporting event.
Whether anything will actually happen is another matter. What’s important is that we spoke about doing something.
Searching for trips has me trying to find a short, cheap flight somewhere with our two younger children.
I am quite comfortable using the word ‘cheap’ because I’m pretty confident that they won’t read my column! Trying to come up with a destination has been difficult, and we still have yet to book anything.
While I throw out Cyprus or Greece, I am met with Austria, Italy, and Montenegro.
When we start researching and find that, as teenagers, they will be bored in some of these places, and that in Cyprus or Greece, at least, there is water, they are not impressed.
I’ve started to think that we should just stay here; they can sit around and play on their phones, and maybe I’ll take them out for hummus.
I had to pick up our youngest earlier this week from a school trip. We were discussing vacation plans, and then all of a sudden, one of my favorite songs played on the radio.
It was the classic Bananarama hit, “Cruel Summer.” Needless to say, she didn’t appreciate it when I started laughing at the lyrics:
“The city is crowded, my friends are away, and I’m on my own.
It’s too hot to handle, so I got to get up and go.
It’s a cruel, (cruel), cruel summer.
Leaving me here on my own…”
Entertaining kids raises summer expenses
As we know, keeping kids busy during summer can be costly.
Whether it’s summer camp, swimming lessons, baking, drama camp, or family vacations, the costs can break any well-intentioned budget. The next three to four months will be sunny and hot, with no rain.
These drought-like conditions are eerily similar to the family financial forecast over the next few months.
What’s a financial drought? It’s getting sucked dry of your money.
It happens in summer, when paying for vacations; summer camps; books; and clothes shopping for the upcoming school year; and spending money for the kids to go to movies and meet up with friends all hit your wallet at once, depleting your bank account.
A couple of years ago, I wrote, “A few weeks ago, as I was driving some of my kids to school, I was listening to a morning talk show. The segment was about increasing government subsidies for summer day camps.
“As if the topic of government subsidies doesn’t raise my blood pressure enough, they had a guest who was complaining about how expensive summer is for her. Aside from sending three kids to camp in July, she said that she has to pay for additional camps and a family vacation to Europe in August.
“That’s when I lost it. I started talking out loud about her complaining about how much it costs to go to Europe for a family vacation.
Parents don't need to abandon financial responsibility
Yes, summer is expensive, and I understand that parents get stuck and need to have a plan for their kids, and that costs money. What I don’t get is the need for parents to lose all sense of financial responsibility in order to finance their summer vacation.
In fact, if the kids see that the parents aren’t disciplined financially, there is a great chance that they will grow up and lack that same discipline. Whatever happened to the golden rule of personal finance – If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it?
If you can’t afford a trip to Europe, don’t go.
Over the last two to three weeks, I have received all kinds of messages from my bank and credit card company offering me loans for the summer.
There is nothing wrong with kids, especially teens, working and making their own money so that they can spend it and not be constantly hitting up their parents for cash.
Parents need to be smart. Start planning and saving well in advance for the summer vacation so that the sudden expenses don’t send you scrambling to try and find the money to pay for it.
In addition, there are plenty of ways to keep children occupied that won’t break the bank.
Use the summer to be a good example for your children and spend only what you have budgeted for and can truly afford.
The information contained in this article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of Portfolio Resources Group, Inc. or its affiliates.