LIAP #10: FAMILY HOLDAY



Most families have their own favourite places to go for their holidays. When you are young, you have constraints of time and money. As a senior citizen, my advice to younger men and women, go out and have as many family holidays as you can afford the time and the money. Why? Wehn you get old, it is more difficult to go and walk places. And the children had grown up. They are too busy to join you and have their own family responsibilites. The best window of time is when you in your 30s to 50s. That is what I did.

Family holiday is a project. You are the project manager and financier but you need to consult and work together with the stakeholders-your spouse and your children. What matters most is their happiness and safety when you are away from home.

We don't need to go overseas for every family holidays. For normal folks like me, I took the opportunities of long weekends when my kids can join me. In Malaysia, we have long weekends when weekend combine with public holidays. As working parents , we donot need to take leave and organise a few family holidays in one year that takes up three to five days.  I live in KL and for short family holidays, I go to Penang, Kelantan, Terengganu, Melaka and JB/Singapore. Going overseas is every three/five years frequency because it costs more money and only during school holidays.

After my 10th Wedding annivesary, I started saving money to bring along my children for a complete family holiday overseas to celebrate the 20th Wedding Anniversay.  My budget was RM20,000 for my wife and three children for a duration of two weeks in Europe and England.  I chose May 1997 to fly to Amsterdam and return home from London Heathrow Airport, England.

Planning was done six month earlier to enable me to book plane tickets and accommodation bookings. By booking earlier, I got cheaper price and better choice. My children are teenagers. My discussion of the scope of the holidays  were with my wife and friends who had gone to places I wanted to visits. I also seeked advice where to stay and what transport to use. After discussions and advice received, I decided to visit Holland, France and England. My budget controlled my scope of family holiday. We planned the best for our family based on what we could afford to pay. 

No matter how good we planned our holidays, a few things did not go as planned. we propose, God Dispose! 

One very important lesson is to keep the family members together. My boys went on their own during our dinner in Paris. They got lost but later managed to return to our rented apartment.  Safety is first.

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