Survey among parents
Everyday routine plays a smaller role on vacation
Ice cream is part of the summer vacation – for many even every day.
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For families, an everyday routine is usually indispensable. A recent survey shows that many parents break with this on vacation.
“But I was allowed to do that on vacation too!” – “Yes, but that was also a vacation.” Many parents should be familiar with this kind of conversation with their offspring. A Current YouGov survey on behalf of the vacation rental provider FeWo-direkt gets to the bottom of the differences between what children are allowed to do on vacation and what is allowed at home. It shows: the domestic routine should deliberately play a smaller role on vacation.
Parents allow more on vacation – including themselves
While an overwhelming majority of the 1,200 parents surveyed stated that a fixed routine is “very important” (35 percent) or at least “important” (55 percent) in everyday family life, only 34 percent of these 90 percent are on vacation (7 percent “very much”) important “; 27 percent” important “). In contrast, 63 percent are of the opinion that routine on vacation is “less important” (46 percent) or “not at all important” (17 percent).
Psychologist Michael Thiel explains the laisser faire of parents as follows: “Parents themselves are less stressed on vacation. The anger at work is gone, the time pressure in everyday life is less and they can take care of themselves. This relaxation affects how the children are dealt with. Rules no longer have to be strictly adhered to because there are no consequences to fear the next day. “
More sweets and later in bed
The vacation trend towards less control is reflected in the results of the survey in several of the surveyed categories: 94 percent of children are allowed to stay up longer on vacation; Allowing a daily serving of ice cream increases 12 percent from home to 32 percent while on vacation; and 59 percent of parents have decided to let their children determine the vacation activities for the next vacation. Around half of those surveyed (52 percent) also stated that they also allow themselves more while on vacation.
“It promotes self-confidence when children are allowed to help decide what to do during the day,” says Michael Thiel and warns against an overly rigid corset: “Too much daily grind blocks the intellectual development – of children and adults.”
It takes a couple of days to get home
When they return home, it takes different amounts of time for the respondents to regain their desired routine: 13 percent of those questioned state that they need zero days for this, but almost three quarters (74 percent) of the families need a time to get used to one to two (55 percent) or three to five (19 percent) days until you return to the “usual routine”.
Family psychologist Thiel therefore recommends letting the vacation fade away a little before the journey home: “Bring the children to bed a little earlier, introduce a common breakfast routine again – that gradually steers everything towards everyday life.”