Family - - - too little, too late

Every September I book a 2-3 week reservation for the following July; it's a popular state park and if you wait awhile after the reservation window opens there will be no sites. This is time I dedicate to camping/vaccing with my granddaughter and a niece. I inform all parents via phone calls and emails.

I have no problems figuring out who the true bad guy is and don't think you should beat yourself over the head.

Downtheroad wrote:
It's the way it's done now....blame someone else (you) and take no responsibility for any situation that has gone wrong.

X2, this current generation is a mess! "Me Me Me" only gets you so far with older generations!

We have the opposite scenario. My sister in law loves to throw a family reunion, which we dearly love to attend.

But she insists on the date coinciding to her anniversary.

She gets mad when we will not or cannot change our entire winter travel plans around to accommodate her and the one day reunion. OH well. Maybe next year.

I figure if you say "I have to know by (date) because I have to make reservations" (I wouldn't make it more than three days away from the conversation). If they want to, they will respond. If they don't,it's their loss. Even more to the point, I just say (to friends as I don't deal with any of my Ex-hubbies kids) I will be HERE on this date. IF you want to meet up then great. If not, okay. You are not the center of anyone's universe except your own. I have friends who tried to put together a long over due family reunion at a location that was roughly equal driving distance for all. There was a campground AND hotel room and cottages (Unicoi State Park/Resort in GA) so all budgets would have been covered. The response was virtually nil. They even went to the expense to mail out a questionnaire to find out budgets, foods wanted, activities, etc. No one responded except to say "why don't you just come here" Here being FL and that meant adding 250 to 300 more miles to a two of the others trips (and one was pretty sure they couldn't get time off from work). Since the bulk of the family members were in FL nothing was done. My friends simply never bothered again. Every Christmas when they get the "why don't you come down for Christmas" they always say they can't afford it or they can't take the time off (and it's true). Seems the road only runs one way. Seems the road only runs one way for many others too.

I never even ask as we've never ever even gotten a "thank you" card for birthday/Xmas gifts. They get a "tough sh-t chit.

It's the way it's done now....blame someone else (you) and take no responsibility for any situation that has gone wrong.

We go camping when we want to go camping and invite others to come along. That way whoever can or wants to make it gets to on a first come first served basis.

If no one shows up...it's OK because we can just relax while we camp.

We've been on the other side too, where we make plans well ahead of time, only to be preempted by soccer games, football practice, etc. I think sometimes the little ones can be "too busy" with organized activities. They need some time to relax. What better way than camping?

I've noticed that it's nearly impossible to get anyone to commit to anything more than 20 minutes in advance these days. And that they don't take kindly to being out of luck for not accepting in timely fashion. And no, they don't learn from the experience, either. Only thing you can do is issue the invitation, and shrug it off if they come back to accept too late. Whatever you do, don't pester them for an answer. All you'll get is frustrated. Ask, when the drop-dead date for reservations passes, make other plans. When they show up on your doorstep expecting to go, sorry, it's too late, we made other plans when you declined-by-ommission by the date we had to act. You snooze, you lose, that's the way the world works.

We have been very fortunate. About every 3 years we plan, and have a family vacation with our 3 grown boys, their wives and our granddaughters, now 10 and 8. This year we are meeting in Navarre, FL in October for our first week long Camping trip.