When Family Visits

This past weekend my husband's parents visited from Maryland. The boys loved seeing their grand parents. It gave us an opportunity to continue to explore new places like the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, and revisit favorites like Pac Bell Park, and the Ferry Building.

With small children it is important to plan family visits like you would plan travel. You need to weigh the needs of the relatives with the tolerance of your children. It would be a mistake to take a three year old who can't sit still for dinner to a fancy restaurant, at the same time you wouldn't select a park that requires a lot of walking for a relative that might have difficulty getting around.

For everyone's piece of mind plan no more than one major activity a day. Otherwise you could easily stress everyone out. At the same time it is important to get out and about, no one wants to spend four days cooped up.

This visit had the right level of balance. The boys had a fabulous time, and although we had our shares of meltdowns and poor choices, the boys on the whole were really very good. I also think that my lovely inlaws had fun too.