Vacations. You look forward to them every year. The chance to finally get away from reality to some tropical island, snowy mountain, or warm weathered city full of fun. You get to actually get on a plane or jump in a car and go somewhere exciting where you don’t know anyone besides the people traveling there with you- your family.

Sure, family vacations can be a blast. You’re on a beach or you’re by the pool. You’re exploring a new city, or traveling somewhere far away. You’re with the people you love, and you get to go somewhere cool and exciting and forget about what’s going on in real life, back home, where you’re from. But the thing about family vacations, is that the fun can only last for so long.

Everyone has their own set of family issues. Whether it be the fact that they can’t stand at least one member of their family or just the whole lot in general- family vacations typically tend to start off great, and then get ugly when the time spent together begins to become too much time overall.

There is no number of places nor an island actually big enough to handle every family and it’s issues. Sure, you start off the trip great and happy. Maybe you begin your trip on a tropical island with a snorkeling adventure. The second day you maybe go to a beach. By the middle of the week everyone begins to get on edge. Tensions flare and there is no room or space quite big enough for every single member of the family. And sure, every family has their typical stereotypes that are sure to make any type of family vacation one trip to remember- the loner cousin, the divorce, the single aunt with no kids, and so on and so forth. By the end of the vacation it’s almost inevitable that you’ll be arguing with your siblings, avoiding your parents and just counting down the hours until you get to go back home.

Now, I’ve had my share of great family vacations, and trust me, they were all a blast and fun, but by the end of each trip there were at least a couple fights between either my parents, or my cousins or various other members of the family. That’s just life and how it works. I can remember one trip in particular where my cousin got pissed off at dinner and threw a set of chopsticks across the table at one of my other cousins. There was a serious talk with him that very same night and of course he was sent to bed early, but hey, that’s life. And that story can still be five years later and still make people laugh.

So family vacations might not always be the best things in the world. I don’t know one single person that doesn’t have a family that doesn’t get on their nerves from time to time. The important thing about these trips though, is the memories you have once you get home and the stories you have to tell people when it’s all over- that’s what family is all about.