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It's difficult to plan your family vacation around extra people under any circumstance let alone having it be your in-laws. If you are lucky you get along very well with your in-laws, which will make this challenge a lot less tricky. If you don't have the best relationship with your in-laws it most likely will be a little more difficult for you to be comfortable with them. Either way these guidelines should be helpful to all.

1. Sit down ahead of time and go over the different types of activities that will be available to you during your vacation. You should make it a point to have activities that you can include your in-laws in on as well as activities just for your family to do together, while your in-laws do some activities that they enjoy. If you have children you will want to schedule some activities that your in-laws can do with the children while you and your spouse do some activities to reconnect. When you have children it is hard to find time to connect with your spouse, so this vacation would be a great time to take advantage of Grandma and Grandpa's free babysitting. Plus it will give the children some quality time, and great memories with their grandparents.

2. Set out a budget. In a vacation there will always be unexpected expenses, but it is good to have a plan ahead of time. You should calculate the standard costs and figure out who is going to pay for what. It might be best for you to plan to pay for yourselves and have your in-laws pay for themselves. However if it is something that someone wants to do, but you can't all afford it, this may require one party to pay for a little more to be able to do what they want. This should all be discussed before planning the vacation. You should plan to bring some extra money for extra expenses that will arise while on your vacation.

3. Make sure that you pack absolutely everything that you could possibly need. Again if you have children it is better to over-pack. Your in-laws will feel more comfortable with taking care of the children if they know that they have everything that they could possibly need. This means packing all of the important comfort products for your child, along with any medication that might be needed, and first aide supplies.

4. Make sure you set guidelines ahead of time. This means that you and your spouse have to sit down and decide how you want your vacation to be. Then you need to come up with some guidelines for your in-laws to follow while on vacation. This is essential because in-laws tend to overstep their boundaries often. If you have set guidelines up front, this will help to eliminate any discomfort from anyone overstepping their boundaries. Make sure that you go over the guidelines with your in-laws ahead of time, and come to any compromises before you leave. If there are any discrepancies in your guidelines it is good to get it out of the way before you leave, otherwise you might have trouble later on, and it could ruin the whole vacation for everyone.

As long as you follow these guidelines you should have a very successful vacation, and hopefully it will be so great that it will pave the way for future family vacations including the in-laws.

Learn more about this author, Ann Rivers.
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