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June 3, 2008 Volume 1, Issue #004-Family Planning During a Recession

A Note From Jim

Feature Article: Family Planning During A Recession by James Foster

Jim Foster here. It is spring again and it time to be planning our summer activities. This spring is somewhat different than some. The kids are getting out of school late and the economy is much more tight than it was a year ago. It may take a little more creativity to plan a great summer. In fact, I have put together some thoughts for you on that subject. I hope that you enjoy it. ________________________________________________________________

Family Planning During A Recession by James Foster

For many years Americans have enjoyed a booming economy that included easy credit and extremely low minimum payments on credit cards. This translated in many families to frequent traveling vacations to resorts around the country and the world. Children of all ages have been to Disney in record numbers. The Carribean, Lake Tahoe and Florida have become well know playgrounds of many. Lately, the economic constraints we’ve experienced has begun to affect the way we live and spend our money. Prioritizing has become a must in our spending and after the necessary bills are paid there frequently isn’t enough left over to plan an expensive vacation and people aren’t comfortable charging thousands of dollars on their credit card for non emergency and non-holiday purchases. It’s become time to take this bad economy as an opportunity to rethink how we spend time together as families.

When children have longer periods of time than usual to be with their parents and siblings it’s less important to them where they are and more important to them how they spend the time. They are likely to have more fun having a catch, swimming with a parent, playing a game, hearing a story or building a fort with guidance or help than they ever had watching a Las Vegas review show or being a passenger on a 75 person pontoon boat ride between islands. Creative local excursions and activities can provide us with more ‘down time’ together for talking, sharing and playing than the more lavish vacations ever did.

Some family leisure time planning may involve visiting extended family members, day trips, camping, back yard tenting and overnight bicycle camping to name a few. These activities and many more like them provide families with the opportunity to relate, play with and enjoy each other. The time we spend with our children is very important and should be used wisely. Everything we do is a model and a lesson to them whether we intend for it to be or not. While we were including them on expensive big vacations we may have teaching them that a lot of money has to be spent and we had to be constantly entertained in order to have fun. When we stop and consider it, we’d probably rather have them learn that we are responsible for making our own fun and the best way to have fun is to learn to enjoy doing things together with other family members. Children will not only remember these good times for years but may also develop skills and abilities that will serve them well throughout life as well as become lessons that they can teach to their own children. _________________________________________________________________ WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, so long as you include this complete blurb with it: Entrepreneur and 30 year expert James Foster publishes the bi-weekly CounselingNH Ezine in the areas of family, marriage, relationships and parenting. If you are interested in quality information, tips and resources of ways to enhance your family, marriage, relationships and parenting visit this content rich site at http://www.counselingnh.com

All the Best,

Jim Foster