MY touchy family situation...need advice!

[Conservative Hippie]

About two weeks ago, my DH and I offered to take my mom (hasn't been since she was a kid) and my DB (17, never been) to WDW for a few days when we visit them (they live in Ft. Lauderdale) in July. All we asked for was dates (she hasn't even given us dates for our visit in the general) so that we could book the resort, etc. She keeps dragging her feet, saying she doesn't know when she will be able to get off work, she doesn't know when my DB will be at church camp, etc. I'm pretty sure we won't be able to get the resort I wanted now (POR), not to mention plane tickets getting more expensive. DH thinks she just doesn't want to do it. I'm getting annoyed. If someone offers to pay to take you on vacation, wouldn't you tell them when you could go ASAP? I know my DB is going to be very disappointed if we end up not doing it. He starts school the second week of August, so our time is running out. Even if my mom really doesn't want to go, I'd still like to take my brother! What should I do?

 

[Paging Tom Morrow]

Explain that you are open to her determining the dates of the vacation and have given her two weeks to do so, however, if she can't make a decision by Friday, you will be determining the dates by yourselves. Tell her you can empathasize with her as far as not knowing if she can get time off, but in order to ensure your vacation falls into the budget you have set, you need to start making reservations as soon as possible.

good luck.

 

[BlondeAlligator]

It seems like she doesn't want to go. I would be honest & just tell her that if she's rather not go you won't be insulted (Disney isn't for everyone), but would still like to take your DB if it's OK with her. If that's OK, then get DB involved. At 17 he ought to know the dates for any activities he has planned for the summer & you could get that info from him & then book. You'd better hurry, though, summer's a tough time of year to book at WDW.

Good luck & have a great trip.

PS: I've been to WDW with people who weren't into it & trust me, it would be better to let your Mom off the hook than to drag her along with you. She might end up ruining your trip.

 

[bleeps]

I would say, "Mom, I'm getting the sense that you'd rather not do the trip at this point, and I can certainly understand how hard it is to get time off of work and make all those arrangements. I'm wondering if perhaps it would work out better for you if I just took "brother" this time, and we worked out some other family trip in the future. Would that work for you? The dates I can take him would be XXXXX -- can you look at your calendar now and see if those fit with his camp schedule?"

I do think it shoulds pretty clear that she's not on board, but that if you want to salvage something for your brother you might want to try something along these lines.

 

[Skwinkles]

Perhaps you could enlist DB to help work out the dates. Surely, he should at least be able to tell you when his own commitments are.

 

[SnackyStacky]

Explain that you are open to her determining the dates of the vacation and have given her two weeks to do so, however, if she can't make a decision by Friday, you will be determining the dates by yourselves. Tell her you can empathasize with her as far as not knowing if she can get time off, but in order to ensure your vacation falls into the budget you have set, you need to start making reservations as soon as possible.

good luck.

 

[Conservative Hippie]

Thanks for all the advice. I'm always a little mousy when it comes to talking to my mom (DH really gets on to me for that), but I'm just going to have to suck it up.