Tips for surviving a trip with in-laws w/o DH

[schoen]

I am heading to WDW with my husband's family this winter. My DH is NOT coming! I thought long and hard before I decided to go on my own with them, and I decided that the pro's (spending time with family, being at WDW) outweighed the cons (they could potentially drive me nuts)

I have an excellent relationship with them. I have been with my DH since we were both kids, so I literally grew up with them, and they have never been anything other than wonderful, and eager to please me.

with that being said, they ARE still my in-laws, and from time to time they do drive me nuts!

Any tips or tricks for traveling with the in-laws? Have any of you had fantastic trips or terrible trips? I am just looking for some different ways to mentally approach the trip so we all have a fantastic time. So far, my plan is to pack my patience and try to maintain a positive attitude. I would welcome any input or advice. My goal is that we will all have a fantastic time, I just want to be prepared for the reality that personalities could clash, and I want to arm myself with some useful tools for dealing with said personality clashes!

 

[MSSANDRA]

DH and I have been married long enough that we really do forget which side of the family belongs to which one, and I do love my in-laws, but yes, they can and do drive me a bit crazy sometimes. They also drive my DH a little crazy too so its ok. We have traveled a little together though they are quickly reaching the point where they cant do that any longer.
A few tips:
Have your own space. A different room, or at least your own bed room at a villa or house. Kids want to sleep with grandma....great....you get your own space!
Talk though your days. Do you both want rope drop, sit down dinner?? just be on the same page.
Offer them some grand-kid time. Let them take the kids to dinner or a morning in the park. You get a bit of a break and they love it.
Let them know its fine to take a break if they want. Staying on site will make it easy to head back to the room for a rest.

Enjoy.....your children will always remember what you did for them.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

I just survived a trip with my MIL. It went much better than I expected. I might even venture to say it went great. One thing I did to prepare was to start a trip report (link is in my signature), and in my trip report I was going to vent about all the ways my MIL annoyed the heck out of me. It was going to be my place to vent. As things bothered me I was actually able to be amused rather than annoyed because I could think to myself, " there's something great for the trip report!". Turns out I didn't find too much annoying, but it was nice to have and kept me from flaring up on the trip.

Best of luck!

 

[JKSWonder]

My only MIL complaint at WDW is she always asks "What's next?" after each and every single thing we do. I mean, she will ask me this 40 times a day. We don't tour the park that way. We don't have set in stone plans. We do one thing, we walk and we decide what we will do next as we go along. I also hate that she only asks me this question, never DH. I'm usually gritting my teeth 20 minutes into the day to keep from snapping.

Best advice would to be to try and set out expectations ahead of time. If you're a planner, let them know the plans. If you intend to go with the flow, let them know that too. Find out what they want to do. If it differs from what you want to do, don't be afraid to split up and meet up again later.

 

[schoen]

Thanks for the responses!

We don;t have kids, so that won't be an issue for us. My biggest concern is that I won't have an advocate to speak up on my behalf, and I won't have anyone to vent to if I feel the need. I am just concerned that it will be a week of constantly trying to be polite. That shouldn't be the end of the world though!

Mt DH is my teammate, and I won't have him there, but it should still be fun!

 

[sb682]

Bring vodka!

Seriously, though, since you say you have a good relationship with them, and there are no kids in the picture, it shouldn't be too bad. I would try to adjust my expectations to fit how they'll probably want to tour and spend their time. And make sure you have some time apart every day; go swimming or for a walk without them, or offer to go pick up breakfast and bring it back to the room while they get ready. My in-laws are very sweet, but it boils down to the fact that our personalities, dietary choices and ideas of a vacation are very different. You choose your partner, but you don't get to choose your in-laws; it's best to just roll with it as much as you can.

 

[bumbershoot]

I have an excellent relationship with them. I have been with my DH since we were both kids, so I literally grew up with them, and they have never been anything other than wonderful, and eager to please me.

DH and I have been married long enough that we really do forget which side of the family belongs to which one, and I do love my in-laws,

Wow. I literally cannot fathom what those situations must be like. If only my MIL were like your in laws.

(it would have been like that for DH at least with my mom, if my mom had lived past 55 because she would have absolutely adored him and he her, but alas she died in March of '00 and I met DH in October of that year)

 

[Happyjen27]

I did a trip with the ILs in December, and it was awesome!

We had our own rooms (a must!) and we talked about how it was okay to branch off and do your own things. Many times DH and I were done with the parks and would bail and they would stay and play.

We had a set time to meet up in the mornings (like 8AM at the monorail stop) and so when we bid goodnight for the evening, we had a plan for the next day. Also, we would separate sometimes in the middle of the day knowing we would be meeting up for dinner at our ADRs.

In short, if you have your own room, and you establish that you're going to be going off on your own here and there and to please not take offense to that, I think it's going to be a great trip.