Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
8
The Stress of the Family
Holiday
Elisa Backer and Heike Schänzel
Introduction
A holiday is by definition a time that is 'free': free from work and from
producing things for the profit of others; holidays are 'good times' (Inglis,
2000). Holidays are commonly understood as a means to rest and recover
from the stress and demands of everyday life (Valtonen & Veijola, 2010).
Compared with home and daily routines, holidays involve leisure, 'anti-
structure', and are liberating, at least in the daydream/fantasy version
(Urry, 1996, cited in Gram, 2005). Many people elect to take a holiday
for the purposes of rest and relaxation (Leiper, 2004), with 70% of people
citing the reduction of stress as their main reason (Plog, 2005). However,
as Urry (1996) notes, there is the ideal and there is the reality of holidays.
Holidays with children are different from holidays without them and this
is acknowledged in some studies of family holidays, where holidays are
not all harmony but also involve conflicts at times (Gram, 2005; Johns &
Gyimothy, 2002; Schänzel, 2010). Parents and children have different needs
and interests regarding holidays, leading to tensions and added stresses.
The societal pressures on parents to have a 'happy holiday' are significant
and are bound to idealised notions of contemporary parenting (Carr, 2011).
As discussed in Chapter 2, a dominant ideology of parenting has emerged
that increasingly perceives holidays as opportunities for 'quality family time'
or 'purposive leisure time' away from everyday distractions. However, there
is scant literature on the work involved in and the difficulties with organis-
ing and facilitating positive family experiences (Shaw, 2008). Therefore,
the sources of stress remain under-researched and unacknowledged. This
chapter seeks to establish the range of possible stress factors in the context
of the family holiday and their relative significance.
Given the significance of accommodation as an influence on satisfaction
with holiday experiences, this research specifically considers the extent to
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