Complaints & Demands

Complaining and demanding in action

My good friend Brie took a trip to Italy with her extended family a couple years back. And she means extended. The cast of characters in their Tuscan villa included: her husband's mom and dad, her own dad and step-mother, a couple of godparents, an aunt and uncle (separated at the time), a cousin, eccentric bachelor uncle, and, last but not least, Brie's husband and herself.

Since my husband and my families will be squeezing into a rental home in Belize for a week between Christmas and New Year's this winter, I was particularly interested in her insights on the dynamics of such a large, multi-family group living in a single home for a week...and what happens when, you know, "people stop being nice, and start being real." Herewith, Brie's insight about Complaints & Demands:

"The most interesting aspect of traveling in a group with multi-generations is the complaining. If my husband and I were traveling alone we would have been up and had breakfast early every day and tackled whatever we needed to tackle quickly. With 12 people of varying ages and health profiles, getting out of the villa was a homerun. I remember a particular day in the town of Montepulciano. The entire city is hilly. We arrived probably an hour after having breakfast at the villa. Immediately my aunt needed a restroom, my dad’s knee hurt, my uncle needed to sit down and Dave’s parents were hungry for lunch. Us young folks took advantage of such ridiculous behavior by pointing out how often they complained and how patient and tolerant we were. I recall being annoyed but deciding it was best to settle down and take a breather even though we had hardly explored this tiny Tuscan town. We ended up having one of the most memorable afternoons in this café located in a basement wine cellar. We ate delicious pizza full of local ingredients and played an ice-breaker game where each person had to name 3 people (alive or deceased) who they would like to invite to dinner. The conversation was wild. The wine was flowing. The food was phenomenal and the pictures from that tiny little wine cellar are some of my absolute favorite from the trip."