They aren’t accomplishing their intended purpose of drawing us closer as a family.

The HCBW seems more stressed on vacation than off of vacation.

The hotel walls are always too thin and so she is constantly “shushing” the kids and speaking in a whisper voice so I can hardly hear.

The kids constantly bicker and act like spoiled brats.

The kids want to connect with a friend on vacation. The HCBW tells them to ask me. I say it’s fine if he wants to meet up with us. While I’m gassing up the vehicle, the HCBW arranges for them to be dropped off at their friends house while we go do other things. That’s two fewer hands to help with what we had originally planned.

HCBW asking even before the day starts if we want to change our plans (a pet peeve of mine is that she rarely sticks to the original plan).

The HCBW wants to leave early to beat the traffic even though doing so means burning valuable daylight to only find out that traffic is worse during the day than after rush hour.

I’m just frustrated and annoyed and left feeling like I would have rather spent the time at work, which should never be the case.