# Ever been badgered into a vacation? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 29, 2025, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-badgered-into-a-vacation/1022579 "2025-08-29T17:34:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-badgered-into-a-vacation/1022579/61 "2025-09-01T01:44:23Z")
We’re sitting on it for two days before we tell them. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2025, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-badgered-into-a-vacation/1022579/62 "2025-09-01T02:56:01Z")
Ireland is a much better choice than Sicily if you have kids. Sicily is mostly of interest for its History, which would likely bore the little ones to death. Ireland is more beautiful and the people are a lot friendlier. The wedding I mentioned earlier was a marriage between a Sicilian man and an Irish woman. Imagine a reception evenly split between the most endearingly offensive people in the world and the most easily offended people in the world. I spent the evening hanging out with the offensive (but friendly) ones. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-badgered-into-a-vacation/1022579/63 "2025-09-03T19:25:03Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > How was the family’s reaction? I’m predicting they were fine with your decision. They were thankful we provided an alternative. It looks like most likely 2 weeks in Ireland/Scotland in 2028. FIL seems to want to go to Australia, I’m not sure how much traction that will get, but it could be fun too. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-badgered-into-a-vacation/1022579/64 "2025-09-03T19:56:41Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Does it change anyone’s mind about the silliness to know my husband’s family is all Sicilian heritage? Don’t think we know many people over there, though. > > But it’s not like Sicily was chosen at random. So, my take on this is that your sister in law wants to introduce her daughter to her Sicilian relatives on the occasion on that daughter’s second birthday. To these relatives you are a distant in law, in whom they have no reason to take an interest, and with whom they can only communicate with difficulty if at all. Would that be an accurate description? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-badgered-into-a-vacation/1022579/65 "2025-09-03T20:01:27Z")
No, there are no relatives in Sicily we’re visiting. I think my SIL just wanted to see where her family came from. Anyway, we turned it down and proposed a 2028 trip to somewhere else. This gives us a longer time to prepare. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-badgered-into-a-vacation/1022579/66 "2025-09-03T20:05:36Z")
We had just spent a fortune on a European tour that we incurred the full cost for four people instead of just our two. So financial, not ruined, but need to be economical for a year or two. Two months later … Oldest: Hey you know that family cruise we were talking about? Us: You mean the one in 3 to 4 years? Oldest: Yeah I bought the tickets. All you guys need to do is pay the airfare (for 5 people). ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2025, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-badgered-into-a-vacation/1022579/67 "2025-09-03T20:48:24Z")
Yikes. Yeah, these things really need to be discussed ahead of time. Did you end up going? It’s going to be an expensive trip, especially because any time my husband misses from work is not financially compensated, as he is paid per session. So we have to save up the cost of the trip plus the lost income. It’s a lot to set aside monthly, but a lot easier to come up with by 2028 than May 2026. It feels a bit like an extravagance, but if we waited for the perfect financial situation, I don’t think we’d ever go. It’s just a matter of adjusting priorities. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-badgered-into-a-vacation/1022579/68 "2025-09-04T00:46:54Z")
Had to. And as it turned out, it was all because his wife wanted a cruise so of course we all had to go. ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-badgered-into-a-vacation/1022579/69 "2025-09-04T06:55:34Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > But I can’t emphasise enough how little it matters not speaking the language, in Europe at least. It’s not like _everyone_ speaks English, but everyone in the tourist industry does. I fully agree with this. I was with my family in the Val d’Aosta (extreme northwestern Italy) a few weeks ago. The region is officially bilingual (Italian and French). I speak French and understand Italian (courtesy French, grandmother, and food). Despite that, almost everyone spoke to me in English. I know they are doing it to be helpful, but in my opinion it dilutes the experience. In any case, lack of Italian (or to be more specific _Sicilian_) language skills really should not be a concern. That aside, I think @Spice_Weasel is making the correct choice and Ireland is the better way to go for all the reasons mentioned (by the way, don’t assume communication will be easy over there either 😆 ) ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-badgered-into-a-vacation/1022579/70 "2025-09-04T14:21:20Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > FIL seems to want to go to Australia, I’m not sure how much traction that will get, but it could be fun too. Australia is a very long flight - 15 hours from LA to Sydney. I’d certainly not take _any_ 6-7 year old there unless they’d already proven they can handle a 5-6 hour flight with no issues - given your son’s challenges I’d really recommend against it. Honestly, you need to not let FIL drive anything in your destination selection, especially given things like this: > [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > FIL is pretty clueless. My son nearly had a full scale autistic meltdown at a Florida aquarium because he didn’t have his food with him and FIL & girlfriend kept dragging their feet acting like it was no big deal when we needed to get him food immediately. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-badgered-into-a-vacation/1022579.md?page=3)