As with any large gathering of people, family reunions have the potential to turn ugly. If uncle Bob absolutely can’t stand Aunt Joan and they both start drinking cocktails at noon, it’s probably a sign of bad things to come. There are many other types of problems that could arise in addition to personal conflicts and by being well prepared, you will be able to tackle any problem with ease.
For personal conflicts, there really are only a couple things you can do. The obvious one is to just not invite the person who has the biggest potential to start problems. It might sound like a good thing to do but really, family reunions should have the whole family regardless of how much of a troublemaker someone is. Instead, you could enforce an alcohol free reunion and afterwards they can go drink as much as they want.
It’s impossible to keep one part of the family away from another part at a park but if you go somewhere like a theme park, you could just let people go do what they want instead of staying in a forced group. Weather is the other biggest factor you need to keep in mind. If you plan half a day outside with the entire family and it decides to pour down raining, what is your backup plan?
You always need a backup plan with regards to weather. If you can’t go to the park you were going to go to, you will need to find an indoor alternative. In some parts of the country, this won’t be an option so you will need to either try again the next day or make it up as you go along. Everyone going to a movie isn’t that exciting but it may be your only option besides wandering a local shopping mall.
Plan carefully and it won’t ruin the reunion.
