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How Good Is Your Parc Life?

15 January 2012

We had a great weekend at Center Parcs recently, perhaps our best ever – in terms of the children being happy and us  parents being calm and contented. I think our success was that this year we kept things simple. Namely:

No electronic games …so no arguments about who had which game or ‘just another 5 minutes please’.

No lunches in overpriced cafe-grill-bar-waffle houses that fill up your stomach, but drain your wallet and your soul …as you wrestle a sticky menu and fidgetting children.

No jostling or queueing when you go swimming from 4pm to 7pm when it’s toddler tea time and families are away from the pool …we take our toddlers and feed them poolside, which is part of the fun. And our big toddlers can go and play on the rapids, whilst it’s quieter there too.*

It was great to have a calm and pleasant weekend and to not feel we’d been mugged for expensive meals, toys, or activities. Geocaching was fun in the Saturday sunshine and family bowling always brings out a little healthy competition. We pre-ordered food from Waitrose, collected it on the way and had some yummy things to eat, without any hassle. Sorted!

We focussed on what worked well, avoided complexity and had a good time.

And we can apply the same thinking to our modern careers, whether managing our business, planning a job change, or navigating through a tough time at work:

• Have some fun, don’t just work work work.
• Spend money wisely, or not at all.
• Learn from past experiences and apply this learning to improve things.
• Less is more, so simplify your day.

We haven’t always got it right, but we did this year. So…

1. What will you be doing well this week?
2. What can you simplify?
3. How can you improve your Parc Life?

Have fun!

 

*Toddler Dad sometimes goes on the rapids too, but you don’t need to know that.

Tags: simplicity