Michelle Duggar: Respect Doesn't Take a Vacation
This post was written by Michelle Duggar. Photo: DCL.
When you're traveling with family -- whether you're on a bus, like we are sometimes, or flying -- I think one of the ways to help keep everything calm in close quarters is to stick to the same rules you have at home.
One of the most important ones for us is to respect one another, and to respect each other's space and things -- don't try to step on somebody else's space or get into their stuff without permission.
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And then just honoring one another and trying to look for ways to help each other, instead of having the attitude of, "I don't want do anything." Traveling together is a lot of fun, but we all have to work hard to make it happen.
If we're staying for the entire trip on the bus and not staying at a hotel it's a little bit more cramped and crowded and not as easy to do much else than just survive -- because we have a lot of people in one small space (sometimes as many as 24 of us) and we have to make it function. We have our bunks that we go to, and we can have our quiet time, and that's nice because the drapes close, and it's quiet in there.
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We don't really have a lot of bad experiences when we're traveling, unless we're really tired and we just haven't had enough sleep, because maybe we were up late and then had to get up early. Then I just try to always remind everyone, "We're all a little low on sleep right now; but that doesn't give us an excuse to not be nice."
We try to do what we can when we're off schedule and make sure to get naps. It's important for us to be healthy together, no matter if we're on the road or at home. And part of that is pulling together to make whatever situation we're in the best.
(John-David and Jessa play a game of Boggle on the bus. Photo courtesy DCL.)
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