But the message the kids are getting is, here's something Dad's not very good at. The message is loud, if not clear. Instead of planning every outing out in 15-minute blocks, let the chips fall where they will. A major component of adventure is the uncertainty of what's waiting around the next bend. Once we learn to be comfortable with a degree of uncertainty in our lives, we become more comfortable with taking risks.
Life becomes a lot more fun at that point.
I know that some of my favorite childhood memories center on family vacations where something went wrong and Dad got us all to improvise. Take a look at how your first-instinct reactions to life's unpleasantries, because your kids are watching. If you react like a Chicken Little alarmist when something goes awry, your kids will shrink away from that. And they'll be more likely to come to you later on when they've dented a fender or taken any one of a million other wrong turns. Academic perspective by Dr. Russ Quaglia, Director of the National Center for Student Aspirations at the University of Maine.