I took my teenagers on an all-inclusive package and we spent a lot more time together

My husband and I appreciate the opportunity to spend some time together on a family holidays. I always thought we had a good balance of family time until we decided to change gears and go to an all-inclusive resort on dry land.

A change of location gave us an unexpected conviviality

We decided to go to Beaches Turks and Caicos, which is aimed at families. The price was comparable to a cruise, and the ease and time of getting there was about the same as getting from home to a cruise port in Florida.

Besides the fact that there was more space and we weren't on a moving ship, the atmosphere was the same. We looked at the resort's many pools and checked out the kids' and teens' areas. I expected my kids to ask to go alone and give them a time and place to meet to reconnect with family, like we usually would on a cruise.

And then it didn't happen.

We stayed at Beaches for five days, and while our two teenagers weren't attached to our hips the entire time, I noticed they were looking for us more. They actually spoke to us. Our family is used to checking in via text no matter where we are, but this time the “Hey, where are you?” the messages were more often initiated by my children rather than the other way around.

A more relaxed pace and less interest in screens

Things at the station moved at a more relaxed pace than on a cruise. In the morning we could sleep late and let the day unfold, instead of having to get up early so we could get off the ship and fully enjoy the experience of being in a new port. The slower pace was more conducive to enjoying each other's company without having to check vacation boxes.

Beaches was also much less focused on video games than Disney Cruise Line. My teenagers love video games, and although Beaches had a video game lounge, my kids lost interest in it, almost inexplicably, choosing to hang out with us or play air hockey or play pool in the room arcade not dedicated to video games.

Whatever the reason, I'll take it.

We gave them the autonomy to explore on their own

While we enjoyed more togetherness than is typical of us on this vacation, we also gave our teens the autonomy to explore on their own, what we are comfortable with based on our ages and maturity levels of children.

Rachel Goldberg, founder of Therapy in Los Angeles, offered expert opinions on how to view parent-child communication on vacation. “A common barrier is the presence of unequal expectations, where parents and children have different views of travel. For example, children may expect independent exploration, while parents may not intend to separate,” Goldberg told BI.

Goldberg recommends discussing each other's desires daily and finding necessary compromises. She also advises establishing clear guidelines on when and under what circumstances screens will be allowed on vacation.

I have always been happy with the teen and tween clubs on our cruises. I saw them as a way for my children to gain independence and meet their peers. I have no problem with them playing video games on vacation as long as they balance it with other activities, but this vacation has caused me to refocus on how I view our hobbies .

No matter what we do on a family vacation, the goal is for everyone to come away from the experience happy they went.