Avoid These 6 Common Family Reunion Disasters

​1. Meals poisoning

No one needs a nasty potato salad to be the one factor they keep in mind from their reunion weekend. Yearly, 1 in 6 Individuals get hit with food poisoning, struggling signs like nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. ​

​Most incidents of meals poisoning happen when meals isn’t maintained on the correct temperature, in keeping with Darin Detwiler, a meals security knowledgeable and professor at Northeastern College. ​

​“A potato salad might be within the automobile for 2 hours earlier than it’s served,” he says. “Nobody makes use of a meals thermometer at a household reunion.” ​

​​Detwiler suggests prepping meals at dwelling and cooking it on-site, ensuring to serve sizzling meals instantly and to maintain chilly meals on ice. Higher but, name within the execs. ​

​“An expert catering firm will ship meals while you want it, hold it heated or cooled to eradicate these danger components,” Detwiler says.​

​2. Canceled flights

Planning to fly to your reunion? Go early, giving your self a cushion of time so that you don’t miss out on reunion actions, advises Jen Campbell Boles, founding father of Discover Extra Household Journey.​

​“[Fly] in at the least a day early till the airways are staffed up,” Boles advises.​

 ​As of July 1, there have been greater than 820,000 flight delays and 116,000 cancelled flights this yr, in keeping with the flight monitoring firm FlightAware. ​​

It’s additionally a good suggestion to buy travel insurance.​​

“Having journey insurance coverage offers you the pliability to be rebooked outdoors of the airline you are working with [and] might be the important thing to getting there,” says Boles.​​

3. Freeloading family

The fee for a venue, resort rooms, catering, leisure and matching family T-shirts or other reunion swag can add up. So, what concerning the cousins who confirmed up, wore the T-shirts, ate the meals and loved the festivities—however by no means paid? Psychologist Donna Marino suggests giving them the advantage of the doubt. ​

​“Maybe they forgot or didn’t have the cash on the time,” says Marino. “Greet them as you’d any paying member of the family … and say one thing like, ‘It’s so good to see you, I had no concept you had been coming. I used to be simply gathering everybody’s contribution to the occasion.’”​

​In case your family nonetheless don’t hand over their fair proportion, Marino suggests weighing whether or not the connection is extra vital than the cash, including, “May there be one thing occurring with them and so they might actually use their household proper now? May you sponsor them to be there? Be considerate in your response.”​

​You might also need to rent a journey agent or occasion planner to coordinate the reunion and handle the disagreeable job of gathering cost.​