PenPenWrites

His son-in-law proposed the idea: The two couples–the daughter and her husband, the father and mother–plus another daughter would go on a short vacation together. They would rent rooms at a resort they all liked. Each one would pay for their own room and each night, one of them would be responsible for dinner–whether it was ordering pizza, buying food for a picnic or going out to a restaurant. Great idea. The son-in-law even took responsibility for figuring out when everyone would be available and for booking the rooms.

Then came the vacation. Unfortunately, in between the planning and the date, the son-in-law was accepted into a grad school course where he had been wait-listed, which meant he was tied up for the first part of the vacation. 

And that changed the dynamics of the trip. One room was canceled until the son-in-law could arrive. The two sisters bunked in with each other. "Softie that I am," dad says he paid for that room.  He also didn't have the heart to ask his daughters to pay for dinners. He picked those up, too. When his son-in-law showed up, he let him cater the pizza party.

It's a fine balance. When the best made plans go awry, the softie in us rises. The Dad enjoyed being away with his grown daughters–he hadn't vacationed with them since they graduated from high school. He'd like to do it again. The unplanned expense? Well, it didn't break the bank, and he doesn't feel it set a precedent for future trips.