Family trip to Disneyland as an occupation

Previously, I wrote about Kiriko’s story about her family’s annual trips to Tokyo Disneyland. 

Why do the four members of the family always talk about their trips to Disneyland? Why do they start planning the trips six months in advance and go on the trips every year? Why are they so important for them? Today, I want to share with you more about a view of the family trip to Disneyland as an occupation from these angles,

the form of the family trip to Disneyland,

the function of the occupation,

and the meaning of the occupation.

To look at their trip in a big occupational picture, let’s imagine Kiriko engaging in the trip.

Situation: Kiriko is a woman in her forties and teaches in a university. She lives with her husband, a medical professional, and two daughters, an elementary school student and a middle school student who is preparing for entrance examinations next spring.

All members of the family are very busy with their occupations, jobs, school work, house chores and parenting. They are busy with their routines and happenings in schools, jobs and home, so they have barely anytime to enjoy together.

Form of the occupation: The members of the family love traveling. They go on trips a couple times a year. Their favorite one is their annual over-night trip to Tokyo Disneyland. They start planning more than six months in advance, checking Disneyland’s guidebooks and watching the pictures and videos taken in their previous trips. They organize their schedules and plans at the schools, the works and their home to enact their trips as they plan. Kiriko‘s husband driving, they leave at midnight. On the way, the kids nap in the car. Kiriko and her husband enjoy having time to talk to each other in a relaxed way. All four enter and enjoy in the Disneyland all day long.  During the day, the kids are encouraged to enjoy rides as much as they want and are allowed to eat sweets and to drink juice as much as they like. They don’t have to be careful being clean and are less disciplined. Their play can be freer. They enjoy rides, watch the parades, choose souvenirs and enjoy huge sights in the Disneyland. Kiriko doesn’t like rides but she enjoys chatting with her kids waiting for their turns. Walking around enough to get exhausted, they move to a hotel in the neighborhood of the Disneyland and, on the next day, they go back home, driving five hours. Getting home back, they still repeat talking about their trips to Disneyland watching their pictures and videos they took there. This year they don’t have a plan to go on a trip because the elder daughter is busy to prepare for high school entrance examinations. Although they’ve already started talking about their trip to Disneyland in 2026.

Function of the occupation:

The family’s annual trip to the Disneyland has two major effects to their health and wellbeing: freedom from their ordinary life and recreation of the sense of belongingness to their family.

All four are busy with their jobs, schools, house chores and parenting to build a good life and to support individual development. Their occupations are influenced by the schedules, rules and happenings. Kiriko and her husband have responsible for jobs and always have some tight deadlines. They have stress by tension at work. Her children are expected to be disciplined following life rules and schedules of schools and after schools.

All members of the family are busy with their works with tension and stress. Kiriko is very busy that she interacts her kids only to teach or order them. She always miss relax time and with her daughters.

Comparing to their ordinary occupations, their trip to the Disneyland is a huge family event, that all the members cooperate in planning and enacting the trip. In the Disneyland they are welcomed by fantasy world and rides. That is the best place to enjoy extraordinary fun experience. They enjoy the fantasy land freed from the rules, schedules, responsibilities, works and house chores. They are involved in enjoying fun of the fantasy land and get satisfied with them. All four enjoy as much as they want all day long. At the end of the day, they get exhausted and ready to have rest. Being refreshed, they get ready to look forward to their future.

Their annual fantasy land trip is a co-occupation by the family members. Planning the fantasy land trip, playing there and reminiscing their trips, the family members share their meaningful experiences of the family. They engage in family cooperation to enjoy together, promoting health and wellbeing and sharing their meanings.

Through the co-occupation, they also recreate a sense of belongingness of the family. They are fully excited to organize the plan and enact the trip as they plan and enjoy the fantasy land together. Freed from their ordinary life, they are more involved in the co-occupation by the family members. Repeating planning and enacting their fantasy trips, they have been sharing and enforcing their meanings of the family trip. Through engaging in the co-occupation, they recover a sense of belongingness they miss in their ordinary life and confirm a sense of unity of the family. That make them feel safe and relax.

Meaning of the occupation:  For Kiriko, their family trip of the fantasy land is an occupation that frees her family members from different duties, limits, and stress in their daily life. Through it they recover the sense of belongingness of the family, though they barely engage in interacting each other in their daily life.