Surprises: Good Advanced Planning

The first danger of surprise activities is the instinctive feeling that since no one but the leader knows exactly what is going to happen, it doesn't need to be planned as thoroughly as other activities. We sometimes feel that one of the benefits of a surprise is that one can fly by the seat of one's pants – that this might even be advantageous, adding to the surprise.However, exactly the opposite is true. Surprises must be planned more carefully than normal events.

• Kids and parents will feel uncertain and somewhat uncomfortable with the unknown aspect of the event and need the assurance that everything has been worked out carefully. If parents are already uncertain about what is going to happen with their child, they don't need to feel that the leader also is uncertain.
• Since we all have a limit on how many different concerns and situations we can deal with at any one given time, kids, parents and leaders and you will have a more difficult time dealing appropriately with problems and unanticipated elements that arise. When "flying by the seat of your pants," additional problems or concerns can overload a person's thinking and important details can be overlooked.
• Similarly, in the rare event that a family has an emergency situation while a group is on a surprise outing, if no one back home has the itinerary and contact information for this trip, even the most tolerant family may overreact -- the least disruptive thing the family may do is be furious.
• Another factor about surprise activities that dictates planning, is that expectations are higher than for many "normal" activities, so it is important that everything has been planned to live up to these expectations. I have, a couple of times, been caught on a surprise event with not quite enough to fill the time. In these situations the kids were very impatient with attempts to mark time.