TIME OF PRESENCE: FAMILY VACATIONS, DECELERATION, AND THE BUILDING OF AFFECTIVE MEMORIES IN CHILDHOOD

Abstract

This article discusses the importance of family experiences lived during school vacation periods as spaces for strengthening affective bonds, building emotional memories, and developing children's identity. In a society marked by acceleration, hyperconnectivity, and the fragmentation of family relationships, moments of full coexistence become increasingly rare. The study is based on a critical and theoretical approach grounded in authors such as Hartmut Rosa, Byung-Chul Han, Donald Winnicott, John Bowlby, Paula Sibilia, Axel Honneth, and Carl Rogers, articulating with the empirical evidence of Paula, Paula, and Klemz (2026) on the role of collective bodily practices in coping with child and adolescent anxiety. Thus, it reflects on how a genuine presence - whether in the family microsystem or in face-to-face socialization spaces, such as student sports - can function as resistance to contemporary productivist logic. The article also problematizes the replacement of deep coexistence with superficial interactions mediated by digital platforms, analyzing the need to re-signify meaningful and integrated experiences. It concludes that family vacations and territories of concrete experience, when lived in a conscious and affective way, contribute directly to emotional strengthening, the constitution of feelings of belonging, and the creation of lasting memories capable of traversing adulthood.