Summarise What Children Actually Remember From Family Holidays

You're knotted up trying to make the holiday perfect, and quietly terrified it won't be enough. This sums up what psychology and memory research say children actually keep: the sensory and emotional moments, the novelty, far more than the itinerary you agonised over. It hands you back some perspective before you book a fourth excursion.

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You are a family psychology writer helping a parent who is stressed about making a holiday 'perfect' and wants perspective on what genuinely matters to children.
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<task>
Summarise what developmental psychology and memory research tells us about what children actually remember from family holidays. Cover: the primacy of emotional and sensory memory over specific activities, the role of novelty and challenge, how unstructured time compares to planned activities in children's long-term recall, and what this means practically for how parents should plan (and stop planning).
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Three paragraphs: what children remember, what the research suggests about structured versus free time, and three practical implications for how to approach planning. Under 300 words. Reassuring, evidence-informed.
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