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 5 Reasons Parents Should Travel With Kids |
I love traveling with our kids! Some of my fondest memories involve the trips or vacations we took as a family, whether it is a short weekend getaway on the coast or a 2-week adventure to some far away place.
My wife and I take the approach that travel is as much a part of the kids education as is sitting in a classroom. Because we don't like to travel around holidays, often this means pulling the kids out of school for a week or more. Not only does the school work get done while they are away, but they learn about new cultures, enjoy new experiences, taste new foods, and all of this becomes part of a school project when they return home.
There are many great reasons to travel with kids; we have selected the 5 that we most appreciate...
Brings family together
All of our lives are busy these days. When we aren't putting in long hours at the office or fighting rush hour traffic, we are ferrying kids to one activity after another. Even when we have down time, everyone tends to go his or her own direction.
Traveling brings everyone together. For a moment in time the frenzy of "normal life" is pushed aside, and you are able to spend time together. Instead of multiple agendas there is only one agenda, the family agenda.
Spending time together brings a family closer together through simple acts like talks and shared experiences, acts as glue bonding everyone.
As a parent I am hopeful that the kids cherish these memories as they get older.
It will make you humble
In our normal, comfortable lives we can control a significant portion of our environment. This allows us to appear more of an authority to our children than is actually the case. If we are lost...plug the address into the navigation system. If we are asked a question that we don't really know the answer to, taking a guess at the answer does not result in any bad consequences.
Take these examples to a remote city in the middle of Ecuador, and you will learn what humble means. The kids quickly realize that even Dads can get lost...really lost! They also realize that he doesn't know as much as we (or he) thought he did.
"Hey dad, what will happen if I pick up this animal (that I have no idea even what it is)?
"Hey dad, what will happen if I eat this (that I have no idea if it is even food)?
The questions keep coming and the opportunities to display your "human vulnerabilities" are plenty. There are plenty of opportunities to make us humble when we travel with our kids.
See the world through a child's eyes
Traveling with children creates a perspective that as adults we miss. As adults we are pre-occupied with putting all of the pieces of the puzzle together, while a child finds adventure in the puzzle piece itself.
My 7-year-old daughter loves dogs. Anywhere we go she finds a new best friend. My perspective is that if you have seen one dog you have seen them all, while for Gigi each new dog is a petting opportunity. This simple, innocent act causes her parents to participate in an experience that would other wise not happen and go unnoticed.
Several years ago we took a vacation to Mexico, and stayed at a small condo development on the beach south of Mazatlan. In our condo was literature that described a Sea Turtle breeding project that was located on the property a mile down the beach.
Now if we did not have the kids with us, Gina and I would have stopped by and taken a look at the turtles...learned a little about the issues facing the species and moved on. With the kids in tow it was a whole different story.
We visited the turtle center over a ½ dozen times, and several mornings the kids asked me to set the alarm at 6 a.m. so that we had time to make the mile long walk and participate in releasing the young hatchlings into the ocean. We can't get the kids to wake up for school most mornings...but here we were on a remote stretch of beach in the middle of Mexico helping sea turtles make their start in life.
New roles and responsibilities for family members
When a family travels together there is added responsibility for each member of the family. The days activities are not planned by mom and dad only, the kids participate in the discussion of what to do and see. My daughter is responsible for carrying her own luggage, the same responsibility as the rest of the members of the family.
I spend more time playing with the kids than I do at home, and my responsibilities shift from family coach to just another member of the team. The wife and kids cringe at the thought of Dad drafting a 3-page strategy plan...and mutiny ensues.
There is a shared responsibility to find solutions to issues we face on the road, much more than happens at home. With each successful solution you see the confidence in everyone grow, the kids are proud of themselves for contributing and the parents delight in the strengthening of our family.
Everyone is more willing to pitch in and help each other. Instead of big brother flinging his sisters doll across the room like back home, he helps her when she is in need and they spend time playing, exploring, and laughing together.
Broadens cultural awarene
ASSTraveling reminds us, and teaches the kids that the world is not made of middle class suburbs. They are able to see, and feel, and experience the way other people live.
One of the fun activities with kids is to watch or participate in celebrations in the places we visit. The kids experience the many unique customs, the dress, and dance or music that is traditional in these places.
Trying new foods for kids is not something easily done, but we encourage them to taste a little of everything. Grant is very willing to try new foods, while his sister is very reluctant. Our meals are turned into a fun, social activity as plates are passed back and forth, hands dart across the table trying to grab the last morsel of a food that someone liked, and the faces change from pleasure to "disgust" dependent on the last food tasted.
Most importantly the children develop empathy for the global community. They learn to put themselves in the shoes of another, and begin to remove the narrowness of a singular viewpoint about the world they live in.
We hope that these experiences prevent prejudice and other bias too common in society, and in fact, they will provide leadership for their generation in increasing understanding of cultural differences.
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