“Are you bringing the children?” without a doubt, every time I tell people we’ve booked a trip at least one person asks me this question! My response is almost always a great big “yes, of course”. Trust me, I understand couples need time away together, but in my opinion travel is just as important for children and the whole family unit! Traveling as a family is really fun, but more importantly travel can also open a child’s world to new foods, cultures, knowledge and experiences that aren’t available in a classroom or their own town. Here’s some of the reasons why we don’t leave our children home:
Travel is Educational
Yes, school, books and even television can teach a child about a place or a culture, but it’s not the same or anywhere near as memorable as experiencing it in person. Standing in an historic site like the Coliseum or Pompeii really lets one experience the grandeur and allows them to comprehend and imagine what it must have been like for the people who lived then. It also peaks a child’s interest, making them want to learn about something not just because they “have to”.
Education doesn’t only come from visiting museums, monuments or historic sites. Just being in a new place is a learning opportunity. Our children speak English, but thanks to our travels they can now say hello, goodbye and thank you among other things in French, Spanish, Italian and Jamaican. Shopping and eating out introduces different currencies, throwing in some great opportunities for math lessons! On a trip to Paris, our children joined in on a playground game called Le Chat et la Souris (The Cat and Mouse) with some French children and within minutes they not only learned a new game but were counting aloud to ten in French!
Our children have returned from vacations and been able to bring knowledge and experiences into their classrooms. While studying volcanos my daughter brought a piece of volcanic rock into school, pictures of glaciers in Iceland and stories of many other destinations have also been shared. While traditional schooling offers excellent book learning, there’s some things that have to be experienced rather than read about. Travelling offers a type of “world schooling”. It provides real-world associations with things children would otherwise only read about.
Travel Lets Children See Similarities and Differences Between People
Often when people think of traveling to new places, they focus on the differences between here and there and us and them. The more you travel with children, the more they’ll begin to see the similarities between cultures and people. When this happens tolerance and acceptance grow while fear and mistrust quickly slip into the background.
On the other hand, children will also learn that not everyone’s the same – and that’s not bad. Different cultures have different beliefs in the way they dress, behave and live life in general. It’s interesting to not only see this but learn from it. Not all areas of the world are as developed or wealthy as others and seeing this helps children learn to appreciate things more. I truly believe traveling and seeing how others live has helped my children to really appreciate what they have in their life. It’s hard to come home from a trip and complain about sharing a room with your sister after seeing a family of eight living in a small shack on a Caribbean island or families with small children begging for money in the streets of Paris.
Travel Creates Opportunities to Challenge Oneself and Build Confidence
Not every kid jumps off a cliff into the ocean, swims with giant sea turtles or steps off a platform to zip-line over a waterfall without hesitation. Travel supplies these opportunities to try something new that you wouldn’t get to do at home. Presenting these types of activities gives children an environment to move beyond their comfort zone and challenge themselves in a new way. The memories and confidence they’ll gain is priceless, plus they’ll get some amazing stories to tell their friends!
Travel Makes Children More Adaptable
When you travel and spend time in international places, you don’t necessarily have the same amenities as you do at home. Even things like milk often won’t taste the same! Through travel children will learn the ability to adapt which is a quality that will benefit them throughout their entire lives! For example, a child may not be able to nap at the exact time you’d like them to or even in a crib but maybe instead they’ll learn to fall asleep anywhere when they’re tired – my children did! Mine have easily slept in strollers, on beach lounge chairs and on trains, planes and buses. It didn’t matter if it was completely silent or during a parade! To this day they never have an issue falling asleep in a bed that’s not their own.
No matter how much you plan, things can go wrong. Luggage gets lost, connections are missed, bad weather blows in and accidents happen. Your children will learn not to see these things as road-blocks, but instead as new opportunities – a great life lesson. We’ve gotten stranded places an extra day due to weather, which became a bonus vacation day providing extra time to visit a museum we otherwise wouldn’t have had time for.
Travel Helps Teach Patience
Travel forces you to deal with changes in schedules, eating habits and sleep patterns. You may end up waiting in long lines through airports or attractions and may have to deal with long plane, bus and car rides. Children will learn creative ways to occupy their time, a skill that will help them when they get home. We once spent half a day running back and forth across the Miami airport due to flight changes and hoping to make a standby flight. Our children thought it was great and loved the extra rides on the escalators and skytrain! An incredibly long line to get into Versailles was daunting to us but our children didn’t complain once, instead, they made new friends in line and went for little walks. Even long car rides that they may complain about at home become fun when there’s new things like waterfalls, animals and volcanos to see!
Travel Provides a Break from Technology
Often when traveling internationally or to remote locations, access to the internet isn’t readily available. It’s the perfect opportunity to really enjoy your company and take in the world around you without distractions of a device. This break from screen time is mentally rejuvenating and encourages children to become active members in the world around them. After a recent trip, our youngest commented that she loves going places where there’s no internet because her older siblings play with her. At home they often hide away in their rooms on devices. When that’s not an option children are forced to spend time together with family for entertainment.
Travel Provides Quality Time, Building Stronger Families
Travel also increases affection towards family members and brings them closer together. When families are forced out of their comfort zone they need to rely on each other for support, comfort and company. From climbing a waterfall to exploring a cave or laying on the beach, shared experiences build positive memories and associations that will last a lifetime. This is my absolute favorite part! In everyday life we’re often so busy that we forget to take time and really just enjoy each other’s company. I love sitting back and watching my children be silly and explore together. In the last couple years we’ve started letting them sit together in their own row on plane trips – the amount of giggles that comes from behind us is priceless! During our travels my family has experienced so many things together, from adventure to excitement to injuries and funny stories. These are the things that bring us together and will always be remembered!
Children Grow Up REALLY Fast!
In the big picture of life you really don’t have that many years to enjoy time with your children. We get about 18 years with them before they’re too cool to travel with us – I truly hope that’s not true, but there’s no doubt these years will go by fast and we won’t get them back. My father has passed away and I rarely travel with my mother anymore but I still truly cherish all the trips from my past and the few we’ve done since I’ve become an adult. Take advantage of the time you have. It’s really about the experience of making memories and enjoying being together – this is the part they’ll remember.
Sure travel isn’t free, but the learning opportunities and character shaping possibilities that it provides are priceless. My children may not remember walking down the Champs-Élysées but I’ll always remember their faces (especially our middle child who was in love with anything to do with Paris) when they got their first glance of the Eiffel Tower. Things like our son’s excitement when he got to flip off cliffs at Rick’s Café, our children’s enjoyment playing with monkeys and holding a sloth in Honduras and all the giggles they share will never be forgotten by my husband and I, and our memories are worth something too. When they’re older, we’ll have the photos to show them of all the places they went and the people they met (like an old woman we met in Italy making noodles that they nicknamed Grandma Noodle). Hopefully we’ll have laid the foundation for a lifelong love of travel and they’ll realize that the world is far bigger than the little corner of it we call home. For now, we hope to keep filling their passports with stamps and build as many memories as we can.
Take vacations, go as many places as you can. You can always make money, you can’t always make memories.
