10 Reasons to Travel with Kids

Jun 7, 2006

Give your kids the gift of travel, Sanja Gjenero

So many people think they can't travel with kids, and this is a real shame. One of the best gifts you can give your children is the experience of travel.

There are almost countless reasons to travel with kids, be it for the bonding experience or for the amazing learning their young sponge-like minds get from seeing things in context instead of school books.

Forget the excuses why you can't travel with your kids. Yes, it can be hard. Is it that easy parenting at home? Yes, it costs money. But, believe it or not, you can afford it.

Instead of thinking about reasons why you can't travel, here are the top 10 reasons you should travel with your kids. (Print this, and clip it to the fridge or, better yet, a piggy bank, as a reminder):

You will make your kids happy. I can hardly think of a better reason than this. Kids love to travel! It's exciting. It's cool. It's better than going to school.
Your kids will get exercise. In this day and age of childhood obesity, travel provides your children with the chance to get out of the house and walk around. They can sprint up the steps of a stately museum, or climb to the top of a historic lighthouse.
Kids learn more in person. Your kids can read endless stuffy textbooks, and never truly understand the awe of a live elephant, or the majesty of a gothic cathedral. They will remember what they learn while traveling, because it is more significant and life-sized.
You get face time with the kids. Hey, we're all guilty of being too distracted and busy to focus on our kids. At home, everything is about work, keeping house, paying bills and other non-kid-friendly concerns. While traveling, you get some wonderful one-on-one time with your children.
Kids become more open-minded. When kids are only exposed to a small world view, they become limited and close-minded adults. Expose them to various cultures and experiences, and they will realize there is so much more to the world than their small corner of it.
You get to see the world through a child's eyes. It amazes me how many things I don't notice about the world until my daughter points them out. Even if you traveled constantly before having children, you truly haven't traveled until you've watched your own kid stare up in amazement to the top of the Eiffel Tower or the Sears Tower.
It isn't as hard as you think it is. Don't get me wrong. It isn't easy lugging strollers, diaper bags, whining kids, and so on along on a trip. When it boils down to it, though, it really isn't all that hard. Kids are quite adaptable, and they are quickly able to adjust to new surroundings and routines.
It doesn't have to be expensive. You don't have to wait until you can afford that trip around the world to travel with your kids. Start small. Each Saturday, take a daytrip to a nearby town. Work your way up to long weekends a couple hundred miles away. Then, when your annual vacation comes, don't spend it at home scrapbooking. Go somewhere fabulous!
You are giving your kids wonderful memories. You are also giving this gift to yourself. Children will cherish memories of your travels for a lifetime. What do you remember better? Days spent at home in front of the TV as a kid, or that special family vacation.
You are raising a globe-trotter. I always feel sad when I meet someone who has rarely left their home town. Aspire for more for your children. If you travel often with your children, they will grow up yearning to travel, understanding all the intensity (both good and bad) of travel, and seeking out their own travel adventures with your future grandchildren.

The copyright of the article 10 Reasons to Travel with Kids in Family Adventures is owned by Kelby Carr. Permission to republish 10 Reasons to Travel with Kids must be granted by the author in writing.

Comments

Jun 7, 2006 8:10 PM

Kelby Carr :

What do you think? Do you travel with your kids as much as you'd like? Or do you find it's all too easy to be distracted by life's demands? How much importance do you place on traveling with kids?

Jun 7, 2006 9:11 PM

Jennifer W. Miner :

What a great article! For me, <i>where</i> I'm traveling determines whether the kids come with. For example, weekend trips to places less than a few hours away, definitely. But a 13-hour flight to the Mediterranean? Forget it. There's not enough Benadryl in the world, as a friend of mine put it. (kidding; we don't drug our kids.)
I've also found that my children get just as much out of a day trip as a weekend, or week-long, one. It depends on the quality of the trip, IMO.
Jen
http://luxuryresorttravel.suite101.com

Jun 8, 2006 4:48 AM

Kelby Carr :

Actually, I am all for taking kids on the long trips, too (not that there's anything wrong with a few vacations without them! heheh!). It isn't too hard to fly with kids (see my article on flying with babies, though, if you want to survive it with your sanity:
http://familytravel.suite101.com/article.cfm/FlyingWithBaby).

Our daughter did very well on long plane rides and long train rides, even an 11-day cruise. She traveled everywhere with us while traveling and living in Europe for several months. Don't get me wrong, there were times I longed for the easy single-traveling days. But she got so much out of those travels. And she is quite the traveled youngster... she'd been to six countries before turning 2. Of course, now she gets antsy if we DON'T go somewhere for too long a stretch! Hehehhe.

She's also eaten in fancy restaurants, visited museums, toured cathedrals, and done all the things kids aren't supposed to have the tolerance for. I think most of us assume (and I get caught up in this myself sometimes) that kids can't handle these things, but often times they can. You just have to be ready to bail on a moment's notice if they get too cranky! Heheh.

Jun 8, 2006 8:00 AM

Jodi Gallegos :

Great reasons to take the kids and go! Taking a 15-month old to Ireland wasn't terrible. We took a nonstop evening flight to get there. That way, he fell asleep naturally during the plane ride. The time change was difficult but we have great memories of playing in bed, eating snacks and watching really bad Irish midnight tv!

Jun 8, 2006 11:15 AM

Jill Florio :

Great article! My parents took me on lots of camping trips as a child, and I always got something enjoyable out of that. Some of my earliest memories I can recall are on those trips. Things I remember - sleeping in a tent, my father throwing logs into the lake for the dog to retrieve, my mom cooking in the pickup camper, chasing ducks and being chased by them, and driving while sitting on top of the camper's bed, over the cab, and waving at people driving by. Them waving back. These are all memories from under ten.

After I turned ten my parents started earning a nicer income and our trips became resort based. Those trips I remember everything from since I was older. I always loved our trips - to places all over. They really contributed to raising me with a spirit of wanderlust, a crazing for new places and experiences.

Jun 8, 2006 1:20 PM

Dan Florio :

My mother and her husband traveled constantly. I was never anywhere for too long. But I did love new places and am an obsessive world traveler today. Now I am encouraging my sister to turn my niece into a world traveler.

Jun 8, 2006 4:44 PM

Kelby Carr :

Yes, that's exactly what we did with our daughter. We took a trans-Atlantic when she was 1, and we booked a flight leaving a half hour before her bedtime and landing when she usualy gets up. She didn't make a peep the whole trip, and actually slept the whole way. She fell asleep to bottle on departure, and woke up as we were descending!

Jun 8, 2006 5:18 PM

Kelby Carr :

Yeah, I think most of my fondest memories were from traveling as a kid. It's just natural... you get to spend that time REALLY with your parents, doing cool, fun things, so you remember it.

Jun 8, 2006 5:21 PM

Kelby Carr :

I didn't travel nearly as much as I wanted as a kid, but I remember almost every vacation. I would even get thrilled to stay overnight at a hotel! I thought that was the coolest thing ever.

I did get to take some cool trips. My first flight was on Air Force One (actually Air Force Two, technically, one plane with president and press corps, and mine had press corps family). It ruined me for flying, since the service and amenities were so great. It was during the Reagan years, and I flew out to Santa Barbara, where his ranch was.

I went with a friend on a Winnebago trip. The destination was her family in Iowa. Not exactly a happening destination, but I still remember it as being lots of fun.

As with the hotel room and Iowa trip, you can see that you don't have to take your kids somewhere exotic to get something out of it! Heheh.

Jun 9, 2006 3:54 PM

Jennifer W. Miner :

It's true that you don't have go somewhere exotic for your kids to have a great time. Once in a while, we drive about 40 minutes north to where there's a working farm, and the girls have a blast feeding the goats and "getting lost" in the corn field maze. They talk about the farm a lot more than they talk about anywhere else they've been! (of course, if <i>they'd</i> been on Air Force One, it'd be a different story.)
Jen
http://luxuryresorttravel.suite101.com

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