Travel with kids – challenge or opportunity?
To travel with kids, or to travel as a family, can for some seem like the ultimate challenge. To others, like ourselves, it’s just the greatest of opportunity for learning and growing together.Traveling together for a long time gives you the opportunity to get to know your family members and to see who they really are. In many families today, you don’t know your family members very well. You spend so much time away from each other, at work, school, at different activities and when you get home, you sit in front of the computer or the TV. And then, what’s left? How much time do you have every day to connect to and communicate with your spouse and your kids?
Long term travel with kids is so worthwhile...
Sometimes, when things doesn’t go the way I expect, or want and hope for them to go and I start blaming myself for not having done this or that in the right way (I know in theory, this is not the best of things to do, but I’m not perfect, yet
) I often end up thinking. “at least I won’t regret not having spent enough time with my kids”. My family has had a big priority in my life and a big part of our time together we have spent on the road.
When we talk to people about this, we’ve realized that many are concerned that spending a lot of time with their family would make them crazy. Maybe they’d even come back ready for a divorce?
What we’ve found in reality though, it’s usually the opposite. When you go on an extended journey, you leave most of the different sources of everyday stress at home. You get rid of the things that stand between yourself and the other members of your family: all the stuff, the activities, the obligations. What you have left is just yourselves and your adventure. Now you have the time to see who this person you sometimes meet in the hallway on your way out really is.
When you travel, you will be away together in new unknown places and situations. You’ll create new circumstances that can help you to break old negative patterns and habits that are connected to your life at home. You will experience loads of interesting things together. You will get plenty of opportunities to practice cooperating with each other since problem solving is a natural gift of every long term trip.
And sometimes, the road isn’t just easy to walk on and the sun isn’t shining and things aren’t very fun, but this will be part of your journey together and oftentimes, the “worst” situations are the one’s that’ll create your warmest memories.
Doing some long term travel with kids and spouse is just so different to being at home and if you haven’t done it, it can be really difficult to imagine what a “boost” for your family life it really can be.
So, what’s your family life like? How would you like it to be? Imagine yourself 20 years from now. What kind of memories would you want to share with your wife/husband and your children?
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Mark Twain
22 Responses to “Travel with kids – challenge or opportunity?”
You are right in such situations we get to know the real nature of our family member against each other. I think it’s not a challenge, it is a nice opportunity.
Comment made on December 11th, 2009 at 6:53 amMaria, great blogpost!
I can’t agree more.
It is so much fun travelling with children. It gives you so many nice experiences that you shared, and of course, the bad things that happend will be most fun talking about later:-)
Of course it can be hard to spend time in a small campervan in rainy Scotland. But every mother knows what it is like to be with the kids after a bad day in school! I definately prefer the rainy day playing scrabble even though the campervan was leaking and cold:-)
Also for fathers it’s a great opportunity to get to know the kids!
Lots of greetings, Gabi
Comment made on December 15th, 2009 at 9:57 amTraveling is really such a nice thing as i know because it gives you relief from your stress and the second thing is that you can learn a lot from traveling. your tips are up to the mark dear thanks.
Comment made on December 15th, 2009 at 10:33 ammonika@backpackers sydney´s last blog ..Sydney Summer the Festival season
According me it’s not a changeling, its a great opportunity. In this fast age we have no time to spend some moment with your family members or our friends. I think these chances rarely come in life. which should not miss.
Comment made on December 16th, 2009 at 6:22 amI think that with a little planning, it is fantastic opportunity to share unforgettable experiences with the people we are the closest to in our lives.
Comment made on December 20th, 2009 at 6:42 pmHi,
Comment made on January 2nd, 2010 at 1:40 pmI think traveling with the kids is a really a great challenge because it is a difficult job so that if you are going somewhere then remember this thing that you have to take care your kids because some times most of the destinations became very memorable.
Tiara@backpacking Sydney´s last blog ..Sydney Summer the Festival season
You want a challenge. Try taking them on a sailing trip! It’s tough, but great to team building and you can always threaten to throw then overboard if the misbehave!!
Comment made on January 7th, 2010 at 2:26 pmHi, nice post there!
Indeed in this fast era we just dont have any time to be spent with our families so we should not miss and of these chances, coz these type of chances are rarely come in lifes.
-adil
Comment made on January 8th, 2010 at 3:46 pmAdil@hot wallpapers´s last blog ..Feirce Dragon
always hard to travel with the kids but well worth it
Comment made on January 12th, 2010 at 9:54 amCheap Auto Insurance Blog´s last blog ..Progressive Raises its Rates
I have traveled with children a lot and I know first hand how tiring it can be. I think it is great however and definitely worth the effort – kids learn a heap traveling so Id encourage it a lot.
Comment made on January 14th, 2010 at 10:54 pmI travelled overseas with mine and I had no end of worry. The kids were ill, we panicked every time we couldn’t see them. Definitely wait until they’re teenagers if I were you.
Comment made on January 20th, 2010 at 7:44 amWell i guess if you managed to keep the kids occupied and well behaved its always an opportunity,for them to learn so much! but if you cant handle all that then its a definite nightmare!!
Comment made on January 24th, 2010 at 4:22 pmThanks for all of your comments!
And as you point out, traveling with kids can really be a blessing, but, as most things here in life, it’s not always easy.
Comment made on January 25th, 2010 at 7:29 pmNor, is it always easy to travel alone, or together with another adult….
Our own experiences are that when you travel with kids, it’s important to adjust things to their specific ages. It’s not the same traveling around with a 6 month old, a five year old or an older teenager.
And the younger the child(ren)the slower the pace and the more time for everything you do, is to recommend.
I think that the more you try to live your life like your busy day at home, the more challenges you also invite in.
We have traveled with our kids whan they’ve been all ages, and every age has it’s challenges and opportunities.
Also, depending on their ages, the ways to travel and the things to do can be more or less suitable of course.
So the overall advice I’d like to give when you travel with kids (especially young ones) is to travel slowly, be in the now and remember that the way is the goal.
Agreed, I actually enjoy traveling with my kids. I manage to teach them so much as well. Instead of leaving them at home they actually reward a good trip and are on their best behavior making it all the more easier. I definitely think its an opportunity!
Comment made on January 27th, 2010 at 4:21 pmI guess it depends on where you’re taking them. If its a place where you can have them kept occupied than yes its an opportunity! but if you’re on a getaway from work trip, then maybe it would be pretty challenging to get some rest!
Comment made on January 30th, 2010 at 10:13 pmwell i am single so i don’t have experience but i think its not easy to manage children while traveling but i think after gone through your post parents will easily manage there kids.anyways thanks.
Comment made on February 5th, 2010 at 4:29 amI love taking my kids around, its rare that i get to spend time with them and when i do i would like to see them with a smile on their face
Comment made on February 6th, 2010 at 9:49 pmYeah, kids just love going around anywhere as long as they dont have to be bored at home.. Just find a place that you would enjoy and go there, and your kids will be just fine..
Comment made on February 10th, 2010 at 3:56 pmTraveling with kids is always fun, specially if you have enforced the traveling spirit in them! I mean there is so much to see in this world, you’ll be lucky if you see even 2% of the entire world!
Comment made on February 21st, 2010 at 7:44 amWhen I told a friend of ours that we were taking our kids Liam 7 and Scarlette 10 months on a 1 month holiday travelling around Thailand they said “that’s not a holiday, that’s a change in location”. How wrong they were, both my partner and myself have done a lot of international travel, both before and after we had our kids. It can be a little challenging at times, but that just adds to the adventure of it all. We are already planning our next holiday, hopefully this time we will be away for 3 months.
Comment made on February 22nd, 2010 at 5:40 amHow exciting Ian that you will (hopefully) go away on a 3 month trip!
Comment made on February 22nd, 2010 at 4:54 pmSure, it can be challenging at times to travel with kids, but no matter how you go, things happen along the way and challenges are part of every trip,either you go alone or with 5 kids. The thing is how you relate to what happens. If you see your challenges as hindering obstacles or as just a natural part of the trip (or of your life).
You can also check out our new post on this subject “Travel with kids – challenge or opportunity – part 2″ and maybe get some more ideas.
Maria
happy family table
very nice article. thank you for sharing 
Comment made on March 4th, 2010 at 12:59 pmLeave a Comment