Why do we travel to these far flung places with our kids? Because a.) we love to travel, and b.) we want to spend time with our kids. It's almost as simple as that.
Now now now. Will all this traveling teach them to be global citizens? Provide exposure to the vast and rich beauty of the planet and all the people living on it? Embed new cultures and food and ways of life so deep into every one of their fibers that they just have no choice but to develop a complex world view that shapes who they become as adults - empathetic humans with an innate sense of protecting the place we all call home?
Yeah, sure. Seriously.
But also, WE LOVE TO TRAVEL. We love every single thing about it. So even if travel had none of the benefits above*, we'd probably do it anyway.
And I should note - many people (your parents, perhaps) will tell you that traveling with kids has none of the benefits listed. And you might believe them sometimes... like when your kid tells you they think Barcelona is located in Mexico, or when they start to randomly refuse new foods, or when they quite literally don't remember even a second of the homestay experience you gave them in the Middle East...you might believe it.
I'm pretty certain it's not true though. Like anything, if you keep talking the talk and walking the walk... it should come together. But in fairness to the naysayers , our kids are still young, and I can't guarantee that they'll change the world... So for the sake of argument, let's just say for a moment that they don't end up changing the world. Let's say our parents are right about there being almost zero benefits to traveling with kids.
Here is the thing... if you love to travel, who cares if they remember it? Who cares if it's instilling a sense of global citizenship and worldliness? You can do that in so many other ways too. You're spending time with them and doing something you love. I'm giving you permission (and encouraging you) to do it for that!
For us, when Bill and I met, we were both consultants - who loved to take advantage of all the miles and points we were earning by going to far flung places for fun as often as possible. Give us a long weekend, and we picked alternate travel every time - often flying directly from our client to as far as the cheapest flight would take us. We literally lived this life independently and then together for almost a decade.
And honestly, when we had our first kid (Andrew), we stopped living that life. We didn't think there was any other choice. We took two trips without him that had to be super quick because we were afraid of burdening people at home… plus we missed him! We both still travelled for work, so traveling for fun without Andrew made for long stretches without him. Not great. During this time, we still missed the freedom of really exploring. Yeah it may sound selfish, but it's true.
So somewhere in his second year of life, we discovered a few niche online groups - families that traveled the world WITH their kids! And in an instant, we realized that we were doing it all wrong… we can just bring him! It hadn't even occurred to us. But once it did, we knew life would be different.
We had a lot going on that year - moving across the country and having a second kid - so it wasn't until Molly was almost 1 and Andrew was 2 that we ventured outside the US. And we went big. We visited Bangkok, Laos (Vietiane + Luang Prabang), and Myanmar/Burma (Inle Lake + Yangon). We did an excessive amount of planning (and had some lessons learned)... but it was awesome, and we couldn't wait to do it again.
Because of that. we're here to tell you that you may feel like your WHY has to be some worldly vision. That will probably happen anyway, but you should do it regardless for you.
Of course you'll want to be reasonable with your budget, health, job, risk level, etc. - we'll get into how we pick our destinations to balance all that in our upcoming posts. But all this is just to say - don't let fear or naysayers hold you back - get out there and travel with your kids!
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