Is travelling with your childrenreally mission impossible?
Before you are parents, you don’t really ask yourself the benefits of travel because they are so obvious. We then say that we must enjoy it because with children the trips will be limited to 100 kilometers round :-).
But why would travelling with your family be so insurmountable?
Why would having children suddenly mark the end of our desires elsewhere?
Travel being an integral part of my life before I was a mom, so I decided to continue to discover the world as a family. Certainly the suitcase is a little heavier and the itineraries a little different but the pleasure of discovery is still there! It’s even tenfold because it’s shared!
So I opted for the option“the taste of travel is shared”.
If you are still hesitant to embark on the adventure of the family trip, I share here 5 good reasons to travel with his children:
Travelling with your children is unifying
Daily life is made up of routines, more than projects.
Indeed, every morning, it is the same ritual: to prepare, to take care of the children, to go to work… a real race against time.
The tension goes up a notch when a whim makes you lose the little minute of beat you believed so much.
In the evening, the fatigue is there and the time for exchanges around the meal is often very tense. We cross paths more than we talk to each other and the family atmosphere, without being careful, suffers.
Fortunately, there are holidays! Then the time of routine turns into a project time in which the children get involved.
There, all around the family table, the cards are unfolded, the photos of another scroll on the screen … We start dreaming, we start projecting ourselves together.
And, as if by magic, dreams emerge from the heads gathered around this new adventure.
Everyone forgets, for a moment, the lessons to learn, the meeting to prepare, the dinner to be planned… Enthusiasm has erased from the minds the heavy train of everyday life.
As soon as you prepare for a trip with your children, you forget a little about everyday life and refocus on you.
Going to the unknown (which does not mean going to the other side of the world), getting out of its comfort zone binds the family. It feels a bit like a bubble. That’s a crazy good!
Discovering the world together
Travelling with your children is to have this chance to discover the world and its riches together? What could be more beautiful than that?
Although it is true that children will not always remember everything, there will remain in them a trace of what they have experienced. Travelling with your family is teaching your children to forge a strong relationship with our planet and all that it has to offer.
It is essential that in the time of parents, we teach them the importance of taking care of our ecosystems and our environment… more than ever.
Travelling with your children is about opening them up to the world around them and sparking their curiosity.
This can be about geography, of course, but also about gastronomy, culture, history, art…
As soon as we arrive in “unknown land” we are stunned to discover a world that only vaguely resembles our own.
The streets can be invaded by merchants of all kinds, cars drive in a strange way that suggests that here normality is not what we thought.
All of a sudden, we have everything to learn: how do we cross the street if the pedestrian crossings don’t exist? How do I take a ticket? What’s this weird plant? The horns that streak the air what do they want to tell us?
Travelling with your children to open up to difference
Travel is before contact with the other and difference.
Children are more spontaneous than us, less reluctant to take the difference. There is therefore a good chance that their adjustment period will be shorter than those of the parents! It can even start as soon as you enter the plane.
Meeting people who have neither the same culture, language nor the same ideas as us is very formative.
A child is, by nature, much less judgmental than an adult and will be more likely to take people as they are.
And there are also the smells, they testify more than anything else that this world we arrive in is not ours.
For everyone is quick to say what he sees: “Oh look at the gentleman there you saw how he is dressed! And this lady what does she do with her large green leaves that she wave like flags. The car, look, it has no roof !!!
Exploring the world is exceptional. Being ableto help with your children is even more incredible and so spontane that children’s comments are sometimes to death from laughter.
It is this open-mindedness that will then allow our adult children to be more tolerant and respectful of difference.
Travelling is discovering a new culture, a foreign language, a different cuisine. All these changes require us (parents and children) to constantly adapt.
Discovering yourself in a different way
First of all, on a family trip, each member of the family feels that he is (somewhat) responsible for the others.
Many questions are asked: “Where’s Dad?” “And where do we meet?” “What does it do next? ” …
And above all we make sure not to forget anything: the phone, the doll, the little red car offered by Mamy …
Because the family is not in its place of life no longer any routine works, so we must talk to each other, listen to each other, understand each other.
Especially when we travel far, the rapprochement is even physical: we tighten, lest we get lost.
Getting out of your daily life, out of your comfort zone, strengthens the bonds. Disputes are rarer and this is already such a joy!
Travelling is growing
Shaking up habits and getting out of our comfort zone will allow the child to gain confidence.
Moreover, the language barrier is not really a barrier to communication for a child. Getting to be understood does not scare him and allows him to gain autonomy.
A journey (and no need to go to the other side of the world) marks us as adults. How could it be otherwise for children? The journeys and learnings that come with them will be part of them forever.
Travel experiences are exceptional opportunities to develop skills that will then help them for life. The ability to adapt is probably the best example.
That our children do not remember all the details of the journey is actually not so important. The journey and the lived experiences will be in their memory, will be part of them forever.
Besides, isn’t it said that travel is the school of life?
I firmly believe in this Berber proverb that says, “Who travels adds to his life.”
And finally…
And finally, travelling with your children is also about wonderful memories. Travelling with your family means sharing real moments, of those that will remain forever engraved.
If you think keeping track of it is important, this article is likely to interest you: 6 reasons to write your travel diary.
Travelling with your children is not impossible, it’s more a matter of envy!
If you are keen tokeep a wonderful memory of your family travels,check out our range of travel books designed for children.