5 reasons to travel with young children

It is debatable on many accounts whether it is worthwhile to travel with children who are under the age of, well, under the age of being able to carry their own luggage. In fact, two of our three children are in the stage where they often still become the luggage.

One of the biggest reasons NOT to travel with young children has to be the sheer number of germs they pick up and ruthlessly spread throughout the family. In our first week as nomads after leaving Basel, we all ended up with a respiratory cold, a case of conjunctivitis that spread its goopy mess with slow proficiency from eye to eye, a stomach virus, and our family's very first case of lice. Which subsequently turned into our second, third, and fourth case of lice. We seemed to be breeding a variety of insecticide-resistant bugs and I was clearly a novice at getting rid of it. I’ll be happy if I never see another louse in my lifetime.

The moment of true test came while stuck in traffic on our way to the airport. We thought the little guy had recovered from his stomach virus, but I had to make a mad dive into the back seat to catch his projectile vomit in a handy plastic bag. It was a moment that does not need to be described in detail. When he was once again settled, and wiped down with someone's discarded sweater, I sat back anxiously wondering if we were actually going to catch our airplane on time as our car crawled forward in morning city traffic. It takes an awful lot of courage to face some of our travel days.

Traveling with little children (ages 3, 5, and 8 to be exact) is hard on so many levels, even without all of the contagious bugs. Should we have waited until our children were old enough to, say, catch their own vomit in a bag?

Despite some logistical headaches, this adventure has been TOTALLY WORTH TAKING with young children. Outside of the germs, here are 5 reasons why we have loved our travel time with little kids and I highly recommend that you seize your own opportunity rather than waiting until they are older.

1. Seeing Less, Experiencing More
“Some people spend all their time on a vacation taking pictures so that when they get home they can show their friends evidence that they had a good time. They don’t pause to let the vacation enter inside of them and take that home.”

– from "The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E.L. Konigsburg.

Experiencing a new culture is largely about the art of being present in the moment, something young children are already better at than adults. Kids take it all in, more naturally letting the moment permeate who they are.

Admittedly, having young children does not work with every travel style. Children don’t allow the hike-20-miles-around-town-seeing-sights kind of trip. Or the sit-quietly-in-a-restaurant-enjoying-fine-cuisine kind of trip. Or the stay-out-late-enjoying-night-life-then-sleep-in-the-next-morning kind of trip. Or even the see-a-new-city-every-day kind of trip.

We adapt. Days with lots of walking have to be sandwiched between days of playing at the park. The difference is that the park might be at the foot of the Swiss Alps or on the coast of the Mediterranean. And the park is an amazing place to simply be present while munching on a local specialty pastry, to practice our developing language skills, and to collect stories from locals about the best places to experience authentic culture.

Wallis Valley, Switzerland

A travel style that values culture over famous monuments can be done well with small children. It will come home with us on the inside, rather than through touristy trinkets or photos.

Carnival Parade, Sion, Switzerland

2. Meeting People
I mean, would you be able to ignore this face?

Everywhere we go, we meet people because we have children. We don't blend in. We attract strangers who are social, or lonely, or talkative, or friendly, or simply curious. Also, we look like we need a lot of help.

Having children somehow breaks the ice, and relationship begins. We have collected email addresses and hotel cards and phone numbers and mailing address and websites from sincere and welcoming people located all over the globe. The interactions we have with strangers are completely different now than they were before we had children...
different, deeper, better, making our experience richer overall.


3. Family Bonding
Our kids are each other's best friends. They argue like crazy, they giggle without stopping, they hurt each other's feelings, and they always go back for more. The private jokes they share are absolutely ridiculous, but they are proof of the deep friendships forming between them.

Cuevas de Arta', Mallorca, Spain

As adults, too, we are forced to more fully engage in each new experience together, creating the deep kind of bonding I have always longed for in my family. For a reason I may not understand, when we are at home in our more routined daily life it is easier to go our separate ways without making the quality or quantity time bonding takes.

We also joke that this trip has been like “parenting boot camp” for us because we are confronted with our children’s needs and less-than-desirable responses at all times with no break. Did I mention that it is exhausting? The upside is that the kids are getting all of this positive attention coupled with consistent discipline, and the miraculous effect is beginning to bring out the best in them.

Fussen, Bavaria, Germany

Friends will come and go, but family is forever. Adventuring together cements the friendship bonds we can carry with us for the rest of our lives.


4. World Schooling
With our oldest in 3rd grade, we are on the cusp of all the pressures that come with education... standardized testing and common core and grade point averages. Before we know it there will be all the pre-requisites for university applications to keep in mind... aaahh!

This is a sweet, and short, season when learning can be less structured. If it turns out that my children are behind in math when we return, there should still be time for them to catch up! (I hope.) It is increasingly evident that this kind of learning flexibility only gets harder the older they get.

Whether our kids return at grade level or not, the things they have learned this year cannot be measured on a standardized test. We will never be able to quantify what this experience taught our children or ourselves, but they are lessons that cannot be duplicated in a classroom.

Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

5. Making Global Citizens
I feel hesitant to make an example out of our most recent Unites States election, but it was an unforgettable experience to be overseas throughout the months of the political campaigns and election. Sadly, the overwhelming impression left upon the outside world is that Americans know very little and care very little about the rest of the globe. We value reality television, preserving our personal wealth, and jumping on any fear train the media presents. We don’t value integrity or fighting poverty or using our status as a global superpower to make the world a better place through peaceful methods.

There is a tendency to believe that our political messes are a sort of private household secret that only Americans are privy to. It might surprise the average person in the U.S. to know exactly how much the average person around the globe is watching... not just our movies and television programs, but our news, our political debates, our policies, and our election. Have you ever followed the election of another country’s leader, feeling your own nail-biting suspense at how the outcome might affect you? With great power comes great responsibility.

Identifying as a global citizen is about valuing our role on the globe rather than only the micro-community we were born into. A global community includes people who are innately different in colors and customs, in likes and languages, in traditions and tastes, in foods and festivals, in religion and relational styles.

This year of living and traveling abroad has introduced my children to the realities of being the one who is "different". And then the concept of befriending others despite differences. It it the beginning of their global citizenship.

None of us can choose which country we are born in, but all of us can choose what we do with that privilege. We are just a few human beings sharing one globe with a whole bunch of other different human beings.

Travel has to be one of the greatest classrooms for character growth. This year has transformed us as much as it has our children. Despite our own experiences, the learning ground isn't limited to a lengthy trip in a foreign country. Ultimately, the things we learn come from allowing adventures into our lives that breach our comfort zone and allowing them to penetrate into the deep place that changes us.

Sion, Switzerland

Voralberg, Austria

Schwimmbad antics

Feeding the pigeons, Notre Dame, Paris, France

Brussels, Belgium