Last Updated on August 7, 2016
Why travel with your children? They won’t remember it!
Before we had children, we always wondered why parents bothered to travel with their kids when they were too young to remember and appreciate any of the trips. We felt that young children couldn’t appreciate the travel experience, but after having kids, we have found that statement couldn’t be farther from the truth. Traveling with kids has more benefits than we could have realized without kids. Benefits both for the children, and adults.
Not traveling with your kids because they “won’t remember” is like saying you won’t bother reading to them, because they won’t remember that. Or, that you won’t help your kid build with blocks because that won’t be remembered. Saying you won’t travel with kids, to us, is much the same.
We love traveling with our girls for many reasons. To us, some of the best reasons to travel with kids are:
Experiences help to ignite their minds
Every parent wants to give their children a myriad of experiences to learn from and that is why you play with your kids from a very young age – whether it is reading a book, shaking a rattle, or taking a child to the zoo. You do it all to help them grow and develop. Traveling helps to increase the amount of experiences and new surroundings possible, helping them to grow and develop from their minds being stimulated in new and different ways.
Teach them history
Seeing famous sights really help books to come to life. It is so much more fun to be able to experience what you learn about in a book first-hand, and even better to learn from a real experience than just from a book. Learning first-hand about people, events, or what have you, creates a bigger appreciation and greater excitement for what you are learning about. Learning should be fun.
Real world hands-on experience
When you travel with kids, you are able to show them how huge the world really is. Traveling exposes us to unfamiliar cultures, foods, music and languages. Your children may discover new things they love that they otherwise would not have known about.
To unplug, really connect and slow down
With all the daily activities and appointments, it can be hard to really find time to sit back, relax, and just enjoy the time we have with the kids. Traveling lets us unplug from the daily craziness and focusing on having fun with the kids. Traveling with kids forces you to slow down. It reaches you to appreciate all that is around you, more so than if you were traveling with adults.
To rekindle your sense of adventure
Kids are so curious of the world around them. It’s fun to watch, but helps us expand our desire for adventure and wonder. Kids get super excited to soak up new experiences, processing each new sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell.
Compassion
We hope to raise our kids to be humble and full of compassion. Traveling will teach them to be thankful for what they have and helps show how lucky they are to have what so many take for granted: food, shelter, safety. Hearing about these things isn’t the same as seeing it first-hand. Travel helps to grow your heart more than you could ever think was possible.
To make memories
Traveling together is a great way for families to build memories. Even though our girls are still very young, one day they will appreciate all the stories and photos we have for them. I would always bug my Mom about taking “too many” photos, but the photos and stories behind them are what I am most thankful for now.
To show them the rewards of hard work
Traveling isn’t cheap. It is a great way to show kids what hard work can accomplish. It can help to create a strong work ethic and teach your kids about money, budgeting and saving.
To go to places you wouldn’t have gone on your own
Kids help you to explore a location deeper than you would without kids. We find ourselves at more parks, using the hotel facilities more (swimming pools are a must whenever possible) and of course, finding the best ice cream. You’ll also find yourself more fascinated with each museum. We find ourselves trying to fit in as much as we can because of the experience it will give our girls and often what the girls will “get out of it” is as good a reason as any to make a stop somewhere.
What it really comes down to is that it doesn’t matter to us if the girls will remember the travels or not. What is important is everything the girls are gaining from traveling with us. Plus, we get enjoyment out of watching their reactions and seeing them learn. That may sound selfish, but we believe that the girls are really enjoying the travel experience and learning a lot, and to us, that is enough.
Do you travel with your kids? What are some of your favourite reasons to travel with your child(ren)?