traveling with kids
Let’s be real, traveling with kids isn’t the same as traveling without them but if you’re going to parent, parent in a beautiful place!
*Ignore posted date above, this written in 2019, transferred over from my old blog*
In less than a month we leave for Europe again and it never gets old. The excitement I have to travel with the boys fuels me to get through the mundane work days. Every day we are that much closer to the next airport, the next holiday house and the next adventure just us four!
Traveling with kids is exhausting, there is no way around that. BUT I refuse be one of those people that say,
“I’m only going if someone watches my kids, there’s no way I’m taking them.”
“When we have a little more money we can talk about it.”
“I’ll start traveling with my kids when they are older”
“I’m only going overseas if it’s a direct flight.”
“When I retire I’ll start traveling.”
“It’s dangerous.”
We decided years ago that these excuses would not hold us back. We won’t wait until we retire because what if we don’t make it till then! We won’t let Sky’s sensory issues or autism concerns hold us back, we find ways to accommodate and help him through it, just like we would at home. We don’t wait for direct flights out of the closest airport because sometimes the best ones are the ones with layovers and 3 hours away.
Sure we get anxious when we travel, like when we can’t get Google maps to work. We yell and bicker and get frustrated when the kids are having a meltdowns. We buy too much food for the Airbnb and end up wasting it. We don’t plan enough and we plan too much that we can’t do it all.
BUT, everything I just mentioned can also happen when you’re at home living life. I think the reason people are scared to travel with their kids is because it pushes you outside of your comfort zone and that can be scary!
To us the payoff is worth it, every single time and every single part of it is worth it.
Our kids have started seeing the world and recognizing there is more to life than the things they see at home. There are seas to swim in, languages to learn, trains to ride and lots of really good ice cream all over the world! Kids can pivot better than we think, even Sky can while having really bad anxiety about a lot of things. In fact he is an AMAZING traveler, all things considering, he adjusts and pushes through the 8 hour flights, 3 hour train rides and 10 different bus stops. Tracen’s first flight was at 8 months old when were fresh 25 year old parents, still trying to figure parenting out and we flew out for my girlfriends wedding.
And ever since then we haven’t stopped!
We’ve gone to Florida, Colorado, Texas, DC, New York, Illinois, Mexico, Canada, France, England, the Bahamas, Belgium and the Netherlands. We’ve driven to countless cities for over night or long weekend getaways all over Michigan, Canada and Chicago and the fun hasn’t stopped and if we have anything to do about it, it never will.
We will choose to travel with our kids over and over, showing them that we are in fact fun while learning about the world right alongside them. Thus hoping that when they are older and want to go somewhere in the world they choose US to go alongside them too.