“Why should I travel with my children?”
Asked Orit, my sister-in-law, at a Friday night dinner: “I mean, children won’t remember any of it when they grow up. Museums and churches aren’t fun for them, and it doesn’t really matter to them if they visit a pool, zoo or park here or overseas…”
So really, why should you travel with them?
Because going on a trip with my kids is great fun and a very special experience!
We get to taste all kinds of new foods and sweets, we get to know new friends and learn to chat in their language. We have fun in parks, go to circuses, ski down mountains, row across lakes and ride unfamiliar vehicles. We even discovered where lived Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, Moomin, Pippi Long-stocking and The Three Musketeers. 😉
During our trips we laugh a lot, about ourselves too, and come up with jokes that only we can understand. We learn to accept people (sometime very peculiar ones!).
To sum it up – we get to know how wide, diverse, beautiful and lush our world is. 🙂
On the way we get to better know ourselves too – we discover new abilities that we didn't know they existed in us and sometimes also weakness…
We found out that it’s not so bad to loose our way, and still reach the place we were looking for.
Our experiences teach the kids to feel comfortable in new situations, promote wider horizons, develop creativity and learn to trust good people along the way.
Having the children with me makes me feel like a local everywhere in the world.
Their charming smiles and babble of newly learned words open doors to new experiences and encounters with new friends.
I smile as I recall our adventures:
Shira dancing with a new Vietnamese friend in Saigon’s night market, my baby Maya making her first steps at a small village in Macedonia, and Tom leading us to the circus in Budapest or acting as our guide in Prague’s zoo.
True, they may not remember the names of places, but they will grow up open-minded, communicative and bright people. Childhood experiences will forever stay in their heart.
And for me, it’s an incredible experience to see the world through their eyes. 🙂
