I have heard this a lot during my stint as a mom, particularly from my own parents and siblings. Even strangers, however, thought it was okay to say this to me when they heard that we were planning on taking our young children to Europe several years ago.
The kids were six and four, and we had just finished off a wonderful year of hosting our first German exchange student. We had done it for the cultural experience, and we were not disappointed, by the way… but more on that topic another day! We missed Jana (pronounced “ya-na,” for those unfamiliar with German pronunciation!), and we somehow stumbled upon very reasonably priced airfare tickets, so, despite never having done anything like this before, we booked them, got ourselves passports, and set off overseas. Was it an adventure? Absolutely!
If you feel the urge to travel with your young children, I highly recommend it! Of course, we ran into the issues that are “old hat” to most moms… missed nap times and meltdowns and kids stuck too long on an airplane and some wary looks at strange-looking food (blood sausage, anyone?). But, you know, those types of things are just par for the course, whether you’re at home or abroad, when you have kids under the age of 10 or so.
Will your relatives (as well as random strangers that you meet) think you’re crazy? Yeah, maybe. But you know what? What difference does it make? Traveling with young children is difficult, but so, so rewarding! Once you take your little entourage across the world to a country whose language you do not speak fluently, you gain a whole new perspective on all kinds of things, from immigration issues to your own prowess as a parent. Even more importantly, you awaken the desire in your own children to travel the world, to meet people from other lands, and to learn languages other than their own. Are you crazy for considering it? Well, maybe… but how boring life would be without a little bit of crazy!
Travel with kids can be amazing, and it can also be peppered with large and small crises. Preparation is key, but too much planning with the expectation of rigid adherence to a schedule is not necessarily the best thing. Come back often and learn all sorts of tips on traveling with kids from infancy to adolescence, from booking flights to choosing cruises, to making nontraditional lodging arrangements, to picking up foreign languages, and much, much more.
What part of traveling with children scares you the most?
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Our daughter has special needs, but our family loves to travel. Her issues kept us from traveling for a few years, but we are no longer afraid! She needs extra prep – so we look at the places we will stay and the places we’ll visit online. We talk about how we will get there — what kind of car trip or plane trip and how long it will last. We talk about the clothes we need to pack. I start about 3 months before the trip, but she’s ready to go and has a ball! Two years ago, she completed a six mile hike at Yosemite (age 5). This spring, she will visit Paris for the first time (age 7). She and I are both a little nervous about her first overnight flight, but she knows she has to sleep. We are shopping for a special blanket to take on the plane. I know she’ll be ready!