TravelBlog parents, declare yourselves and share your secret. Are you really having it all?
thankyou Mel...very interested in a comment i'm sure i read on here which i think was yours which was about managing to travel but still have a familly...can i ask, if it was you, how do you do that???want a family but can't stand the thought of the conventional way...you seem to have found the answer...!
Reply to this Hi Jem,
Well, travel and kids...oh yes, everyday! Maybe not yet everywhere, due to some financial details, but won't stop my son to follow me on few continents...
Just check my blog....and have fun!
Peter
Reply to this Yes, I am one of TravelBlogs parents and as you see I am not the only one, so having children and travelling is more than possible.
For me it all worked out because of the good timing. The boyfriend and baby came along at a time when I realised that there is more to life than travelling and I was willing and wanted to move the travelling over to make room for other things in my life. I had done so much travelling that doing it less was not a big problem. I was and am happy as long as I get to do some.
I am not saying it all worked out just like that. After I wanted more in my life, it was a couple of years before the right man and then the baby came along. And there were the few years we were in debt and I could not do as much travelling as I wanted.
But the simple answer is that you will get what you really want from life. Often what you dont get is what you dont want passionately enough.
Mel
Reply to this Hi,
I travel with my son. He was born when I was in my early 20's, and I have never done all the student travel stuff, so I decided I would just travel with him (and my husband too, but he can only get limited holiday time from work!). Plans were put on the backburner a little as he was born with a lung problem and could not fly for three years, but I started travelling with him when he was 4 (hes now 6) and I haven't looked back. It's great, I always have someone to have dinner with and am never sat next to a sweaty stranger on a bus 😊 He is also homeschooled, which makes life heaps easier as we are not at the mercy of school holidays, and all the travel counts as geography, lol! It has also made him very confident. My husband joins up with us whenever he can.
It works for me, but I don't have a conventional life with regard to work/schooling etc so I am lucky. I am also lucky that he is a great little traveller, and will sleep literally anywhere and walk for miles! I never travelled before I had him, so I do not really have anything to compare it to. I plan to have another baby at some point in the future, and will carry on travelling then as well.
Reply to this Travel with kids.....DEFINITELY!
I am a single father of a 3 year old, I have had just as much fun travelling with my daughter than I did in my 20's. She is a great travel partner. I have taken her all around the globe and she has already been to 5 continents. Travelling with her has had many benefits. A few of them are:
1. Not staying out real late so actually see more things during the day.
2. She is free or big discount at many sites and transportation
3. Easier to meet locals and get a lot of good attention
4. She is happy even in the difficult situations (ie spending night at airport in Rio)
I also think that travelling with her, staying in hostels, and meeting tons of interesting peopleand places she has absorbed all the sounds and sights and while she may not remember the Moais of Easter Island, the Taj, or Angkor Wat, I think the experiences are helping her in other ways. She is definitely a "person People". Seeing your child interact with everything in the foreign lands is....priceless.
So, I feel that kids should not prohibit you from travelling....they are a reason to travel.
Reply to this ...and all the travel counts as geography
It really does. I was highly impressed when my daugher spent her pocket money on a globe and asked me to point out this and that country on it. I let her spend her pocket money on whichever toys she wants because I dont want to completely deprive her of the toys I think are rubbish so the globe was a nice surprise.
Reply to this Kids shouldn't stop you from travelling - obviously there are practical concerns like money and schooling, but there are ways around it. We took our son on a major road trip at age 3. (You can see our blog). This was largely financed by chucking in our jobs and selling our house for the duration. At five he still remembers it and we have plans to do the same thing again one day. The knowledge and experiences he would get on the road would far outweigh any time lost in a stuffy classroom.
There are downsides of course - you have to forego the more adult aspects of travelling, and there are rare tourist attractions and museums that do not allow kids (freaks!) but having a child there asking questions about things brings a new perspective to travelling.
I'm all for giving kids a global perspective on life - the more of them there are, the less narrow-minded and bigoted grownups there will be in the future!
Reply to this Definitely both. Travelling is fun but more satisfying when travelling with your kids. Travelling is a way for your kids to know more about their surroundings, about different cultures, different languages and it makes them more mature in a way. We save money so that the kids can travel with us .
We started travelling when my son was 1 year old but to nearer destinations then internationally when he was 5. Since we can afford travelling locally with a nanny when my son was younger (he is 10 now), we did not have a hard time taking care of him during our travels. Now he is older, he can take care of himself and we can go to any destination we want especially to his dad's competition venues, to local beaches (Boracay, Mindoro, La Union and Palawan) and for now his fave destination - Hong Kong.
Reply to this Seeing your child interact with everything in the foreign lands is....priceless.
One thing about travelling with my daugher that I noticed is that the kids from different coutries play happily together and dont even seem to notice that they dont speak the same language.
Reply to this I found that too Mel. My son always ends up playing with other kids regardless of language.
Also, its been good for him to see the diference between his life and less privaledged kids. We spent time in some Berber villages while in Morocco and he ended up giving most of the toys and drawing things he brought with him to the other kids, and when we got home he asked me to box up his old clothes and toys to send to the kids, via the foundation we visited with. I think its great for kids to have those kind of experiences through travel.
Reply to this Well I can give the sad point of view 😞
I never travelled before I had kids, I went on my first plane at 25 and first Overseas trip at 26 (minus kids) but of course now just do local travel to places around Australia with the kids in tow..
I have three kids and am a stay at home mum so I find it incredibly difficult to find the cash to travel. Australia is the best place to live, but honestly as an island at the bottom of the world.. dang it.. you can't leave.. even if I want to take my kids and husband just for like a 2 week holiday overseas.. It would be around $10 000... the airfairs are so prohibitive.. it is cheap to maybe go to NZ or Fiji but that is about it.. esp when I have a hanckering to visit expensive places in Europe!!
would I put off having kids? NO .. of course not.. there is plenty of time for travel after.. and unfortunately for them, If I Want to travel now... it means leaving them at home with grandparents as I cant afford to take 5 people overseas.
Basically the only advice I have for myself is to earn more money (or my husband) we dont even own a house, so can't sell one to fund a trip ... But while they are not school age, I personally dont think that working all year and leaving them in the care of someone else, so I can take them on one or two "enriching/learning experiences" each year is worth it - is that double logic.. anyways so for now it's being poor but having time with my kids.. with a little local travel thrown in.. NOT TOO BAD I SUPPOSE 😉
but of course.. if you can afford it.. i think travelling with kids is an enriching experience and perhaps the locals would reach out more to you
Reply to this ...its been good for him to see the diference between his life and less privaledged kids.
It has been good for my daugher too. She is at the age where she is noticing the expensive toys other kids have and thinking we are poor because I dont want to buy them. When we were in India I asked her to help me give fruit and bread to the beggars and explaiined that they dont have enough to eat whereas we always have enough to eat and even for hotel rooms while the beggars sleep under blankets on the street. We also gave some street kids some of her too small clothes and I told her we can buy more. She did not like me giving away her clothes even though they are too small. I told her that these people on the streets need these clothes and we have money to buy bigger ones that will fit her better.
Reply to this i think travelling with kids is an enriching experience and perhaps the locals would reach out more to you
In some countries(Thailand for example) I was treated so differently(in a positive way) when I travelled with my daugher.
Reply to this Hi Travelling Mum,
It's great what you write. You put kids before anuthing else, and for this I admire you.
As parents, we all do the best we can, and as you say, that doesn't always put 5 people on a long haul flight.
With time they will grow up and you may find some ways to get on the road...I truly wish you this.
But you made a choice of family and children, and this is way more beautiful than hitting the road!
Have a great New Year and hope some of your wishes come tru very fast!
Peter
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