Travel tips for families. Why travel with your kids - post by maxyourtravel.com

Our children are the center of our universe. It is for them that we will look for new, better paying jobs, move to more family-friendly, costly neighborhoods with better schools, buy or build a bigger, more expensive house. Simply put we flip our lives upside down for our kids. Why is it then when it comes to traveling with our kiddos that for many of us this mentality seems to change.

When it comes to travel with kids are we no longer willing to go through the extra trouble? Is it because we feel like having kids goes hand in hand with settling down in more than one way and limiting travel is a natural consequence of this settling? Or is it more so the fact that when we picture ourselves vacationing with our infants, toddlers or preschoolers we don't get that fuzzy vibe of restful time away from home but imagine quite the opposite. Obviously travel with your kids isn't all peaches and cream and presents plenty of challenges but if you're a sceptic keep in mind that the more you get away the more you will learn how to curb and mitigate most of its strain. We've learned plenty of lessons and acquired numerous skills to contain those tamper tantrums and onsets of boredom but that's a topic for another post. Here I would like to focus on travel tips for families at their very core, centered around the benefits of globetrotting with your little ones. Travel tips for families. Why travel with your kids. - Positive Energy The conversation about family travel needs to start with the "why". In my mind the topic of travel with kids is much more controversial than it needs to be. The truth is that for every family out there for whom the idea of getting away with kids borders on idiocy there is another family making a vow to not give up on their dreams and at the same time make an extra investment in their children's development as early as possible. Family travel can bring wonderfully unique experiences that you will find difficult impressing upon your children in any other way. It will pull your family closer together. Give you a great opportunity to explore the world but also to learn about each other in ways you won't find at home. So next time you ask yourself why go through all the trouble when your kids won't remember your vacation keep this and the following in mind.

When we, as parents are away from our everyday life - gone are everyday worries. We get away from the stress of our jobs, our daily commute, don't have to worry about cleaning the house or cooking dinner. In a more relaxed setting we are able to focus on our family and give it more meaningful attention. Perhaps meaningful isn't the right term since there's definitely plenty of meaning in parenting and mentoring your kiddos through the everyday matters but family getaways allow us to devote different type of attention to our kids. We can shower them with unique emotions, respond with more patience and positivity, manage to be more silly and childlike around them. Our kids get to see us more relaxed and this positive energy and attention they receive from their parents can be very empowering to our children. Travel tips for families. Why travel with your kids. - The Planning Process Planning and structuring your family trip, especially when there are children involved can be a bit of a chore. We like to make this part fun and educational as well and get our kiddos involved in the process. Our daughter is too young at this point to do anything other than remind us, after the fact of course, that we didn't pack her blanky or paci but our five year old son enjoys trip planning and is as involved as possible.

We like to look at some pictures and videos of our destinations while planning and he is fully involved in reviewing the media, thinking about some of the fun activities he could have enjoying the attractions he sees in the images and adding his desired to dos to our itinerary. He has his own backpack and is responsible for packing it with everything he'd like to take with him before each trip. He's also fully accountable for taking good care of the backpack throughout the trip. That last one was a lesson learned hard as he left the bag at an airport during one of our recent travels but guess what, this is a perfect example of how travel experiences can be valuable lessons for your kids as well. So make sure to include your children in the entire operation of planning, packing and preparing for travel for some good education in organizational skills. Travel tips for families. Why travel with your kids. - Adaptability Travel constantly exposes children to new experiences at rates that are much higher than you can replicate at home. These new and constantly changing experiences can be another reason to scare some parents away form traveling with their kids. If you're one of them keep in mind that while it's important to introduce routine to your offspring teaching adaptability and flexibility has it's benefits as well. Yes, not sleeping in your own bed, not being able to play with your own toys or not eating your mom's dinner can be tough on your kids at first but this is exactly the reason why you should not wait to travel with your children. Since we're on the topic of food another benefit of taking your kids out of their everyday environment is expanding their food palate. When and where will you get a better opportunity to enrich your kids taste buds if not on vacation sampling the local food of your destinations.

Teaching our son how to find pleasure in exploring this variety of new stuff and build this variation form his home routine into his normal was very key. In addition to the mostly positive stuff there is also traffic, long flights or car rides and they can be boring and tiring for children but if you approach them with a bit of preparation, patience and positive attitude you will be surprised how quickly and well your children can adapt. We were lucky enough to have some good advice about travel with kids before having them and we listened to it. Our little man's first flight, a fairly long journey to Phoenix was at three and a half month's old. He already had a couple of car road trips under his belt by then and we never looked back. So definitely start as early as possible. Travel tips for families. Why travel with your kids. - New Experiences The way kids, especially infants benefit from travel may be difficult to describe or quantify and is easy to take for granted since the pros of travel may not be tangibly evident, not right away anyway in your kiddos. When away form home children will be forced to learn how to entertain themselves with everyday things, expand their imagination by turning the most unusual items into toys and the most ordinary situations into games. They may and often will need help of their parents and by that I don't mean parent's electronics, although phones and tablets are a great back up safety net. When your child shows real pleasure from touching, feeling or attempting something new and foreign it's hard not to recognize the joy and value he or she gets from the experience and again travel provides a never ending stream of such opportunities. I will never forget our son's first reaction to the beach and the ocean. He couldn't get enough of the sand between his fingers and toes and seemed totally memorized by the waves crashing into his tiny legs as we held him and gradually introduced him to this new sensation.

Now, our daughter's reaction to the ocean was quite the opposite though the fact that her first encounter was at one of Key West's rocky beaches may have had something to do with her exhibiting much less enjoyment during this first ocean-side encounter. Of course our little princes finally realized that waves are nothing to be afraid of so my point is that even if not the most pleasurable at first any new experience is an opportunity for your little ones to acquire a new skill , conquer a fear, learn something about the world or themselves. They get to do that, at first anyway with their parents full, undivided attention and as they mature they grow into more independent explorers ready to take on new challenges with a much more open mind and ready to adapt to new challenges at home as well. Travel tips for families. Why travel with your kids. - The Memories As for that claim that your child won't remember your getaways because he or she is too young. It's true that while kids may start forming explicit memories at two years old their true capacity for adult like remembrance doesn't develop till much later. However one of the reasons I remember much of our family trips and vacations is thanks to the numerous photos my parents took of those good times. I would look at them here and there, every once in while when growing up and reminisce making sure these memories were deeply embedded in my mind. I also think, as I mentioned above that the subconscious, implicit memories shape kids in ways average parents like us may not fully comprehend and it's our responsibility to expose our little ones to as many of those positive opportunities as well.

Travel tips for families. Why travel with your kids. - All the other stuff you may not have thought about If that's not enough to convince you of the benefits of travel with your child keep in mind that infants, under one sleep a lot :-) , so you can do quite a bit of couple's stuff, with reason of course on your first few vacations. Our son slept away his entire first flight and most of the friend's wedding we took him to on his first trip. For a while we joked quite a bit about the fact that he must have had the most pleasurable experiences dosing away in his stroller and then waking in the middle of the most interesting places our travels took us to. Like for instance being awaken by roaring Niagara Falls and hit in the face by its mist and tiny droplets while joining his parents in a marvelous gawk over the majestic falls What a stress free way to see the world huh! I really believe that even at the most superficial level taking in these images, without fully comprehending them must have a positive impact on your infant's mind.

If all that still doesn't sound convincing enough consider and weigh all those cons you can't stop thinking about against some of the potential benefits to your own well being. Kids constantly remind us to bet back to the basics and look at the world through their eyes and that's good for our well being and should be treated as a welcome change from our fast paced adult lives Do you remember the last time you took time out of your day to slow down and indulge yourself in an relaxing activity like building a snowman or a sand castle. That last time was probably when you yourself were a preschooler and you forgot how much fun these activities can be. Your kids will be eager to help you remember if you let them. Observe how differently you experience your vacations though the eyes of your little ones. Cherish those moments like when you pause your morning walk on a beach to pick up a shell you would've passed by indifferently if your child wasn't there. Notice how those little moments make you feel and keep in mind that there are endless possibilities for such occurrences on your family vacations.

For additional family travel incentive keep in mind that up to two years old your kiddos fly for fee and if that's not enough they will often get you boarding that plane earlier since most airlines have early boarding for families with kiddos under 6 or so. There are plenty more of such little miscellaneous perks of travel with your little ones but I will leave the rest of them a mystery for now so that you can discover them on your own. Well, I'll probably write another post on that topic lol so hurry to ensure you can pleasantly surprise yourselves. So yes. there are plenty of excuses for why not to travel as a family, with your little kiddos, but hopefully as you can see so many more benefits you may not have considered before. So for those of you just getting started and looking for some family travel tips - when you're ready, or actually even if you think you may not be - start small, go somewhere close, armed with plenty of patience and focus on ensuring the kids get proper, positive attention as you ease them into the process. It may not be easy at first but it will be fun, well worth it and though you may have to wait a while - your kids will appreciate it and thank you for it!

I dedicate this post to my parents who probably waited too long for a such a thank you, but I hope they will consider these few paragraphs a proper expression of my gratitude for the family travels we shared together and the well rounded person these experiences shaped me to be. If you like this post be sure to check out the rest of my blog at www.maxyourtravel.com for other write ups on our family's travel tips, experiences and reviews or my instagram page at @ms.max.your.travel. ©maxyourtravel.com