We've all been on a vacation where we spent tons of time researching, along with tons of money on the trip, only to have our kids whine and complain the entire time.
It's a huge letdown for parents not only because it feels like a waste of time and money, but more so because we have a deep desire to share something we love with our kids, and they are just not having it.
Travel has impacted so much of my life. I first chose a career as a high school Spanish teacher because of a trip I took to Mexico as a teenager. The language and culture are inextricably linked, and I fell in love with both. Now as a travel writer, a love for discovering everything the earth has to offer keeps me motivated to keep traveling even when it's inconvenient or hard.
Travel has taught me to overcome obstacles with humor and grace. It has pushed me outside my comfort zone to try new things, even though my natural state is to stay comfortably at home and set in my ways.
I want the benefits of travel for my kids. I want them to see the great big beautiful world as a gift. I want them to respect and admire other cultures while appreciating their own. I want them to feel small next to mountains and oceans and marvel at the diversity of rainforests. I want them to move through life with a spirit of adventure and a thirst for knowledge and wisdom. I want them to feel the thrill of accomplishment when they have a conversation in another language with a native speaker.
Travel can give them all of those things. But how do we move from complaining kids who just want their own toys, the comfort of their bed and maybe some ice cream, to adventurous children who know that a little bit of discomfort leads to great things?
I'm a pretty laid-back parent, but one thing I've realized is that if I want my kids to have a particular trait or skill, I have to be intentional. If you want kids who are not just good travelers, but ones who share your love for exploring the world, you must make deliberate choices at home.
Fill your home with travel-inspired objects. We keep a map and a globe in plain sight and reference them often. We put together giant floor puzzles with maps of the world and the U.S., and then we point out where our family and friends live. We pick out places on the map we'd love to visit and talk about what that place might be like. I have paintings and pictures of the places I've traveled on display so the kids can ask about them.
Books can inspire kids to have adventures of their own and visit the places they've read about. Read them books with a general sense of adventure, or books set in the destination you're traveling to. You can even find kid-friendly guide books and atlases so they can learn about your destination.
That leads me to my next tip: plan for trips together as a family. Let kids do some research and help decide what to do on vacation. They'll be more invested in the trip and less likely to complain about the activities they've chosen.
Follow family travel accounts on social media so kids can see other families doing what you do. Try as we might to inspire kids to travel, there's nothing quite like social proof to get them excited about something. One of our family traditions is that every Sunday after church we spread out a picnic blanket in the living room and watch family travel videos on YouTube while we eat lunch. The kids love to find the places on our map after watching other families travel there.
Start small. You don't need to cross an ocean to teach your children to be good travelers. You can start in your own backyard and expand your horizons slowly. Visit museums, landmarks and parks in your own city and around your state. Take short road trips to neighboring states. Visit friends and family who live a few hours away and ask them to show you the highlights of their area.
I also think it helps to take note of what your kids are interested in and planning trips or portions of a trip around their interests. If your kids are obsessed with dinosaurs, search for nearby dinosaur museums or archaeological sites and plan a road trip around it. If your child loves horses, try visiting a dude ranch. There's a museum or activity for every interest out there.
At the end of the day, I know my toddler is still going to have the occasional meltdown when we travel, no matter how many maps I have in my house. I know my kindergartener is going to be sad about missing social events because we're traveling and I know my 3-year-old is overwhelmed by change. There will always be emotional ups and downs on trips because they're kids.
The whole purpose of inspiring kids to love travel is not to bend them to my will and make them behave on vacation, though. Ultimately, I want them to seek out adventures of their own and tap into their own curiosity. I want to grow closer as a family with a bond of shared experiences.
Putting up a map, watching a YouTube video about a family visiting another country and going on a short road trip might not seem very impactful by themselves, but these small experiences and parenting decisions build on each other. Before long, you'll have tiny travel companions who love the road as much as you do.
And sharing those experiences with your kids is kind of the whole point, isn't it?
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