Ten reasons to travel with kids

I recently read an essay in Parents magazine in which a father explained why he travels with his kids. (Or tried to. To be honest, his kids sounded like beastly travelers and I'm not sure it would be worth it to travel with them.)

Traveling with kids can be hectic and exhausting. And the day I return from one trip is not usually a good time for me to think about another, but I've been considering why we travel with our kids.

So here, in no particular order, are my reasons for traveling with kids:

1. I want to travel for longer than I want to leave my kids. Michael and I can go away for a long weekend or even a week. But after that, I start missing the kids too much to enjoy myself as fully as I would like.
2. It improves their vocabulary. For our toddlers especially, traveling introduces all kinds of new words. I remember EM first learning the word city from looking down on Bath from one of the surrounding hills and asking, "What's that?"
   
3. It's a great way to meet the locals. OK, so the hospital stay in Costa Rica courtesy of NB was not my favorite live-like-a-local experience, but most of them have been very positive. When EM was three, strangers sitting next to us at the food booth in the Marrakesh night market ordered treats for him. In Costa Rica, women would gather around LW, pinch his cheeks, and gush over how gordito and lindo he was. Usually the resulting conversations are superficial, but at least it gets you interacting with someone not in the tourist industry.
4. The kids open up when you're on the road. At home, it's often hard to have in-depth conversations. The phone rings, a guest comes in, there is work to do. And for their part, the kids are busy with homework, the TV, the computer. But traveling removes us from our normal distractions. Talking to mom is a lot more interesting when you are two hours into a four-hour layover at JFK. EM and I had an enlightening conversation yesterday about religion, parenting, and what he thinks about living in three different states. It's unlikely we would have had the time for that conversation at home.
5. The kids get along better. Initially, sibling issues might increase, but once they realize that for the most part, if they want to play with someone, their siblings are all they've got, they tend to fight less and support each other more than they do at home. Of course, every trip has its moments, but then, so do days at home.
6. Kids are a great excuse for slowing down. When EM was three, Michael and I went back to England without him. We were determined to do all the things we couldn't do when he was along. Specifically, walking tours. By the end of the trip, our feet throbbed the moment they touched the floor in the morning. Traveling with kids forces you to eat frequently, spend some time in the park, and get out of the museum before your eyes cross and your head pounds. (Sadly, I have found that not only is 2 hours in a museum a day a good limit for my kids, it's also a good limit for me. But when they aren't with me, it's easy for me to keep going when what I really need is a break.)
7. Kids often know stuff that enhances the trip. Last year, we visited Avignon. A must-see site in Avignon is the bridge. "The one in the famous nursery song" all the guidebooks said. "What nursery song?" I asked Michael as we drove there, and he just shrugged. Suddenly, I heard IM singing in the back seat. Turns out, she learned the song in her one-week French camp the previous summer and was able to provide the appropriate soundtrack for our visit.
8. The shared experiences bond us together. When we travel, we're more of a unit than we are at home. On the road, what happens to one likely happens to all, and we enjoy reliving the adventure together through our stories and photos. Even the bad times redeem themselves by making great stories.
9. Kids are often easier to manage when you are on the go. For our kids, especially when they are young, boredom is a leading cause of mischief and naughtiness. Travel gives us lots of fun things to see and do, which results in cheerful kids.
   
10. You always have someone who wants to say "Cheese!" We like travel pictures with people in them. (Amateurs that we are, if we just want a picture of a famous site, we're better off buying the postcard.) But neither of us particularly likes to be in the pictures. Kids have no such qualms. If you plan it carefully, you can go an entire trip without ever being in front of the camera.