My husband–The Geek–and I love to travel. In our life BC (before children), we took all sorts of exotic vacations, some of which involved castles and pubs, others of which involved sand and long lazy afternoons napping in the hotel. Needless to say, vacations are different now. (No, we haven’t done the D-word yet. That’s not what I mean.) Long flights are no longer an excuse to pack three books in my carry-on. Naps are a distant memory. Anything involving sand also involves buckets and seashells. The only castles are sand castles.
Still, we travel. It’s not as easy as it once was in our BC life. But it’s kinda more fun. There are benefits to traveling with kids and I feel lucky that we’ve
My kids on the zamboni machine at Frog Pond
had so many opportunities to do it. First off, people are really nice when you’re traveling with kids. I know, it seems counterintuitive, since everyone hates a crying baby on a plane, but it’s true. When you have kids with you, people are just nicer. They’re nicer while in route to your destination, but also as you’re traveling about the city you’re in. Kids help you make friends where ever you go. Or maybe that’s just my kids, ’cause they’ve never met a stranger.
We just got back from a trip to Boston, where The Geek had to go for business. On our first day, walking around Boston Commons, my kids oohed and aahed so much over the zamboni machine at Frog Pond, that the driver let them climb up onto the seat and have their picture taken. Then he showed them how it worked, which was cool, because I’ve always wondered myself. Riding the T around town, my son struck up a conversation with a businesswoman and her daughter. My daughter befriended a couple of college girls. And my son talked the ear off of a very disreputable looking, skate-punk kid. This was the kind of guy I probably would have edged away from if I’d been alone, but my son started with “Wow, I like your skateboard.” and by the time we got off four stops later, the skaterboy was showing off his environmently-friendly soy wheels. Those are the kinds of experiences that you can only have when you travel with children. I think it’s because kids have a natural ability to disarm people. Even people who would normally treat strangers with distant politeness seem to open up around kids. Kids are natural ambassadors.
Does this look like a guy I ever would have chatted with if I hadn't had a kid with me?
Plus, I just love sightseeing with kids. There’s nothing quite like the joy and excitement with which they experience everything. Would I have gone to the Harvard Museum of Natural History if I’d been traveling with just the Geek? Maybe. Would I have felt the same heady excitement at the sight of the Smilodon fossils? Probably not. Would I have stood in the Great Mammal Hall staring up in wonderment at the three whale skeletons hanging from the rafters? Maybe, but not with the same glee.
You see, kids disarm people and they disarm us, their parents, most of all. Yes, sometimes traveling with them is difficult. You never quite get to relax. You’re constantly counting heads and shushing squeals. But I love getting to see the world through a child’s eye. I love the excitement and thrill they get from seeing something new. For me, that makes all of the stress of traveling with kids worth it.
What about you? Do you travel with your kids? If you do, what do you love about it?
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I’m Emily McKay, AKA The Hippie Chick Mama. Why Hippie Chick? Well, ’cause I’m one of the those organic-veggie-eating, raw-milk-drinking, yoga-practicing … okay, you get the idea. I’ve got two kiddos. The McDaughter is in the first grade and the McSon just turned four. My husband, The Geek, travels a lot and works with robots and Legos. No, seriously, it’s a real job. I love to cook and bake. When I’m not cleaning up after kids or doing laundry, I write for Harlequin Desire, YA Romcoms under the name of Ivy Adams, and paranormal YA for Berkley.
I have two young children ages 2 and 4. We don’t travel a lot with them but we do take a 6 hr. trip to visit my geek’s family. But last year when they were 1 & 3 we embarked on a big adventure, airplane and all, and flew to Colorado to visit my sister and her family. We went out there before kids, but with kids we did so many things. There was a trip to the Denver Zoo, a Train museum, and dinosaur ridge. It was a blast. My daughter who was about 14 months started walking in the airport so the 4 hour delay turned into an adventure in walking along long carpeted halls. I hope to do more adventuring with the children soon. You are right about the joy they see in everything. And I think people love to see that, they instantly like you for it. What a fun post. thanks
allison
Yes, Alison, they absolutely get you out and doing things that you normally wouldn’t do. The Geek and I alone probably would have drifted through Boston from one restaurant to another. We would have ambled through shops and maybe caught a movie. With kids, you get out and see the sights! And, wow, dinosaur ridge? My kids would have been all over that!
My son is always disappointed that museums have T-Rex bones, when what he really wants to see are the bones of his favorite dino, the Stygomoloch.
I should clarify that it wasn’t The Dinosaur ridge, the big one. But this was outside of Denver and had Iguanodon tracks fossilized and a few other fossils still in the rock. So cool. I think the geologist in me loved it a little more than my children, but we got to look close at real dinosaur tracks. We also made a drive and went to Garden of the Gods. My son’s favorite is the of course the T-Rex. He just told me he likes meat-eating dinosaurs the best. We have an ongoing story about a whole group of 16 yr old dinosaurs trying to get to Mount KaBoomboom. I hope to one day take these guys to DC to the Smithsonian. Happy St. Paddy’s Day!
Allison
Hey, any kind of dinosaur anything would be a hit with my kids. They love Dinosaur Train on PBS.
I loved this post, Emily! Especially the parts about your kids chatting up strangers. =) My husband and I have definitely noticed that after having kids people suddenly seem to come up to us and talk as if they’ve known us forever. I think it’s fun. I’m too shy to normally talk to strangers myself, but I enjoy talking to people once we get started, so that’s been great. Plus, who doesn’t like hearing how cute their kids are?
As for vacations, we haven’t really had a chance yet, but we’re already dreaming up places to go (and some of those include sand castles, too). =)
The excitement of seeing THEIR excitement does make traveling with kids a whole different experience. My kidlet’s only four so he is still amazed and entertained by the simplest of things. We drove down to San Antonio after Christmas to have a vacay with my parents (who drove in from New Orleans) and kidlet was massively excited about getting to ride an elevator multiple times a day and by the fact that we were staying in a hotel. And every time one of the boats passed while we walked the Riverwalk, it was a major event.
So yes, vacations are definitely harder, but still fun–just in a different way.
I have traveled with my daughter, and it hasn’t been all that great. She has a lot of difficulty sitting still (as I’m sure most kids do). But she’s also surprised me by behaving when I thought she would have a meltdown and Roni is right about kids’ enthusiasm being contagious.