Category Archives: Wise Words

4 Tips for Traveling with Children

April 11, 2012travel, Wise Wordstips for travel, wise wordsKirsetin

Have you flown with your children? Driven 12 hours packed into a car between blankies and luggage and snacks? Have you slept in a small hotel room, with a toddler wedged in-between you and your spouse, and a baby sleeping (or not) in the crib a few inches away?

I have. And I laughed out loud when I read these Wise Words from humorist Robert Benchley:

“In America, there are two classes of travel:

First class, and with children.”

I’ve travelled with my kids an awful lot. In their short lives, they’ve been to 17 states and 5 other countries. We’ve driven long hours, flown long flights, rented houses, and seen world history come alive. We’ve hiked, lounged, and hit the sights. Sharing my love for travel with my children is one of the great joys in my life, but Benchley’s right: it’s not first class.

If you’re planning a trip with kids–and you haven’t travelled with them often–here are 4 things I’ve discovered that you might find helpful:

More space is better. For all of you. If you’re travelling with your spouse, or a girlfriend, all you need is a small suitcase and a bed to sleep in. But travelling with kids quadruples (at least) your luggage as well as the noise and messiness factors. If you’re taking a short trip, you can survive in one hotel room; if you can get a 2BR hotel suite, better yet. But if you’re taking off for a week or more, consider renting a house or apartment. True, you won’t have room service or a maid (although some properties do offer this feature), but you’ll have rooms galore. And sanity. It’s a good trade.

You won’t see everything, but you’ll see something you didn’t expect. When you travel with kids, you absolutely must shorten your sightseeing list. Sort the places you’d like to see into three categories: Must See; Really Hope to See; and This Would Be Nice to See. Plan your days around the Must-Sees, and if you end up with extra time, and a Hope-to-See or Nice-to-See is nearby, you’ll have a pleasant surprise. You’ll also be surprised at what you see that’s not on your list. Kids get hungry, have to go the bathroom, and need a mental break in the most unexpected places. Tending to their needs often means leaving the beaten track, which can lead you to the best, quiet park bench or most lovely, memorable restaurant that you never planned on seeing.

It’s a time warp. Nothing, and I mean nothing, takes the proper amount of time. Travel time, meals, waiting in line, finding a sight—add in extra time for all of it. If Google Maps tells you it’s a 5-hour drive, plan on 6 ½, especially if your kids are small. Even if your kids are older, I’d still plan on close to 6. If you arrive earlier, it’s a bonus, and either way you avoid starting off your trip feeling like “Hurry, hurry, we’re getting there late!”

Take a break. Part of the fun of vacation is that you’re out of your regular routine. And part of the difficulty of vacation is that you’re out of your regular routine! Small kids will need a nap, and bigger kids and grown-ups can benefit from some Quiet Time. During this time our kids can read, draw, or play with stickers—any quiet, solitary activity that doesn’t involve electronics is permitted. My husband and I usually read or nap, depending on that day’s adventures. If you’re taking a longer trip (1 week or more), I’d suggest building an entire day of downtime into your schedule. This doesn’t mean you have to sit home and read all day, but it’s a chance to stroll around the town and explore your surroundings without an agenda, without somewhere you have to be at a certain time. Everyone benefits from a little break, whether it’s 30-minutes of reading or a day of aimless ambling.

Do you have a different take on Benchley’s quote or another tip you’ve learned from traveling with kids? I’d love for you to share your thoughts in the comments. If you want to write your own post, and link up, here are the Wise Words details.

This week’s Wise Words quote made me laugh

April 10, 2012family fun, travel, Wisdom From the Ages, Wise WordsKirsetin

“In America, there are two classes of travel: First class, and with children.”

-Robert Benchley

photo by bbaunach

Ha! He’s got a point there, doesn’t he? What do you think? I’ll be posting my thoughts on these humorous words tomorrow. I invite you to join me, either with a comment or a link to a post of your own. Either way, I hope you’ll stop back tomorrow and let me know what you think of this quote in the Wise Words series.

Quotes about Life: The Upside of Moving to a New Place

April 4, 2012life, perspective, travel, Wisdom From the Ages, Wise Wordslife, perspective, prejudice, travel, wise words, worldviewKirsetin

I haven’t always been fond of travel.

6532891529_3d514eca7e_z — photo by Jo Bourne

As a child, travel usually meant leaving a place I’d come to know, the secret paths through the woods, my favorite climbing tree, and at least one good friend with whom I’d shared dreams and traded secrets. Seeing a new place meant watching the movers wrap my every possession in their crinkly, tan paper and then watching the final procession as they hauled boxes filled with our worldly possessions to their truck. It meant moving away. Living somewhere new. Friends, this is hard stuff for a kid.

But somehow my nomadic tendencies stayed with me, and in the first ten years after I graduated from college I lived in 5 different states. Moving as an adult reinforced what I’d come to believe as a child: our country is filled with vastly different cultures that co-exist, side-by-side, under one grand-old, high-flying flag.

When I lived in the south, people talked about how unfriendly northerners were. When I lived in the north, people talked about how fake southerners were. None of them, mind you, really knew the other. Their assumptions were usually based on hearsay, a story from their parents or a friend, or one unfortunate impression from a vacation gone wrong.

But I did know these people, and these remarks bothered me. “Do you know anyone from the south?” I’d ask, to rolled eyes and quick comebacks about how someone’s cousin went to college there and, ha, that’s all they needed to know. But I’d lived both places. I’d made friends despite the differences. I’d come to embrace those very differences for the richness they added to my life.

My kids don’t have this advantage. They haven’t lived with kids from Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. They’ve been right here, in the same town, in the same state, for most of their lives. But you can bet we talk about it. We talk about how we live in a small community but the world is big. We talk about how our habits aren’t “right,” they’re just what we know. We take them to other places—in our own country and abroad—and say, “Look, see this wide world we live in. These people have never heard of our little town. Respect them. Respect their customs. Life is not simply about us.”

My kids like to travel. To them, it means packing up suitcases, not moving boxes. They don’t know what it’s like to make friends in places where it snows and places where it doesn’t. Their world is small, but I hope their worldview isn’t.

***

I wrote this post after reflecting on this week’s Wise Words quote, by Mark Twain:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”

Do you agree? Leave your thoughts in a comment and please link back to your post if you write about it, too. You can find more details on participating in Wise Words here.