All the Time In the World

While there are countless benefits associated with traveling, one thing that it offers families is the chance to experience the world in an entirely different way. For so many, life is overflowing with jobs, school, meetings, activities, and countless other events. The typical 21st century family often has so little time together that they can go a full week without seeing everyone in the same room at the same time. When you travel, though, the clock stops on regular life and you are afforded the chance to spend real time with your family and, indeed, yourself.

Traveling with a child is a much different experience than traveling with other adults. Children experience the world head on, always questioning and examining…always learning. When you travel with your child, especially a young child, you are forced to do the same because at any given moment, you are their teacher. They are looking to you to lead them through their own discoveries and thus, you too have to learn about the places you are traveling to. Children teach us to learn rather than to simply look. They constantly ask the questions that we have forgotten how to ask. What is that? Who made it? Why did they make it? Where are we? Why is this place important? In daily life, a child’s questioning nature can be taxing, but when you are both seeing a place together for the very first time, they become the experts at truly experiencing a place.

Unlike adults, children live in a world that has no real schedules or commitments. They are only limited by their own seemingly boundless energy. They put so much energy into being in the moment and enjoying that moment to its fullest. As adults we are so accustomed to going, going, going that we often forget this part of life. We must plan our time down to the minute and make sure we fit in everything we are expected to do. Travel with children, however, is the exact opposite. Yes, you will make plans, but only half of them may get done in any given day. They are too busy enjoying themselves to be troubled by an itinerary. At first it’s maddening because it goes against everything we are accustomed to. Slowly, though, we learn that we too need to stop and enjoy ourselves just as they are. By embracing the child’s way of discovering the world, we experience more than we ever would have if we had stuck to our meticulously planned trip. Traveling is indeed a wonderful cultural experience that everyone should take part in. Traveling with a child, though, opens your eyes to not only their own wonderful personalities and ways of learning, but also to the person you used to be before you grew up.