3 unspoken reasons why you should travel with your children (while you can)

Traveling with (young) children is a wonderful experience. There are many excellent reasons why you should travel with your family.

·       To spend precious moments together.

·       To open youthful minds to other cultures, to educate young tastes to varied and delicious food.

·       To let children experience, more than study, art and history.

·       To teach to the new generation values of tolerance and openness.

·       To allow young lives to become fearless, adventurous ones.

·       And many more!

That said, I can think about at least 3 (more or less serious) reasons why traveling with my young kids is so great:

Crossing the border to Laos

Reason 1: Cut the queues at airport gates and customs. Air travel with young kids is so easy. Know these long lines that form when passenger board a plane or these endless queues at custom’s booths? Forgot about them! Thanks to priority boarding and lanes, you will not have to wait another minute in queues.

Reason 2: Seize your chance to travel - now. Many people I know dream of the journeys they will take “when the kids are older”. Well, when are they old enough? With 6, 8, 10 years? Think about these 2 facts and start traveling today:

1)      Traveling with young kids is cheaper. Infant and toddlers often get anywhere for free, preschoolers for half the price. Travel now before you have to break the bank for it!

2)      The more you travel today, the more you are likely to travel in future – simply because your kids will like, or even love it! Our children are ordinary kids but they are accustomed to travel, and thus fall asleep everywhere, eat (nearly) everything and enjoy (within reasonable limits) every church, museum and temple visit. 

Reason 3: Get full credit for your parenting job. This is probably the most unexpected reason, the one you’d never think about. When we share travel stories with family or friends, we often get admiring comments: “Wow, you really toured Cambodia with 3 children? Wasn’t it exhausting, difficult? You’re so brave!”. Here’s the truth: caring for 3 young ones is what we do on a daily basis. Feeding, bathing, solving conflicts, comforting, dressing and undressing... Indeed, parenting is sometimes challenging. But why would it be more difficult abroad than home? Our kids don’t suddenly turn into little monsters when we cross borders. So, thank you, dear friends and family, for the appreciative feedback, but we’re really just ordinary parents.