A Decade of Travel With Kids, Here's How It's Shaped Their Lives

We didn’t start traveling with our kids because we wanted to build their character. We started because we had credit card points and we wanted an adventure. We selfishly wanted to continue the adventures we were having pre-parenthood. We wanted to discover new places, try new things, and maybe just get a little uncomfortable.

A few years in, we started noticing things. Our kids were handling discomfort better. They were more curious about people who looked and lived differently than us. They were more flexible when plans changed traveling or not. And they were significantly better at navigating airports than most adults we know.

Travel is teaching them things school, or we as parents, simply cannot.

When your flight is delayed by four hours and you’re in an airport with three kids and no wifi, what do you do? We’ve been there multiple times and every time, the kids watch how we handle it. They take notes (not literally, but they’re watching).

Over time, they’ve started to mirror our reactions. A canceled food tour, a restaurant that turned us away, or getting rained out of an outdoor activity. These things still create disappointment, but our kids now have a new way of understanding. They find the humor in it and love to help come up with alternatives.

Long travel days, long waits, and long meals (Europe has entirely different ideas about dinner timing, and our kids now know this). Patience is something you can talk about endlessly at home, but travel requires it. It creates the conditions where kids have to practice it in real life. There is no alternative.

Our five year old sat through a two hour dinner in Italy because everyone around him was having so much fun he didn’t want to leave. We knew it was coming, and he handled it well. We waited in a 2+ hour line to get through the entry checkpoint at the Barcelona airport this Summer after our overnight flight. A true test of patience. These hurdles come up over and over again every trip.

This one is harder to measure, but it might be the most important. When our children watch a vendor carefully wrap a purchase with genuine pride in their work, or sit next to a stranger who smiles at them they know they’re “different” but they’re still people.

We’ve noticed our kids asking more questions about people. Wondering about how other people live. Why they talk the way they talk. Why they dress the way they dress. Why they do things differently than us. Being more patient with things that are just different from what they know. This can’t be explained or reasoned and that’s just what happens when you get outside your bubble. They see things differently than they did before and it sparks a curiosity and interest we hope they will carry into adulthood.

Our oldest has helped us navigate trains, pick from foreign menus, and even lead us to some amazing places we probably would’ve missed. We didn’t teach him that. Travel did.

There is something about being in an unfamiliar place that activates a different kind of thinking. Kids can rise and adapt to it better than we expect. And heck, our kids are better at maps and directions than we are these days.

This is the one that surprised us most. A child who has successfully navigated a foreign country, who has ordered food, used public transit, and handled unexpected situations walks a little differently. They know they can figure things out even if they don’t understand the language, the signs or understand the customs.

This type of confidence doesn’t stay on your trip. It comes home with them and it’s a skill they can use in their everyday life.

What skills have you noticed in your kids after traveling? We’d love to add to this list share yours in the comments!