Here's Why to Travel with Your Kids (Yes, Little Ones Too!)

In this video, Jane lays out her ideas on why it is such a powerful decision to take your kids traveling with you…

Transcript

Hey Everyone!

I’m Jane from Kid Dog Travel.

Today, I wanted to share my thoughts on one of the main reasons I’ve heard for why people don’t take young kids traveling. 

And that is, that it’s a waste of money because the kids won’t remember it. So, it’s better to wait until they’re older to do any bigger trips.

Look, young kids are so formative, and still very much shaping who they are. And traveling – especially to places really different from their home - develops so many characteristics that a lot of parents really value in their children. Like resilience, adaptability, and tolerance.

These traits develop naturally when kids spend time in places where people look different, speak languages they don’t understand, and cook foods they’re not familiar with. 

The younger the child starts traveling and experiencing these differences, the more likely they are to deeply absorb them, ending up with a much wider range of what’s “normal”.

As to whether they remember it or not, a lot of that is up to us. With our son, Wolf, we try to keep some of our traveling memories alive for him by talking about them, and periodically pulling out pictures and videos. 

We tell stories like ‘hey, remember the time you spotted that bear cub scrambling up the hill in Canada?’. And more often than not he’ll say, “oh yeah, I remember that!’.

But honestly, our goal isn’t for him to remember everything he sees – and we know that he won’t. So much more importantly, we want him to grow into an adult who’s open, accepting, and actively curious about the world around him.

Exposing your kids to different places from a young age, even just a little, is such a powerful way to shape who they grow into.

Have a great day, everyone!