Travel With Children

TRAVEL WITH …..

CHILdREN

Thinking of traveling with your kids? 

Well it definitely helps if they are cute and cool.

Cute and cool kids get you a long way.

 

I for one am fortunate to have one of those. Although he is going through that stage of feeling self conscious of his looks with long blonde hair, his great personality and zest for life is adored by everyone he meets.

By just being his mum I get to jump queues, get let on the bus first, sometimes with out even having to pay and get free ice cream at times.

He gets free stuff all the time. Fluffy toys, t shirts, pocket knives, compasses, machetes, bikes and even kittens.

I have been traveling with my super cute and cool kid since he was a baby.

People want to talk to me a lot about him, about me and about us traveling. And at times these people that talk to me offer to house us, take him places and hang out with him so I can have free time and show us around their home towns just because they love my kid.

It is like the cute kid opens up the universe ahead of me.

One piece of advice I will give about traveling with a baby is put them in a sling. Get rid of that bulky pram/stroller thing that takes up room, creates stress full moments in awkward situations. Like at the airport when you can't fold the damn thing up and people behind you get extremely annoyed. People who don't have kids and people like me who refuse to use them.

Besides, the last thing your baby needs when you are traveling is to be seperate from you. Believe me. It is a way lot easier lugging a piece of cloth around than a bundle of plastic and metal that always needs assistance to move, lift and store. 

Over sized luggage is a pain in the bum and when traveling you need to be downsizing on that stuff.

Benefits of having your baby in a sling are:

1. You can run for the bus and just jump on whilst it is moving, extremely important in places like India, Nepal, Buenos Aires and Lima.
   
   
2. You can fit into those tuk tuk cabs... which are generally smaller than the average stroller anyway. 
   
   
3. It is easy to fit yourself into those little quaint cafes in Europe where there is hardly any room for two people at a table let alone two people, a baby and the stroller!
   
   
4. You don't take up more space on the already over crowded tiny side walks famous in places like Bali, Bangkok and Hong Kong. People will like you better for this.
   
   
5. Your baby can sleep anywhere allowing you to the theater and live performances in cities such as Barcelona where tango dancers will make you sweat and hot under the collar. 
   
   
6. People in Cultures such as Indonesia can't keep touching your paler skinned and blondish baby because they are nestled basically right on top of your breasts.
   
   
7. You wont have to be dealing with wheels getting stuck all the time in cobblestones or the cracks and potholes that make up most of the side walks world wide.
   
   
8. When we were in Bali I use to strap my baby to me when I was on the scooter at sleep time. Whilst I rode through rice paddies and back streets sight seeing he would snooze as I cruised.
   
   
9. When traveling in countries where they also wear their babies, you get great brownie points. People smile at you a lot and the women want to talk to you. You are invited into the folds of the fabric of their social circles.

Traveling with kids means that most nights you will be in bed early.

This is good for your health. No hang overs means a nicer mummy and it also means that you eat better as you are not trying to grease your liver to soak up  poison you drank the night before. It kind of means you save money as well.

Another piece of advice, take a pack of UNO cards and let your kid know how important it s you get your cup of coffee in the morning.

My kid has it down pat. We get up, he eats breakfast, we go down cobble stone streets or stumble through a jungle to a cafe and we play UNO.

He is a lot better now at playing the game than he was when we left Australia three years ago.

Quite the champion.

Playing cards with your kid may seem old fashion but it creates connection and a lot of laughter.

After he has had enough of the game he will go off to catch lizards. This means I get to have another cup of coffee.

Always let your kids catch things. Geckos, frogs, ants, dragon flies, flies, turtles and fish if they can. Anything to keep them engaged with their immediate surroundings. 

 Better than screen time it also means that the people around at the time seeing it all happen get to ooohh and aaaahh a lot and tell you how cool you are for letting them do it. So many of us sit around now a days looking at devices that when a kid is seen actively playing it reminds others that life is right in front of them.

What I have found letting my kid do stuff like that attracts really good looking young men. And these men want to hang out with my cool kid.

When these good looking young men have skate boards it is even better. As we are not traveling with one, but my kid loves to skate, there are endless offers for him to go skating with said hot man.

This is a bonus.

 Eye candy. 

It is one thing to be told by other parents and older people that my kid is so lucky to be having the life that he is having. But it is a something else when the hot young blood tells me that I am a great mum and how cool is his life!! Eye candy and points all in one.

 

Most falter at the thought of taking kids traveling.

 But I say do it !

I have taken my kid around the world since he was 15 months old. He turned ten one month ago and has visited thirteen counties in his short but wild decade.

As far as he is concerned he is the luckiest boy he knows and is grateful for every single moment.

 

Although he was sleeping when I saw the Dalai Lama, he has ridden on the shoulders of Micheal Franti in Bali, snorkeled around sea snakes in the Spice Islands, been horse riding with only a rug and rope 5 000 m above sea level in Peru.

 He has been to Disney land in Paris and flew paper aero planes off of the Eifle tower, rode an elephant inside a rescue sanctuary, looked after injured monkeys and toucans and sat on the roof of buses in Paraguay ( don't tell the grandparents ! ).

He has Steered a scooter through Denpasar ( holy shit don't tell them that either ), works voluntary at a reptile park in Costa Rica, has learnt to plant with the moon cycles and catch snakes, picked figs in Turkey and played soccer in the streets of Istanbul, had food fights on beaches, slept in caves, slept over in an orphanage in Peru, patted llamas in the streets of Cusco and had his foot nibbled by a dolphin in Hawaii.

 

 These are just some of the experiences he has had whilst learning another language and learning that people all around the world are basically the same.

 We all want to be loved and to love, it is just that we all have a different way of showing it.

Taking kids on holidays rock.

As a single mum I decided to turn the wait for the quissential family holiday on some paradise get away into a life time of travel by the seats of our pants.

In fact traveling with my wild child is one of the most awesome things I do.