4. Travel fortifies bonds between siblings. You might be born into a family but you’re not required to stay friends when you’ve grown up. At the core of friendship is a commonality. One of the main benefits of travel is that it provides a shared common experience between siblings. Even after we’ve returned from a trip, I’ve heard my daughters repeatedly reminisce on memories created on trips. It’s something special between them because it’s something they shared exclusively.
5. Travel teaches you to live in the present. This probably applies more to parents than to kids, but being able to enjoy a few days or a few weeks with attentive parents is a huge benefit for kids. The best memories are created on trips not only because traveling is fun, but it’s also the one time when parents tune in to the present moment. Due to the nature of modern work, a laptop is always open in our house. Work never seems to truly stop – except when we are on vacation. Maybe we value the time when we’re on vacation more because we paid good money to be some place, but traveling has a way of helping us live in the moment. Seeing a natural wonder, observing beautiful exotic architecture or simply just experiencing life outside the confines of your normal life also serves as a good reminder that there is more to life than work.
6. Travel makes kids cultured. Being cultured is so much more than being educated on a topic or having good manners, though there is that too. But travel matures and refines a person. Each time my kids come back from a trip, they never come back the same. They’ve overcome an obstacle, they’ve learned a thing or two and they’ve gained perspective. This manifests into greater appreciation and patience.
7. Travel refreshes kids. There’s nothing like leaving home and traveling between the academic school years to wipe your slate clean and give you a breath of fresh air. Traveling may be physically exhausting, but it refreshes the soul.
8. It helps your child find his place in the world. No matter your size, travel has a way of helping you find your place in the world. This is why so many people have career and life epiphanies while traveling. By encountering different people, your child will discover he has a unique story of his own. Back home, your child might’ve been the good student who always does what’s expected of him, or even the student who struggles, or the one who makes everyone laugh. But when you’ve stepped outside of your expected routine, it gives you the freedom to reinvent yourself. Travel is so much more than a discovery of a new place. It’s a discovery of the self.
So even if you’ve got a young child who won’t remember all of the precise details of your trip, you could argue that travel benefits young children most of all since they are the most impressionable at this age. The prospect for enhanced curiosity, tolerance and refinement, may be even more valuable than recalling exactly how he got there.
Deborah Song
