What age to start introducing children to international travel

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
What a strange question for us international families, who visit parents and grandparents abroad every year.
Let me recount my personal experience as a child visiting family in different countries, as well my children's.

Your children, depending on their level of involvement and personality, will only have very limited memories of their visits abroad before the age of ten. It will be in the form of snapshots/visuals of certain events they really liked or for some reason stuck in their minds. So they may recall a certain distinctive hotel room (as I did at 5, the Parisian doorkey was in the shape of mic and I pretended to sing like a rock star, I chased pigeons all down the avenues, I loved the carousels), or a certain dinner with particular food and family (traditional tatami Japanese dinner at 7), or a highly unusual entertainment (camel rides in Lanzarote), but sometimes not the name of the place or the exact timeline. The first international trips I recall with a clear sense of continuity were as a preteen.

So it's up to you to determine whether you want to spend the money or not. Sometimes a trip *you* really want to do will just be for the photo op: "Hey kiddo, you went there when you where 2!". I know it's hard to wait when you want to show your children the world! Trust my experience, OP. If you want them to truly benefit from an intellectual and cultural standpoint, wait at least 5 years.

i went to paris for 3 weeks when i was 8 and i have so many memories from that trip. sure, they are not necessary "important" sites, but that is not the point of travel - at all.

also, many memories from my travel as adult are very limited. after some point, it is the experience, not the age that determines what is remembered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Once the youngest is 4, I'd go anywhere in the world.

This is our plan, as well. We have a 2 week beach vacation planned for Italy next spring. Kids will be almost 4 and 5. We will be doing 30% touristy things, 70% relaxing at the beach. We are greatly lowering our expectations for how much we could otherwise see (normally we'd spend most of our times touring and going to museums, tours, historical sites, et, and very little time at a beach). The time difference, the amount of walking, and just all the exciting new things, we don't want over tired exhausted kids causing all hell at the forum.

which beach? sounds nice!

[Anonymous]

We're also an international family and we love to travel. Our twins were on their first flight at 11 months and at least once or twice a year since then.

You don't have to limit yourself just because you have kids. Just do your research ahead of time for family friendly places.

[Anonymous]

Here's my feeling. We've traveled all over the world with kids (I just posted two posts about trips coming up). My child still remembers trips we took in his first year or two. In part, this is because we make reviewing the photos, and talking about the adventures we had, part of our daily lives. We will talk about the trip, for example, and he will ask to see pictures of it. Sometimes he'll ask us if we remember things that we, the adults, don't remember. My son's first full sentence was "Appy go peanuts?" (Airplane go to Phoenix).

I've essentially dragged my family along for all business trips i've taken, whether internationally or not. Is it the same as going on your own? No. is it the same was going with older kids? No. it's different. But, inasmuch as kids are just part of our family now, they do what we do, and we (the parents) love to travel. We make accommodations so that the children can enjoy it.

Yes, absolutely, there are children's museums here and our kids will "appreciate" something different in a different way starting around 3 or 4. Still....nothing beats the excitement in a child's eyes seeing the Eiffel tower after reading about it in books. And nothing beats being able to do what you want to do and find fulfilling, as a grown up, with your kids in tow.

I would say, if you can afford it, and you are able to make the accommodations that traveling with kids requires (ie, don't expect to be out all night, don't be pissed off service is slower than you want, take pains to travel frequently, take pains to ensure your kids don't become accustomed to the Disneyfication of everything) you can do it and get great pleasure out of it.

It does help that they're sleeping through the night. But i certainly did it before mine were.

Have a great adventure, OP!

[Anonymous]

I always thought I would be the kind of mom that took off to Paris with DH and a baby but honestly having a really high energy toddler and being pregnant again, I just think I wouldn't even have fun if we did go and do that stuff. I think basically a kid needs to be OK waiting in line a bit, since that's the most boring part of travel but happens a lot!

I hope when the youngest is 4 we will start doing stuff like that. That seems reasonable. Until then, beach trips it is.