The Unpopular Opinion: Take Your Kids

Take your kids with you.  Yes, I know the push back on this.  Travel is expensive and they won’t remember.  Maybe they won’t, but you will.  No one skips the first Birthday Party or Santa when your child is only 3 just because they won’t remember. You remember.  And when the kids are older, Hell when you are older, you’ll pull out the pictures and relive every wonderful moment as you tell your child the funny, cool, extraordinary things they did with their family.  You’ll hold those memories for them until such a time as you can transfer them to their care.  Your child will then share those moments with others, complete with pictures or detailed descriptions, because they did live it and now they can hold those for themselves.  What’s better, they only “remember” how you share it.  All the memories are what you make of them and you too will only remember the important moments.  I’m not sure I could tell you what I ate yesterday, but I can tell you all about my daughters first Mexican taco IN Mexico.  I can tell you how she searched for the cheese, literally picked up the plate to see if it slid underneath, and we all relive it with laughter and a warmth around our shared adventure.  She doesn’t need to remember the exact day herself, she remembers our shared story and the feelings are the same.  That is her first taco in Mexico, just like her first birthday smash cake, or letter to Santa, the experiences are hers.  Better yet, I remember and I get to keep remembering every time I share it. 

My wife is Irish.  Her whole family still lives in Ireland or nearby European countries.  My kids both went to Ireland when they were 3 years old respectively.  At first, I said we were doing it for family otherwise we wouldn’t but I quickly changed my mind.  My kids knew from a young age that the world is big.  I would listen to my very young children tell their friends about different music, foods, accents, sports.  They would talk about going to sleep on a plane and waking up in a far off land like something out of a fairytale.  The moments with their Irish family are precious.  The pictures with now deceased family are invaluable.  But the lesson they learned about how big this world is, that is transformative.  It allows them to think bigger, go farther, and ignore limitations of space or distance or any kind of social norm.  They became children of the world and I set out to make sure I nurtured it.  We are lucky.  Incredibly lucky to be able to travel internationally but it doesn’t have to be that big.  The United States is diverse too.  In Washington State where I work as a realtor, I can take you to 10 very different vibes (as the kids say) in the span of a day and never leave the state.  Take a car ride, make a scavenger hunt, go on an adventure, and take your kids with you.  Those will be their memories someday, collect them now, you’ll love having them later.