Making Trips with Kids Easier

My goal is to make traveling with kids a little less intimidating so you can get out and go with less fear of failure. We moved to Shanghai when my oldest was 3, which gave us the confidence to continue to take family trips whenever possible. With every destination we kept wanting to experience different places and cultures together.

I have a full-time job and my kids are all in traditional school, so we make the most of school breaks and long weekends. I want to show you that with realistic expectations, awesome trips with kids are possible and so rewarding. 

Family Expectations

One of the most important things that I can do to help the trip be successful is to calibrate my expectations.

Because of the time, energy, and money that can go into traveling, it is easy to put a ton of pressure on creating family memories, sibling bonding, and endless perfect days.  For us, that pressure tends to completely tank the vacation energy and leave little room for the positive. 

I’ve learned to go into each trip with the expectation that it will be 80% Awesome.

This allows for the moments that are less-than-ideal to just get put into the 20% not-so-awesome bucket without ruining the day. If the kids are not getting along so well, or we get lost and miss a train, or something we thought would be really cool turned out to be the opposite, I just mentally slide it into the bucket and move on. It turns out that 80%-Awesome vacations are still really awesome and everyone’s sanity stays intact.

Why travel with kids?

While it can seem incredibly daunting and not-so-value-added, taking kids (even really young ones) on trips can positively impact their little personalities.

Kids can learn to be ok with being a bit uncomfortable, and they realize that they actually don’t need everything they think they do. They’ll need to wait in lines, not have access to the food and entertainment they usually gravitate to and they see that most people are happily living very differently than them. It changes their minds and expands their hearts because, even if they are too young to remember what they have seen, they will most definitely remember how they felt. 

We aren’t trying to show you an unattainable family travel ideal.

We want to help you feel comfortable taking your kids on trips both big and small.

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