You and your kids can benefit greatly from traveling fulltime. We are going to share the Top 10 Reasons why we think so. But first we’ll reminisce briefly about the times we traveled before kids, before all of the challenges associated with being a parent even crossed our minds. This will help understand why traveling with kids can be so good for you as a parent and for the kids.
Many years before we hit the road with kids we traveled as a couple to far flung places in Central and South America, South and Southeast Asia, and all over the United States. In that glorious time of kid-free travel we had countless people with kids say to us, “travel now before you have kids!”. It always felt like a warning, like they were saying that if you don’t travel now then you never will. We refused to believe that then and now. Travel was so fulfilling to us that we insisted we would travel with kids when the day came so that they could have the same enriching experiences we had.
After having two kids of our own we understand where those folks were coming from. Life does get a lot more challenging when you have little humans that need your love, attention, and to be fed on a constant basis. Traveling with kids is way different and more challenging than traveling as a couple. Sometimes it can be overwhelming figuring out how to work, travel, and raise a family. Despite the added challenge of traveling with kids we still think the benefits by far outweigh the difficulties.
If you’re reading this then you might be trying to decide whether to take the leap and hit the road with your kids. While it’s not all sunshine and rainbows we are going to share the Top 10 Reasons we think traveling as a family is a great choice for us. Hopefully this list will help you imagine how fulltime travel could work for your family too.
10 Reasons to Travel Fulltime with Kids
1. World Schooling
You might be asking what is World Schooling? To us it means educating our kids by using the world as our classroom. Many of us remember sitting in the classroom reading or listening to lectures about far flung places, different cultures and languages around the world, ancient civilizations, scientific discoveries, and so much more. When you live on the road like we do you can actually visit those places and immerse yourself in a way that no book can. We regularly decide where to travel based on the interests of each member of the family. When our oldest son, Monty, was really into space exploration we visited every air and space museum we came across during our trek from the west to east coast of the United States. This culminated with an epic birthday trip to the Kennedy Air and Space Museum in Florida as well as two rocket launches by SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA). He had firsthand experiences with airplanes, space shuttles, and giant rockets, and learned about the science, technology, team work, and perseverance that went into all of that. We feel that the best education is one you can see, touch, smell, hear, and immerse in as much as possible. World Schooling is that.
2. Life is Short
Why do tomorrow what you can do today? No one can predict the future and we’ve all heard heartbreaking stories of people whose lives ended too soon. We choose to travel now while we are young and healthy enough to do it with our kids. There’s no guarantee we’ll have an opportunity to do this as a family in the future. Much of our travel involves moving our bodies and sometimes can be physically challenging. It’s important to us as parents that we are able to share those kinds of experiences with our children while we still can. And we believe shared experiences make us stronger as a family.
3. Quality Time Together
One thing is certain about traveling fulltime as a family, and that is that there will be no shortage of time together. You will literally be together as a family 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. This is not for the faint of heart, but those who are willing to accept the challenge will reap amazing rewards. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all good. We all need space and time alone sometimes. But being together this much with your children gives you all the time you need to really get to know them. Before we hit the road both of us had to commute to and from work and had to drop off and pick up our oldest son from daycare. The mornings and evenings consisted of rushing around in an attempt to get everything done before bedtime. There is so much more time in our day now that we don’t have a commute. We can slow down in the mornings and have breakfast together as a family and there’s ample time in the evenings to sit down to dinner together as well. Heck, we even get to have lunch together. Since our second child was born on the road we have gotten to experience every second of those precious early years. It has been amazing to see him hit all of the developmental milestones and to see his personality blossom. These things only happen once in a child’s life and we’re grateful to be there to see them.
4. Exposure to Different Cultures and Languages
There’s a well known quote that goes something like this, “you can’t understand someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes“. A mentor of mine shared that with me many years ago after he literally walked a mile in my shoes because I complained about how uncomfortable they were. Since then that quote has forever stuck with me and reminded me of the importance of seeing things from someone else’s perspective as much as possible. Our pre-kid travels around the world really opened our eyes to world views very different than our own and, in our opinion, made us wiser, more compassionate people. We believe the same lessons can be learned by our children. Through fulltime travel our kids are exposed to different cultures and languages. At the time this was written we were in Baja, Mexico for 5 months and our oldest son was learning Spanish and actually able to use what he learned! Our youngest son, Eleo, was able to hear the Spanish language spoken to him at a time when he is developing his early language skills. All of us are able to immerse in a culture that will help us understand just how similar we all are while also learning to respect the differences that do exist.
5. Develop Strong Social Skills
Fulltime travel often times demands that you step outside of your comfort zone, particular when it comes to meeting new people. As your location changes so do the people you meet. And because we humans are social creatures we crave interaction with other people. Very early on in our travels we noticed a huge leap in Monty’s comfort level with meeting new people of all ages. If there’s an adult doing something that he is curious about he will ask us to go with him to talk to them and learn more about what they’re doing. After we assist with the initial introduction he is happy to talk with them on his own, usually bombarding them with a thousand and one questions. He once spent two days “helping” a mechanic work on an old Ford pickup truck in their home garage. It’s important to note that Monty is more of an introvert than an extrovert. But this lifestyle has taught him that if he wants to learn about someone or something then he has to take the initiative and do the talking himself. The same is true for us parents.
6. Develop Confidence
As mentioned above, fulltime travel demands that you step outside of your comfort zone. If your child does that enough then he will inevitably develop confidence to do it more and more. Aside from becoming more confident to socialize with new people, travel throws so many other surprises and new challenges your way. You have to learn how to find your way in strange new places, fix things without the right tools or know-how, speak languages other than your own, eat new foods, and a common one in our family, face difficult physical challenges. All of that builds confidence, and much more rapidly than a stationary life might. Each challenging experience that our children face is slowly but surely building their self confidence and making them more resilient people.
7. Unique Local Experiences
Sometimes by accident and other times deliberately, fulltime travel gives us access to unique local experiences (e.g. Baja 300 Race, Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, and wildflower blooms in Teton National Park) . To get a feel for the huge variety of local experiences check out our Embracing Curiosity Instagram account. The list is too long to mention here. Variety, as they say, is the spice of life. There’s no shortage of variety when in comes to unique local experiences we’re able to attend because of our lifestyle. Each one of them is unique and exposes our family to things we would have not otherwise experienced.
8. See Family and Friends All Over the World
When you can drive or fly to almost anywhere in the world it allows you to see family and friends that live all over the world. We have spent holidays and taken vacations with family and friends we would not have otherwise seen if we still lived in one place. And the list of friends to visit keeps expanding because you’re constantly making new friends as you go. This just gives you an excuse to go back to some of your favorite places, as if you needed one. Even better is that you can spend much more time with those people because you don’t have to rush back to a stationary home in another far away location. We’ve parked in yards, driveways, around the corner, and nearby RV campgrounds for long stretches just so we could spend more time with people we really enjoy being with.
9. The Great Outdoors
Living in a small space that happens to move results in our family spending far more time outside than we might if we still lived in a house. And if we’re going to spend that much time outside we might as well go to the most beautiful places on the planet. Our family absolutely loves the outdoors. Both of our kids light up and come alive when we spend time outside. When we visit an ocean or lake, Monty always runs to and stands at the water’s edge, throws his arms in the air, and shouts in celebration as if he’s greeting a good friend he hasn’t seen in years. Being outside has had a calming effect on Eleo since he was born. Anytime he got fussy all we had to do was simply walk outside and his mood would improve immediately. And after a long hard day of work, going outside helps us parents shed away the stress of the day. We all love waking up to the sight of mountains and the sounds of waves lapping on the shore. It’s safe to say that being amongst mountains, oceans, trees, and wildlife feeds our souls. Fulltime travel affords us the opportunity to be in those places on a regular basis.
10. Less Screen Time
It’s difficult for any of us to escape the pull of our phones and computers these days. Many of us gravitate to our devices to fill the downtime we experience throughout the day. Even if we know that those devices might not always be serving us, it’s hard to put them down. We have found that fulltime travel and the access to new experiences it can provide helps to reduce that temptation, especially for our kids. Don’t get me wrong, we use our phones and computers a lot. They’re amazing tools and allow us to learn so much about a world outside of our own. But because we deliberately seek out fun and interesting new experiences and we travel to see friends and family, we and the kids are less likely to spend too much time in front of a screen. If the kids are bored, we’ll go outside or to see a local museum or event. And if we’ve run out of things to do or the weather is bad we can pack up and move to a new location with better options. Each family gets to decide how much screen time is the right amount. Fulltime travel gives you options and flexibility to find the balance that works for you.
The Choice Is Yours
We’ve shared ten reasons we think that traveling fulltime with kids is worth it. So what do you think? Would you do it? Do you think it’s worth it to do with kids or wait until they’re all grown up. The choice is yours to make. And whether you hit the road or stay put we hope that some of what we shared here will help you and your kids get more out of life. Whether you travel fulltime or part-time with kids, venturing out and experiencing new places, people, and adventures will help them grow to become braver, capable, and more compassionate people.
We’d love to know what you think in the comments. Did we miss anything?