Comments on: Monday Teeny Poll

By: La BellaDonna

La BellaDonna — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:30:13 +0000

My folks had five kids, and sunk their money into paying for our schooling; ironically, although my Dad traveled for his job, it meant that as a family, we didn’t have the opportunity.

Although I would very much have liked the chance to travel with my family, I think they made the right choice; I haven’t needed to travel physically to be interested in other people, other cultures, other places, other times. Thanks to my parents, it’s reflected in my bookshelves, constantly.

There’s more than one way to travel, as it turns out.

By: Monday Teeny Poll » Teeny Manolo

Monday Teeny Poll » Teeny Manolo — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:11:46 +0000

[...] Last week’s poll about traveling “extensively” with children sparked quite a heated, yet always civil and urbane debate. God how I love our commenters! Eighty-one percent of the respondents said that yes, parents should travel as much as time and budget should allow, while only eighteen percent disagreed. Looking back, I should have qualified the word “extensively” or even better, used a different phrase. [...]

By: What Not to Pack in the Stroller » Teeny Manolo

What Not to Pack in the Stroller » Teeny Manolo — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 08:39:17 +0000

[...] much discussion of late and around these parts of the Herculean loads shouldered, strollered, or shoved into minivans by parents in the name of having essential items to hand at all times. We all know what it’s [...]

By: Traveling with Kids: Resources » Teeny Manolo

Traveling with Kids: Resources » Teeny Manolo — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:13:47 +0000

[...] by Glinda’s Monday Teeny Poll about traveling with kids, I’ve gone out and rounded up a bunch of online resources to help you organize the paperwork, [...]

By: raincoaster

raincoaster — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:23:01 +0000

@ Martha, I’m far too egotistical to take offense, no worries! But it was a good one, even if it was inadvertent!

By: raincoaster

raincoaster — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:20:55 +0000

I’m thinking what we have right here in the comments section is a cultural divide. I live in Canada, and it is far cheaper for me to fly to Europe than it is for me to fly to Toronto…and when you get there, well, you’re in Toronto. This may be a function of weird Canadian prices, I am more than willing to admit. But living as I do in Chinatown I know quite well that it’s not Beijing. A different country is different in so many ways that it’s a humbling experience. I was in Indonesia for three weeks and still never figured out how the traffic lights worked (when the tanks are coming they have right-of-way, that’s all I know).

Now, I certainly understand that when you’re travelling with young kids you want to minimize risks and surprises, and that gets expensive. So I did a bit of research and came up with some sites that have good advice. I’ll post the list a bit later.

By: silverpatronus

silverpatronus — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:39:20 +0000

i am not american, nor are we wealthy, but my parents made a point of traveling abroad as extensively as possible with my sisters and i when we were growing up, broke or solvent. and that was before the cheap-flight revolution. my mother considered it a worthy investment and was willing to suck up the debt required to make it happen. i think travel is important, especially travel abroad. and doing it on a shoestring meant that we got very into the cultures of where we visited rather than doing the tourist thing, since we couldn’t really afford the tourist thing. so we’d eat what the locals ate, do our own groceries and cooking a lot of the time and spent a lot of time on public transportation. in instilled a real global sense in us, and now that we’re adults we continue to travel as extensively as we can afford to, and when we have children we will raise world travelers, just like we were. i think travel is part and parcel of a rounded education.

By: Glinda

Glinda — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:33:06 +0000

Martha, for a second there, I thought you were talking about me!

By: Martha

Martha — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:30:59 +0000

just to clarify — the “jerks” in the last line was meant to reference the people who, for example, expected Canada to display prices in US dollars.

By: Martha

Martha — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:08:17 +0000

Has everyone here tried traveling “extensively” with young children? It’s expensive, it’s a hassle, it’s a pain. And it is expensive. It is not something every family can do. I agree with dgm that this is an upper or middle class idea. When did travel fo pleasure become a necessity?

In any case, Raincoaster, I can drive 10 minutes and get to a neighborhood where no one speaks English. We have met refugees from Somalia, Bosnia, Moldova, Guatemala and more by working with Catholic Charities refugee services. I know that this not the same as actually being in a country where no one speaks your language. (for that matter, why should that be the criterion? Why shouldn’t we say you have to go to a place with another alphabet? I found that much more disorienting than simply another language.) But travel, while it can broaden the mind, is not the only way to do so, and it not fool-proof. As it seems you found out. Hadn’t the foolish tourists you met traveled to get to Canada?

Let the kids study abroad in high school or college. Then they can discover for themselves that the world is big! And diverse! And there are good people everywhere, and sadly, jerks everywhere, not just at Raincoaster’s workplace.