7 Reasons Why We Love Travelling As A Family

 

There’s something about traveling that millennials love. But who says that it’s for young people only? As a family, we love to travel. I know it’s not unusual to do this as a way to bond with family. Just like others, we have a set of reasons why we love to travel. In this way, we hope that you get inspiration from our experience and motivate you to do the same way, too!

1. Traveling takes our time off from work and stress

Given that Jojo (my husband) is a lawyer, he’s always busy. Leaving the house very early in the morning while arriving late at night aren’t situations that are new to us already. I support Jojo 100% with his profession, but there are just times that he’d really need to relax big time. Taking on cases and talking to people aren’t easy things to do. In fact, it’s one of the stressful things one could encounter. Being a lawyer means my husband would have to think of solutions 24/7. I mean, can you just imagine having your brain work that hard? That’s why he needs to rest 🙂

 

2. It brings us closer together

Sure, staying at home with my family is something that I consider as a way for us to bond. However, when we travel, we experience one common ground that no one else does. Travelling is an experience that gives us the opportunity to get to know each other better. Like how I know my son Mikko, loves boat / ferry rides, how I enjoy creating itineraries and how Jojo loves visiting observatory towers and how good he is at reading maps. These are the little things that I wouldn’t know if we haven’t traveled together as a family.

3. We learn to be more patient with each other

If you’re planning on traveling with your loved ones, especially when it comes to long-term stays, be sure to take up all the patience you’d need with you! You’d have to know that traveling doesn’t always entail the Instagram-worthy pictures or that everyone’s always on-the-go and willing to explore the city! It’s not like that all the time. Sometimes we get lost along the way, and we have different opinions on where to go, that’s how conflict sometimes arises. See, the thing with traveling is that you’re not 100% comfortable in your surroundings. Sometimes, even the smallest thing would set your mood off. However, this instance helped us understand one’s character. In fact, it helped us how to become more patient with each other.

4. Our child develop problem-solving skills.

Even though we’ve had a clear-cut itinerary fixed that looked almost perfect, it wasn’t guaranteed that we had everything followed. From the time to the place, we made some adjustments, too. For adults, it’s easy to adapt to these changes. But in this way, we are glad that we can teach Mikko how to adapt and solve problems instead of complaining. There are countless of times that we have had our flights delayed, or our visas came in late. But we got so used to it that instead of panicking the first second, we try to think of ways on how can we adjust. I’m glad that Mikko was able to see how we adapted to these changes and hopefully, he could employ this when he grows older, too!

5. It was an opportunity for us to learn.

What I absolutely love about traveling is how we get to learn without necessarily being confined in the four corners of a classroom. Even now that I am married and I have two kids with me already, it never occurred to me that it’s too late for me to learn something new. It’s not. This is also applicable to my husband. That even if he’s a respected lawyer, there are things that he couldn’t only learn from reading a book. That’s what I’m glad to teach my children – that learning is a continuous process and that you can learn and still have fun at the same time.

6. We tend to become more expressive with our feelings when we’re traveling.

When we first embarked on a goal to travel as a family, we thought that we would just enjoy learning new culture and exploring different cities. I never thought that we’re going to be able to be more expressive with our feelings. How may you ask? Each member of our family feels excited when we’re on a trip. Of course, who wouldn’t be? But we also learned how to show our silly and funny sides to each other. I guess that’s the effect of us getting to know each other a little bit deeper. Jojo is busy with work and Mikko is busy with school and his other activities. However, when we’re traveling, we’re just bound with one experience.

7. It’s a new experience for us, especially for our son Mikko.

Since traveling brings us to new places, it immediately transports our son to places that he has never been to. Sure, there’s comfort in staying at home. But there’s actually a different experience when a child is placed in an unfamiliar environment. We’re happy that through traveling, we have exposed Mikko into lengths that he, too cannot even imagine. Through this, we have exposed him to different cultures, traditions, lifestyle, and even food choices! Children are natural explorers, but sometimes, they are being confined in the safety of their homes. Apparently, science supports that traveling is great for children, too. According to a research study that was conducted by the Student and Youth Travel Digest, 56% of educators believe that traveling has a positive impact on one’s career and education, while a substantial 74% has a positive effect on children’s personal development.

With that, traveling affords a multitude of other opportunities. If a simple role-playing game can transport a child to different worlds and could take on various roles, then what more can traveling do to them? I’m proud to say that Mikko learned all of these at such a young age.

As I reflect on these seven reasons we enjoy traveling, I can’t help but realize how much we’ve grown as a family just because of this experience. Thus, seeing Jojo and our children happy when we’re together in a foreign country makes my heart melt. Here’s to more travels for us in the future, and more reasons to love it more.