Comments on: The Corrections: Your Kids’ Evolving Travel Philosophy

By: iguana

iguana — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:41:28 +0000

Great piece. It’s funny how we can also take different memories of the same trips. Every year we used to load up our tiny car and take the ferry across to France, usually taking the back roads rather than the autoroutes which my dad hated driving on. I loved those journeys, even the little things like the great playgrounds at each stopping point beside the road. My brother on the other hand hated the car journeys but enjoyed the final destinations. These days I have permanently itchy feet and he rarely leaves the country.

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By: D.W. Gregory

D.W. Gregory — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:41:00 +0000

This is a great observation, Steve. Speaking as someone who never traveled at all as a child, I wish my folks had had a travel philosophy. But they simply couldn’t afford vacations, at least not until my mother started selling cosmetics when I was in high school. Then she took some of us with her to the conferences—and for me, at 16, it was a thrilling trip to Montreal.

The kids might not seem too excited while it’s happening, but it makes an impact.

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By: Steven Roll

Steven Roll — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 19:36:55 +0000

Thanks for all of those great comments.

@Rob: I agree with you that many times trips take on a whole new dimension when looking back on it. Also, it’s interesting to observe my kids talking about their travel experiences with their grandparents because there’s no baggage there. Just pure pleasure in sharing new experiences.

@Marina: I agree that there’s much to learn from our parents’ experiences. In my case, much of it was good. That should have merited a sentence or two in my post. Maybe I’ll just write about that in the next one. It sounds like you’ve had a lot of travel experiences, so your son will have a solid base to draw lessons from.

@Hal: I find I actually enjoy road trips more as an adult. Places that I kind of took for granted as a kid, like L.A., seem really special now after living so long in the east. How many places are there where you can go hike a canyon of swim in the ocean without even leaving the city?

@Sarah It’s great to hear from you. Hope all is well. There’s no question that you have the travel bug. You’re the first person I’ve known whose moved from Oaxaca to Japan. I think people go through different phases when it comes to traveling. I’ll keep checking your blog (huevosalamexicana.com) to see the next “place” (geographically and mentally) that your travels take you.

@Renee I’m glad you liked it. I think it’s easy to take things that are given to us for granted. It looks like you’re an exception to that rule. If my parents never traveled when I was a kid, I’d probably spend my life taking trips everywhere and and blogging about that. ; )

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By: Renee

Renee — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:34:08 +0000

Funny, I had the exact opposite experience…. I loved our three-week long roadtrips, although there was a period where I was embarassed by our slightly funky, green camper van. We went all over the U.S. and Canada, and those are some of my favorite childhood memories!

Maybe because we did this every year since I was 9 months (!) old, it was just something we always did–it never occurred to me to be upset about not seeing my friends for a couple of weeks.

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By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:56:39 +0000

Steven! It’s great to see you on Matador. I think this is a great post. It’s interesting to think about how our parents have influenced the way we travel and think about travel. I remember our old, used van with duct tape on the fender, and truckin’ it across the country to the Rocky Mountains, or up the East Coast to Maine. We always left at 4 or 5 in the morning to get a head start, and I remember staying up all night with the anticipation of hitting the road and being off on an adventure. Even though we never went anywhere “exotic” (although to be honest, even as a kid I found Abilene, Kansas bizarre and fascinating) the thrill of being on the road probably had an influence on the super nomadic lifestyle I live now. If/when I have a child, he/she will definitely be riding in the backs of trucks across Laos. Now, whether he/she will grow up with major corrections after that, who knows….

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By: Hal

Hal — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:52:14 +0000

Very interesting. I was the same as a kid–quietly enduring the U.S. roadtrips and even a summer trip to Europe, wishing I was back home with my friends. However, I haven’t found that I’ve developed opposite takes on travel now that I’m older. Or maybe I have, but I still enjoy U.S. roadtrips and summers in Europe

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By: marina k. villatoro

marina k. villatoro — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:44:00 +0000

Great post! Who knows what our kids are going to be saying or thinking when they get older. I know I’m constantly dealing with my own corrections from my parents, but as much as we hate to admit it, we carry a lot of what they did and taught us.

My son is still young enough to not voice his opinion about his mom dragging him all over the place, I’ll see when he hits the teens, yikes!

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By: Robert Freedman

Robert Freedman — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:49:00 +0000

This post really rings true. But what I found most revealing is the last part in which Steve recounts his kids’ comments about their Mexico trip to their grandparents. Although they didn’t seem to find the trip particularly earth-shattering while they were living it, they seemed to have plenty of good things to say about it to their grandparents. I guess that’s because adventures are always unconfortable when you’re having them. After all, you never know what you’re going to meet up with next, and it could be something that makes you tired, hungry, thirsty, or feeling lost. But after it’s all over, it’s value becomes clear because you’ve learned something about yourself and saw yourself in a new light, so you can start a new narrative about yourself when you’re telling others what you did. It sounds like Steve’s kids will eventually be big travelers, just like their dad!

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