Strollerderby
Family Trips and Kids: What Moments Leave an Impression?
kids when you travel or go sightseeing, inevitably something entirely different will
end up being locked in their memories forever. And maybe it’s not what you intended at all. For instance we once took a
midwinter trip into the Arctic Circle in Finland, and the outstanding
impression left on both kids who were there was about the sledding.
Serena remembers how when riding down the hill with me, my
anal-retentive let’s-not-go-too-fast-braking-boots kicked up snow in
her face. And Nathaniel remembers how a certain tree looked on the
hill. How either of them remember much beyond how so frickin’ dark it
was all day long is beyond me, but what about the reindeer sleigh ride?
The candles in the snow? Eating melted cheese in front of a roaring
fireplace? Dripping melted lead into a bucket of water on New Year’s
Eve to tell your fortune for the coming year?
And from Ireland, all Serena remembers from our hike through the wild,
rocky pony-studded lands of Connemara was the sound of some man,
coughing. Which was repeated by both children amid peals of raucous laughter for the next five days.
My kids are not alone in this.
I guess maybe they just need to ratchet the experience down to size,
and remembering the Paris department store where stuffed animals “Mole”
and “White Bear” were purchased and there was a huge Winnie-the-Pooh is
likely going to make a bigger impression than seeing some huge metal
tower, you know?
The important thing is, you’re creating memories
of some sort. Tips from this article to create wonderful travel
memories for your children include:
1. Plan unstructured time.
2. Involve the kids in planning.
3. Ice cream.
So
what if they just remember the time you sat in a cafe and watched the
birds eating your crumbs, or that the littlest one learned to walk on
the hotel steps during the trip. I think just about all experiences
that kids retain from family travel is important, a part of them and
your family lexicon forever. What travel memories do your kids
have?
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6 Comments
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amPingBack from http://holidaysorganizer.com/2007/07/11/family-trips-and-kids-what-moments-leave-an/
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amWe had a huge family trip to Lake Tahoe years ago and all of the adults (parents and 5 adult children + spouses) remember drama, arguments, drunken embarassments etc. But my sisters 3 kids remember it as one of the best vacations of their lives “Because the family was all together.” So amazing that they remember the good when we adults were focused on the petty things. They are so much wiser than we are.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amParis – an opera singer in the courtyard outside our hotel room who we made a Wiki Stik figurine of as a buxom woman but turned out in daylight to be a eunuch.
Denmark – all my sister remembers is that her hair wreath was too heavy to hold up and she cried the whole time (we were in a wedding)
BabyCakies commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amDisney World – age 7 – I remember my younger sister had a birthday and had a chocolate chip pancake for breakfast that day. I remember the dancing ghosts in the haunted house ride and my brother taking me into the cold water at the beach. We didn’t take many family vacations, and those are the few (odd) details I remember.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI always try to structure in a few activities planned solely for the kid, so that I won’t have to feel too guilty that I have dragged him to lots of stuff he’s not interested in. For example, a side trip to Roswell to check out the alien museum, on our way to Taos. The side trip to the Bigfoot museum on our way back from Humboldt County (do you sense a trend here?)
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amSo true!
Peru – age 7 – I remember eating bistek y papa fritas (thin steak with french fries) 3x a day because I was such a picky eater and would not eat anything else.
Italy – age 9 – water, glass blowing, fresh coconut slices on the street that I could buy with a 2 colored coin (Venice). I remember the time I had banana gelato and how much I hated it. I remember having chocolate and my mother yelling at me cause it had dripped all over me (Florence).
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