Recently in my teen’s Pre-AP Language Arts class (i.e. Honors English), when the teacher was leading a discussion about the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., and John F. Kennedy, my daughter was aghast that she was the only one in class that knew that the location of Kennedy’s assassination was right here in Dallas, and one of the few who knew that Martin Luther King, Jr. was deceased. “He’s dead??!!” asked the girl considered by many to be the smartest in the class (the one who never has to study and gets all A’s). I said she must have been joking. “No, Mom,” said Allison, emphatically. “She was really shocked and sad that he was dead.” Well I’m shocked and saddened that a bunch of honors 8th graders, who all came from elementary schools deemed exemplary by the state, didn’t know some things as basic to our history as that. And it’s made me reaffirm my belief in family travel– because one of the reasons my daughter knew about King’s death is because she’d stood at the site where it happened.
Carving out time to travel has always been a priority for me, even before my husband and I had kids. Travel is not only an eye-opener and mind-expander, but it’s a great relationship-builder, even with all its downsides of lost baggage, delayed flights, bad weather and clueless tour guides. If you travel enough, the good times (and the good memories) outweigh the bad.
Some parents think travel, good times, and kids just don’t go together, but if you really put your mind to it and plan with kids’ habits and feelings in mind, it can work. I remember being paralyzed with fear at the thought of any car ride over 20 minutes with my kids (check out the DVD Players in Cars post), not to mention flying on a plane with one in diapers. But you talk to others that have done it, and you read stuff, and then you get out a pen and paper and come up with a plan. (It’s funny, because even though my kids are older now, I still have to plan, because a teen can be the worst travel companion on earth if you don’t.) Some moms tell me they don’t travel because their husbands don’t like it– but I say, take the kids anyway and go without him. A year and a half ago I “soloed” with my girls to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta and we had a blast– it was like Thelma, Louise and Louise, Jr.
I know in this economy that vacations are thought of as “something to put aside” by many– I was considering having a “staycation” this Spring Break. But now I’m re-thinking it. There are so few opportunities to travel as the kids get older and busier, and the cost of gasoline is still pretty reasonable…and we’ve racked up lots of unused flight miles with our credit cards, plus there are so many travel deals out there right now, that we can probably go somewhere for less than the cost of a month of dance lessons…okay, I’m sold! Now I’ll start planning and then attempt to sell the idea to my husband. As I plan, I will keep the following three things in mind:
1. If at all possible, book a hotel/motel with an indoor swimming pool. That way, when weather drowns our plans, it makes everything okay. And it’s always a hit even when the rest of the day’s activities haven’t been so popular with the kids. There’s just something “magnetic” about pools and children. I don’t remember a huge amount about the 1969 road trip I took with my parents from Iowa to California, but I sure remember swimming with Dad in the motel pool. (Vacations were usually the only time I ever saw him swim!) I have a friend with two boys who, when unable to travel someplace far, will just travel to another Dallas suburb and book a motel with an indoor pool– they have a great time.
2. Find things that are purely fun in addition to educational sites. A trip with kids that’s nothing but museums and historical markers is totally out of touch with the reality of kids…and teens. Is there a waterpark nearby? A restaurant with a “pirate” floor show? Or…(wince) a cool mall? We also like to mix in something kitschy, if we can, on every trip– places like the Spam Museum in Minnesota, the Orange Show in Houston, or the Mystery Spot in California. And no trip to Amarillo is complete without a pilgrimage to Cadillac Ranch. (The website www.roadsideamerica.com is fun for finding out stuff like this.)
3. Think outside the box as to what equals a successful vacation. Even if we don’t get the perfect “Kodak moments” for our scrapbook, cherished memories can come in unexpected places. One special memory I have is all of us laughing hard while rediscovering the movie Napoleon Dynamite on a hotel room TV. Or when Allison threw up in the car, and we had to pull over near a farm, and while we’re all in a fluster and she’s standing outside and I’m cleaning her off, she spots a chicken sitting high up in a tree– and we all crack up.
Yes, we’ve been to some amazing places…but we sure won’t forget a lonely stretch of Texas highway with a resident chicken who thought she was a hawk.
I wholeheartedly agree! Family travel definitely broadens our horizons & I am so grateful my parents planted that particular seed while I was growing up. Perspective, you know. And special family-only inside jokes that last for always.
On a cattier note, I’m also thinking the TAKS tests must not cover history…….
Some day, when the time is appropriate, your girls will realize how cool you actually are! For now, you are correct; it’s best to remain uncool.