Kid-Friendly Travel – A Manifesto
I want you to know I spent a substantial amount of time swotting up on Marx and trying to work the word “bourgeois” into this manifesto before deciding to spare you. I’d throw in a “you’re welcome”, but it’s not really the fashion to say “thank you for not being a prat”.
Probably it should be. We can come back to that point.
First, let’s focus on the excellent question Thrifty Travel Mama raised in her guest post on Chasing The Donkey. What is “kid-friendly travel”, anyway?
Well, What Is It?
If you’re looking for the majority of restaurants to have kids menus, high chairs, and bathrooms with changing tables, keep dreaming. – Thrifty Travel Mama (in her guest post)
Here’s why a lack of these wouldn’t push a destination off my kid-friendly list: there are alternative solutions. You can sit a baby on your lap during a meal, use a packable high chair or booster seat, picnic like a crazed mad thing whose main symptom of crazed madness is a tendency to overdo it on the picnics, or allow a member of staff to walk your child around while you eat.
You can throw down a change mat on most flat surfaces: strollers; tuk tuks; the ground. You can even find plain carbs with the nutritional value of chips in more or less every corner of the globe. Our physiological preference for dense calories unites us.
But you can’t make a whole group of people tolerant of children just by turning up with a three-year-old in a cute hat*.
Thrifty Travel Mama prioritises the attitude of locals towards children over any amount of stroller-friendly accessibility, and at first glance I agree. For one thing, people who are tolerant of small children are a lot more likely to walk them around a restaurant for you while you eat, so equipment like high chairs is less necessary – and that’s even before you front up at the bottom of a staircase with a stroller, or (heaven forbid) anywhere in public with a crying baby or active preschooler. But without diminishing the importance of a welcoming attitude based on reasonable expectations, my answer is different.
My (Different) Answer
If things have to be perfect for the kids, the parents won’t be happy anywhere but Disney. – Thrifty Travel Mama (in comments)
Disney isn’t perfect for our family. We just about managed a quiet day at Hong Kong Disney without total meltdowns. If the crowds had been larger or the queues longer, I would have worried not only about P, but Æ too – as it was, there were points of touch and go. With Æ, I’m talking about now, not P.
The truth is, when a destination is marketed as “family-friendly” it’s often the first sign it won’t suit us. Not because I’m a travel snob who thinks she’s only doing it right if she’s breastfeeding in the back of a tuk tuk as it chugs past the temples of Angkor, which in any case is not “doing it right” as anyone who tries to breastfeed a toothy infant on a bumpy road will find out. It’s because a lot of “family-friendly” destinations are bright, polished enclaves whose high chairs, kids’ menus and change tables can’t possibly make up for the overstimulating barrage of AWESOME FUN that certain members of our family find stressful, if not debilitating.
Which brings me to my main point: the most family-friendly destination is the one where your family’s different personalities can find common ground. That’s why, though it sounds strange to some, we think Club Med ain’t got nothin’ on India Rail. When everyone’s eager, interested, and able to cope, problems get solved and inconveniences get tolerated. Indeed, the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all. And… we’re back to that point about prats**.
What Our Family Looks For In A “Kid-Friendly” Destination
- A culture which tolerates children warmly.
- Open spaces, preferably in natural settings.
- Safe accommodation (at one point we had a strong preference for ground floors).
- Sights of special interest to individual family members.
- Varied/unusual transport options.
- Easy-to-navigate sights, attractions and facilities (the precise definition of “easy” will vary with travel experience).
- Mild, resolvable challenges.
- Picnic spots.
—
*For what it’s worth, I fully encourage the use of cute hats, however far that sort of thing goes.
**Not Marxists. Just prats***.
***Seriously, though – can you hear “manifesto” without thinking “Communist”? I can’t be the only one.
Extra note: I’ve been reliably informed that I’m overdoing it on the how-to and philosophical posts. This is due to a number of factors, all of which are unsuitable for blogging about. Thanks for bearing with me, and in response to this criticism, please enjoy not only this manifesto on kid-friendly travel, but also (coming) a how-to post on saving money for the holidays. You can weigh in with your views on what, to you, constitutes a “kid-friendly” or “family-friendly” destination here in the comments, and store up those money-grubbing ideas for later in the week!
Related:
SJ followed up with some extra thoughts on family-friendly travel (especially in Croatia) – including thoughts from other travelling parents.
And The Family Adventure Project advocates collaborative planning. And having kids post Trip Advisor reviews.
I live for your how-to ! Seriously and could not agree more. My kids attention span is like 5 secs so forget the queuing shit. Plus even if my tots could my late 30s big kid aka DH could not 🙂 and yeah for staff playing hide and seek with them when I eat. I also go for live bands venues where if there is a bucket for donations – by the time the kids get to the bucket and back (average donation $10 made with $1 bills) I have finished my food and 2 mimosas. Worth every single penny xo
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Oh, good trick! I like that one. I’ve noticed my kids love putting money in people’s tins (I just don’t think we have so many donation-box music venues around here).
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I very much agree with your statement that any destination that proclaims it’s kid friendly, most likely isn’t. And certainly Disney World isn’t one – in my eyes. I have tried to take my kids out in the “real world” so they can learn how it is. Otherwise I agree with your kid-friendly-manifesto at the end of the post. Great post, by the way.
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Well they have their fans, I can’t deny that. And kids certainly do need a dose of the real world somewhere.
It’d be interesting to compare people’s choices of holiday with their day to day life. I know for us we live in a condo with a pool and so on and so forth so we really feel like we need a bit more reality when we’re on holiday. But I could name at least one person with a whole stack of reality in their day to day lives and I know they dream of cruise ships. I guess I’d want a break, too.
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In the end I think you are right. Holidays are about getting that break from whatever is the regular routine.
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If a place says it’s “kid-friendly” then it isn’t for us – 555+ I like your list. I do think how a culture embraces children is the big factor when it comes to raising kids.
I remember when I was getting ready to go to Austria and guide books were saying “Austria loves their dogs more than their children” – so I guess dogs were pampered and children were best unseen and unheard. Thailand, on the other hand, LOVES children, but they don’t really put safety of children as a priority – strangely enough.
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Ha! Yes, well that says a lot doesn’t it. A really family-friendly place should be suitable for, you know, the whole family. The idea that “family-friendly” would make someone without kids run a mile is a bit of a sad comment on how some businesses have chosen to define it! It’s like those “family” movies that no adult would voluntarily go to (vs the family movies where there’s a mixture of types in the cinema).
But you did say “kid-friendly” rather than family-friendly, so I guess we’ll let them off the hook in terms of truth in advertising 🙂
Yes. Thailand. Welcoming, but obviously also a little Darwinian in some ways. Survival of the alertest/sensibilist/luckiest. Or maybe that’s why everyone helps out – so the next generation don’t all get squished!
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Love your “kid friendly” list, particularly those who are welcoming to children. We have been to some nice places with our children but the stress of trying to keep them well behaved and quiet made the “nice” place an awful one for me. 🙂
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Yes, that stress can destroy everything. Let’s not start naming the relatives we just suddenly imagined visiting…
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That is so true. Funny how theme-parks and other family-oriented locations are actually in reserve being not so ideal being that many families do gear towards it. You brought up here very eye-opening points. Take the kids to places that more of a natural setting where they can have more space to wander around and play.
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I think what others have said about them suiting a lot of families is true, and you know – it’s Disney’s job to make sure people enjoy their experience and they’ve been at it a while so they should be getting decent at it, it’s just nobody can please everyone all the time. You’re going to get your fans, your take-it-or-leave-it, and your please-no.
It’s worth taking a step back to ask yourself what “type” of thing you’re after.
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We had a similar theme to our conversation with some old friends recently. One said there is no point to travel anywhere with 2-3 small children but to book an all-inclusive trip to Turkey/Greece/..(3-4 hour flight tops) to an all-inclusive hotel with activities for children. Anything else the children just won’t enjoy. You know me, I was just like whaaaat?! But our conclusion was similar to yours: it depends on what parents will like and feel comfortable with, when parents are ok with the location and the situation, kids will mostly tackle them well too. She has never been e.g. the exploring, backpacking or camping type, why would she suddenly enjoy that sort of thing now with kids? I’d get bored if I were to only stay in a hotel resort for a week. Not a real brainer that we prefer to travel differently, but our families are both happy with the outcome. So child friendly, well, the attitude of the locals is still important to me here, but otherwise I think it may be more about your own attitude.
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You know I fully agree with all you’ve said. But you’ve given a very good example – their kids I’m sure enjoy their resort holidays, and we know you enjoy yours, but what’s really not fun is having someone stomp around because they’re bored and frustrated or overwhelmed.
I would certainly say life with a toddler or preschooler is not the time to cultivate a new taste in something you previously found unenjoyable! And in fact you can look back on our earlier trips and we did revisit a lot of places (often we explored different parts of them, but still) just to play it a bit safe.
You know we might sometimes make too much of the cultural differences in attitudes towards children as well. Some differences exist, but we all have kids and we all have to more or less get along with them!
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Wise words, once again: we do all have to get along with them somehow 🙂 That is a good way to think about it!
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Great post – your kid friendly list is exactly what we look for and works for us. Compromise and something for everyone is our top priority. When our son was small and cute (not so much now sadly) we always found the restaurants that were least traditionally “family friendly” in the more obscure places were the ones with the nicest staff who were keen to walk him around.
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I’m glad to see people agreeing with my list, but I guess I shouldn’t be entirely surprised, either, since I tend to gravitate towards bloggers with the same style!
It is funny how the tastes change as they grow, though. I guess peers come into it – they need to be able to tell the awesome story involving the popular cartoon characters etc. It’s not just about being themselves any more.
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I love your informational and philosophical posts!
I think the key to anyone traveling anywhere , or even something as simple as just going out to eat, is knowing your child. If you try to follow every one else’s suggestions without taking into consideration your child’s personality type, it will be miserable.
Part of being a parent is trusting your instincts with your child(ren). Not every situation will work for every kid, and we as parents usually know what those situations are. I love getting your insight on what it’s like to have a sensitive child and making it comfortable for him to travel. It gives me another perspective on how a place or destination may affect other types of personalities than are in our family.
Also, I must say that I am so glad you enjoyed HK Disneyland… I so want to go.
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It’s definitely the key! One person’s enjoyable vacation is another person’s nightmare – but you’re right, that also goes for trips around town.
I find it’s hard to trust your instincts and knowledge sometimes when everyone is telling you the opposite. For sure take pros and cons into consideration – it’s still worth reading others’ reviews, especially if they have kids of the same age. But the final value judgement has to be yours.
HK Disney was great (to me) – I hope you get to go! And you know, as a whole I’d say it was a successful day – but it was definitely enough Disney for the group by the time we left.
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I have heard that it is pretty small, so I would think one day would definitely be enough.
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Yes, I’ve heard (not having experience of the others) that the US ones are just some whole other thing by comparison. The HK one was a nice size for us.
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I can change diapers anywhere! Well, not really anywhere but we find ways. Also, in restaurants, if one of my kids go crazy, my husband and I take turns in eating and feeding a kid.
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Yes, we’ve done the turns thing, too, with crazy kids. I remember when P was born we used to eat across from the supermarket about once a week and at a certain point a staff member looked at us and said, “Wow! You’re eating together! He’s really getting big!” and that’s when I realised it was the first time since he’d been born 🙂
But of course you can also do it (or use the stroller – I temporarily forgot the stroller=high chair solution) for just normal, uncrazy eating situations.
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I have a feeling things are about to get even more philosophical.. 🙂 In writing my Croatia post, I was of course (strongly) influenced by the American idea of “kid-friendly” which tends to favor those polished, performed, (and usually) very expensive your-kids-will-love-it-here-so-obviously-you-will-too places (ahem, Disney). I wrote it that way because if I was a family travel newb (and I once was), I would want to know those things. But, we’ve personally as a family ventured out very far from that standard and rarely consider it anymore. For some families (and this is not wrong, just different from ours and yours), the kid-friendliness I mentioned IS their style, and they’re comfortable with that, and so be it. Maybe this type of traveling family wonders if they should try out a more risky place, one with a path that’s not well-worn by tiny shoes (like Croatia). That post was really written for them. I actually have a series of posts that I wanted to do about finding your family’s personal travel style. We’re slowly evolving our own, and I think your list hits on a lot of the same things that are important to us. I guess when I think kid-friendly, I think, would less-traveled families like this place? For us, as you said, we just adapt. As long as a destination is safe and interesting to us personally and reasonably affordable, we’ll consider it.
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It is definitely a matter of style and taste – and in those matters, there’s no right or wrong. I personally loved Disneyland a lot more than I expected (it was so cool!) so I can very much understand why some families love it (I would go again). Still, for our group as a whole, we couldn’t do a week-long Disney holiday – one day is about the limit.
It’s good to know what to expect so you’re prepared, so I thought your post had worthwhile information. But mainly I thought it was an interesting question in terms of well, what do we mean when we say “kid-friendly”? If you answered a simple yes or no you might end up with the wrong idea.
Maybe I just didn’t have a firm definition of “kid-friendly” to work with before. I’ve also been thinking about it in terms of “what would a less-travelled family enjoy?” but I fear now I may have given people the wrong impression by saying “Siem Reap is very kid-friendly” because to me it ticks the boxes a family travel newb would most want to tick – the above, plus the strong, easily-navigable, no-hassle tourist industry and door-to-door tuk tuks make it accessible to those without travel experience, who are too busy watching toddlers to spend loads of time trying to figuring everything out, and who don’t like trekking up hundreds of stairs even if there is free wifi at the top. 🙂 But not so much on the high chairs and change tables, now you mention it.
(I should probably add “easy-navigable tourism” to the list – in fact let me do that – it’s fallen lower on our list but it does make a difference.)
Anyway, own style over child-specific facilities for sure. If they happen to both come together – well and good. Looking forward to your series on travel styles.
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I have mastered the art of changing a very dirty diaper while baby is standing up, moving around, or jumping, without making a significant mess. That comes in handy when we travel it go anywhere really. When we plan to go somewhere, “kid friendly” isn’t a prerequisite anymore for the same reasons you talked about, plus, unless it’s Disney, they almost never really are. As long as we have a stroller (to hold out shopping bags of course cause the kids refuse to sit in it!) and plenty of room for walking, we all do very well. Although we did stay in a 3 floor apartment in Florence a few weeks ago and I was constantly worried about open doors and gates, so ground floors and flat apartments will be on my list next time.
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Yes, sometimes the marketing doesn’t match up to the scene on the ground. Which does highlight the importance of the question – obviously what some companies/reviewers think of as “kid-friendly” isn’t the same as what other people have in mind. Best to clarify!
You sound like me with the open windows and gates. 🙂
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I went crazy with the gates. I lectured my entire family about the importance of never, ever, forgetting them closed. I used words like “carelessness” and “life threatening”. I wasn’t very popular on that particular trip. No wonder no one wanted to talk to me. I was also given the name “gipsy” for changing my baby on the streets of beautiful, romantic Florence 🙂
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Being a single and childless being, I could never fathom the depths of a kid-friendly place but it is still an interesting perspective to read about. Now I can finally have something intelligent to discuss when I do meet up with my mummy friends. You shall be my quote!
P/s: how-to posts are never enough reading materials…there’s always bound to be something of use…:)
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Well, I think that’s the thing, though. Yes, kids have certain capabilities and tendencies based on their development – sure – but at the end of the day they’re also just people with their own interests/pet peeves/etc. So there’s going to be a unique balance for each family mixture and I think addressing the interests/pet peeves/etc of the individuals involved is the biggest priority and you can probably sort the rest out as you go along (with some exceptions for war zones/places where even the locals prefer not to take children/etc).
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True..that I can totally agree with…:)
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Oh dear you’re not going all Commy on me are you? 😉
Thanks for the Manifesto. I’ve never stopped to define what what kid-friendly is, so it’s made me think. I love “Mild, resolvable challenges”. I’d rather negotiate breastfeeding on a Tuk Tuk in Cambodia than queue up in Disney World. Looking forward to how to save post xo
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Do you know, though, the family unit is a little bit Communist by nature. It’s when you try to expand your “family” to include millions of people you don’t even know that things get more difficult.
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Hmmm yes, my family is like a Communist unit, where the kids are the totalitarian dictators. Whilst the free development for all, is good in theory. In practice we are bending our travels to appease our little Mao’s, they are in fact running the show. If they had little tanks, they’d run us over with it, if things are not as it should be.
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Haha – yes, the kids as dictators. I know what you mean. And it’s fair enough that you don’t expect much when they’re very little, though the idea would be to make it more even as they get older. And to not give them tanks. 🙂
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Oh but sorry I was also going to say – yes, challenges. A lot of people like their trips to be challenge-free and that’s understandable enough but it’s not the role we want travel to play in our lives, so that can be a game changer all by itself.
Not that Disney as an example is without challenges (in fact I think that’s an example of an overly challenging environment in some ways – queues). I guess what I’m saying really is that different people find different things challenging, and having change tables and high chairs isn’t necessarily addressing everyone’s problems.
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Well I can’t claim to have breast fed a toothy infant, but I’ve travelled under different circumstances with children from baby grade upward. Children are most unpredictable so I sympathize with the Disney Worlds and their clones who try unsuccessfully to be family friendly. I have permanently destroyed shirts which were not barf resistant to prove I’ve done it. Even washing in an Indian village pond with all those additives which should have removed stains didn’t do the trick. We have been humiliated by our children’s loud comments about fellow diners in a restaurant and come out intact. Most Asian places we’ve visited have done their best to find comfortable seating for our kids even if they didn’t have a high chair. The idea of letting someone walk out kids around the restaurant while we ate doesn’t resonate in today’s world. You may find yourself one child less very quickly. lol. However I have to give you top MARX for this piece.
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Yes, I can definitely see wanting predictability on holiday with kids for the relaxation factor. Although I might prefer to work that in to a beach trip!
I have to point out that we did revisit a lot of places we’d already been to when the kids were very little and the predictability was a factor there.
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I was going to say as well – it is a good point that walking kids around isn’t The Done Thing everywhere (not all kids would tolerate it, either). We’ve had people do it for us and usually they don’t go more than a metre or two (they might just walk around our table, for example), but I’ve heard stories of the baby being taken back to the kitchen which not everyone would be comfortable with.
P did get offered a tour of the kitchen recently in Thailand, but he didn’t take them up on it til the second day 🙂
Also – terrible pun 🙂
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Terrible pun? I thought it was PUNNY! 🙂
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Ooooookay we have got to put together some sort of pun-off. The trick is getting it started. I’m feeling at a bit of a loss today, but the beauty of the internet is I can bide my time…
Just you wait, Mr Ianincyberspace, just you wait…
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Very down to earth advice Bronwyn. If kids are engaged, all the rest goes by the wayside, they’ll eat whatever you give them while standing on their heads; they’ll sleep on a rock, they’ll wear whatever you choose or nothing if that is appropriate; they’ll do whatever you ask to get to what they enjoy – it just all goes down so, so much easier. All the other stuff is just window dressing for times when they are not engaged. I have a friend -Penny- who is a lover of children and has 6 of them (at last count). They range from toddler to university age. Penny is a teacher and a firm believer that amusement is the key to chold raising. Her first few, she carted with her everywhere – and I mean everywhere. She does not have a lot of money so trips to “child-friendly” places are replaced by trips to the beach, the swamp (we have some bogs here that have wooden walking trails throught them with explanatory posts every so many feet), parks to feed the ducks, etc. At one point I had a car and she didn’t so we used to journey around with the kids (however many would fit) to the oddest places like the Tam Tam in Montreal – a sort of folk music festival; the subway; a free concert in the park; ,etc. they were great and didn’t expect high chairs or special attention or whatever. It seemed to be mixing with adults who were engaged themselves and understanding of kids, that made it work. Whatever – special venues geared to kids were not on the table and it worked fine – of course kudos to Penny for training them that way and for her patience and innovative thinking.
Anyway Bronwyn, great post. Thank you.
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Adults who are engaged (and therefore more likely to be patient and innovative) is a key thing. Mostly for the patience and innovation! Then if they don’t eat/sleep well you can kind of work it out.
Of course, having a friend with a car can also be a bonus, especially, I imagine (actually I can’t begin to imagine) with six (six!) kids.
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Oh, yeah, 6 kids and maybe not out of the running yet – she started early. And all “planned” – she told me at two kids that she wanted to have enough to form her own baseball team. Scary. When we “toured” (I worked a shift that gave me 5 days off in a row every three weeks) she would have some kids farmed out to either neighbors or family – enough that we could fit the rest in the back seat with seat belts/child seats. She had a large network, which was what was needed. She was a good driver (as in technically adept) but fast on the highway. She loved driving my car (it was an Intrepid and was fast and stable as well as being large inside). One day were travelling to Montreal (about a 2 hr drive) with three kids in the back for a festival and she asked to drive. No problem. Well, she was in a rush and we were chatting. I warned her about her speed – although it is a 4 lane, straight highway. The kids started to squabble in the back and she half-turned and proceeded to give them shit. I told her turn back around and that we now had a new car rule:No talking to anyone in the back seat when doing over 150 kmph (speed limit was 100 kmph). Such is the life of Penny, and yet she’s never had an accident. She has mellowed some as she’s aged. Thank God.
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Well each to their own – I would definitely have crashed the car by now (by accident, by accident) so it’s probably best if I leave that kind of thing to her.
Although I’m glad to hear she’s mellowed (and also slowed down?).
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Yep she’s slowed down, as much as you can with that many kids and a full time job (she teaches elementary children as a job). She is hilarious and smart and has a great deal of faith in God – although she’s not big on religion. It was too funny : some years ago she got a kick out of saying hallelujah around her 3 year old every time they saw a cross. Well, little William loved this and would bellow “Hallelujah” at every cross sighting. This backfired on Penny the first time she took him to church. Ha!
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Not one of those noisy shouting-out-praise-willy-nilly type churches, then? 🙂
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Nope, mainstream Christian. But Penny is very ebullient which was why William belting out hallelujah was funny to her but rather embarrassing in church. She was very innovative and would get the kids to sing a song about Johnny Appleseed followed by “Thank you God” for grace before ,meals. She made faith very personal for the kids. No doubt she had oodles of faith or she would never have set off on a mission to fill the world with kids wiuthout a plan. That dosn’t work for many people but it did for her. She had some hard times but things ineveitably worked out. She was very grateful for whatever came her way.
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Sounds like someone I need to observe closely for tips 🙂
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It actually just occurred to me that she has a 4 year theater arts degree (as well as an education degree) and acted in amateur plays and such for many years. She can be standing there without any props or preparation and put on a show with different characters and voices that would make your hair stand on end as she literally becomes each character. She rarely did that but she was amazingly innovative and could sing and dance as well as act. A veritable plethora of amusement for kids. It was almost like she took two university degrees in order to amuse the kids. She was definitely a bit different than normal in that area.
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Oh my goodness, yes – very well equipped! I mean, I’m ok with illnesses and science questions, but I do tend to find myself scratching my head when it comes to entertainment at times.
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Yes I agree. One of our worst travel days was actually at Disney World. Pretty much everywhere else we have gone has been easier, especially developing countries in Asia which many people might write off but I found awesome thanks to how the locals embrace children. Even though they don’t have change tables or child sized toilet (I was a bit surprised by that one in the article as it is not something I would ever think about, let alone prioritise).
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Lol I should have clicked on Travel Mama’s article before I commented – I thought this was referring to a different article on Chasing the Donkey about kid friendliness which is what part of my comment refers to.
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Oh I totally meant to work in a link to that one as well (got a bit side-tracked). I’ll add it as a related post when I get home to my computer.
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And not that I didn’t enjoy Disneyland – I was a bit converted, in fact – but I think a quiet day at the Hong Kong version was enough for us. I’ve read about the bigger/busier US versions and it just seems overwhelming.
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HA! You got it Mama. Love the visions of you boobs out in a Tuk Tuk! In which case, sounds like Croatia is perfect for you and yours – come on over.
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That really was a dumb idea. I still wince when I remember it.
Croatia would definitely fit our list by the sounds. Makes me wonder how we can base ourselves in Germany like TTM so it’s just a skip and a jump (or Croatia, like you!)
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Hmmm… not sure on part a. But part b is easy, so many cheap flights or an 8 hour drive 😉
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Definitely the eight-hour drive. I love a good driving holiday. Now part a)….
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Bronwyn, I think your definition of a “Kid-friendly destination” is spot on. You see so many more family meltdowns at the Disney’s of the world than you do on the family-friendly streets of Sorrento, Ubud, or Yogyakarta. These are the kinds of places where kids are not only tolerated – they’re celebrated! 🙂 ~Terri
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I think some people underestimate the difference small bits of help can make. Even having someone make a silly face to distract one child while you’re instructing the other (so the first one doesn’t take the opportunity to grab your attention back by causing a fuss) can keep things on the steady.
I can appreciate the point of view of parents who think they need the change table/etc because they’re used to being more or less on their own and these facilities do become much more important then.
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I hold to my belief that any destination can be “kid friendly” if the parents are happy (and creative). I’ve walked through the Nordic Heritage Museum in dead of winter Stockholm playing up the interesting attributes of Gustav Vasa and “Scan design” to a 3 year old. It worked! (But I worked to make it work!) I’ve also taken two little kids to high altitude, off the beaten track China and it was our best trip ever (and not a high chair in sight).
So, here, here, I completely agree with you and your manifesto!
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The parents’ happiness really does count, because it feeds into the whole attitude of the trip. Not that we want to make it all about them, either, especially since parents should be better at perspective and self-control than kids, but it has to be an agreeable compromise.
I would look at individual personality rather than a generic view of what families like/specific equipment and facilities any time.
A wants to follow your footsteps on that high altitude trip through China, by the way.
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A would love it! (You all would love it!) It was a killer trip. One more sip of coffee and I’m off to take my own advice and engage my kids on another new day in a new place… Thank goodness our things arrive tomorrow and school starts in just under 2 weeks!
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Can’t wait to read about it (once school starts and you’ve unpacked your stuff and etc etc and can therefore get writing again).
I notice you’ve got your internet connection, though – good to have your priorities straight. 🙂
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I will admit that all of your posts have made me, at some point or another, wish that I had traveled more with my son when he was little.
Then I’ll read more – sometimes it’s a new post but frequently it’s in the exact same post and I offer up thanks that I’m such a homebody and our “trips” consisted of no more than a few hours away!
🙂
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Well on my list is “resolvable challenges” so you may be getting a skewed impression – you can certainly take it easier and it all depends what you’re looking for (and a lot of that has to do with the role travel plays in your overall life). Also I do dumb things like try to breast feed on bumpy roads quite a lot. Ouch.
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Bronwyn I can’t even concentrate on this post. When were you Freshly Pressed?!! I’m sure I would have seen that on your blog before. Am I losing my marbles? Congrats!!!!
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Observant! Yes, just last week our packing “experiment” was freshly pressed. I must remember to tell more people about that!
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Oh for heaven’s sake Bronwyn!!! Congratulations and yes I demand a post immediately! I am so excited for you and so well deserved. Can you hear me squealing on the other side of the globe?
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I should write a limerick about it. I’ve been slack there this month. Also busy trying to clear my inbox from the extra activity – not sure how I’d cope if I got as many comments as some of the really big bloggers!
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Did you see how James and Terri did their recent Freshly Pressed. They reblogged the post with the announcement.
Anyway take your time I’m just so excited for you!!!
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I did see that but I went and dug it out again (and realised I never commented!). That was a stunning and very thought-provoking article which withstood a re-blogging, though. I feel a bit embarrassed doing a whole reblog on my rather more frivolous offering – although I’ll definitely have to remember to add it to the end-of-August roundup. Yes, that’s probably what I’ll do – that and the limerick. 🙂
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I think you are being extraordinarily humble. The post is fantastic and playing now on my social media sites. It’s a big honor Bronwyn and certainly no need to be quiet about it. Do what’s comfortable for you but I really think your readers will want to know. 🙂
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Thanks for sharing it! I must admit I was pretty chuffed and I’m not averse to a bit more crowing. 🙂
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Glad to hear it Bronwyn! Now get on a rooftop and start crowing. 🙂
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Wasn’t I just saying we prefer the ground floor? 🙂
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🙂
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