Closing thoughts

Some closing thoughts...

What? You are taking the kids? ALL OF THEM??
I couldn't even count the number of people that couldn't believe we were bringing all three kids with us. But, I love traveling with my kids. Sure, it isn't always easy. And no, they probably won't remember details of the trip. But, I do believe that taking kids on trips like this does change them... it makes them more flexible, more interested in other cultures (Priyana came home and wanted to read books about Rome), and even increases neural connection in the brain. (Check out this short article for an interesting read on why traveling with kids has its benefits... http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/10-04/why-its-not-selfish-for-parents-to-travel-with-young-children.html).

While I don't judged AT ALL anyone that chooses to leave the kids at home, I was really REALLY annoyed at one comment someone made to me on a travel forum when I asked for an itinerary review. After basically calling me crazy for attempting such an itinerary with young kids, she informed me that when her kids were young she took them to places like legoland and disneyland, aka kid friendly destinations. Basically, she said I was selfish for dragging my kids along on this trip... they wouldn't have fun and think about all the other travelers I would be inconveniencing. Told me there would be time when they are older for trips such as this. Other comments included... "kids shouldn't be allowed in the Vatican" and "Go on this trip later when you don't need to bring a diaper bag along" (this was in response to a question about where I could stow our baggage if it wasn't allowed in the Colosseum due to increased security).  In all honesty, those comments really pissed me off. Here are my brief thoughts in response...

1. First of all, kids are human too. They have just as much right to go on vacation with their families, visit the sacred Vatican, and be on an airplane. This may sound harsh, but you are not entitled to a noise free flight. A plane is to get a large amount of people from one place to the other; that is all. If you really feel entitled to a noise free flight, please, go ahead and charter your own.

2. Parents have desires too and those desires shouldn't have to be on hold just because they have kids. No one is guaranteed a set amount of time on this earth. If I want to see Rome, I shouldn't have to leave them behind and I shouldnt have to wait until my kids are grown to see it. I am alive and healthy now and that is all I know.

3. Kids don't need to only go to kid friendly places. In fact, if you only take your kids on vacations to Disneyland, Legoland and Seaworld and ONLY kid friendly places, I can assure you they will probably grow up to be the same entitled adults as the ones who suggested this in the first place. Kids should learn that they can go to cultural, historical places and still have fun. They should learn how to behave in those places as well. Also, teaching them young that fun is more than wild rides and sugar ladened food would be a benefit to them for the rest of their lives.

4. Parents traveling with kids should not be judged for doing so. How can it possibly be selfish to want to be with your kids, your family, and take them on a trip around the world?

Making traveling with kids enjoyable?
While I cannot stand judgmental people or people that think its selfish to travel with young kids, I am also not the type of person that expects others to just deal with bad behavior from my kids. My kids, for the most part, travel well. They are not spoiled brats. We have a high standard of behavior that we expect from our kids... while traveling, when in restaurant, in public places. I do my best to make sure my kids do not bother others. When they are really little, like Veena, its a bit harder. But even then, I try to appease her as much as possible. Here are some things we did to make the trip more enjoyable for all of us...

1. Snacks. First and foremost when traveling with kids is you have to be prepared. Lots of snacks, change of clothes, water bottles and entertainment. A hungry kid is an unhappy kid and therefore we always had snacks with us. We didn't let Veena roam the airplane, but kept her with us.

2. Tours. We didn't do tours where the kids would have to be quiet the entire time. It is not reasonable to expect a 1 year old to be quiet for a 3 hour tour of the Vatican, for example.

3. Restaurants. Along the same line, we didn't take our kids to fancy restaurants. It's also unreasonable to expect a 1 year old to sit quietly and not make a mess at a restaurant.

4. Arrived early to everything. We arrived early to everything and therefore weren't rushing or expecting others to give us special privileges (cutting in front, etc). This also allowed us to make sure the kids were well fed before the flight or had time to run around to get tired, etc. I will say that the airline we chose allowed families traveling with young kids to board first. This was so awesome and I hope it never changes. Allowing a family with small kids to board first really is advantageous to all the passengers. And seats are assigned so its not like we get first dibs on seats or anything.

5. Know your kids. We know what our kids are capable of. We knew that Sariah would get tired from too much walking and may need to use a stroller, so we brought one. We knew Veena wouldn't do well sleeping in the bed with us and so we brought the pack n play. We knew our kids would need breaks outdoors between activities and so we made that happen. We adjusted our travel plans to accommodate what we knew our kids were capable of, and that probably made all the difference.

Do I regret not canceling the trip?
As you read, I was pretty anxious during a large portion of the trip. It was pretty nerve racking to be in a foreign country with the family during this uncertain and tumultuous time. Had something happened, I probably would never have been able to forgive myself. And, I am definitely VERY cautious when choosing destinations (we choose grand cayman out of all the caribbean islands because I researched and found out it was the safest). While I don't think traveling with kids is selfish, I would NEVER take my kids to any destination no matter how much I wanted to go if I thought it was unsafe. EVER.

But, now that we are back home safely, I am so glad we did not cancel the trip. It really was a trip of a lifetime and as I have said before, we aren't guaranteed anything.

Will we return to Rome?
To Rome, probably not. We are more of  "seen it once and move to the next" type of travelers. I enjoyed the monuments we saw in Rome, but I didn't care much for the overall culture or overall feel of the city. The people weren't super nice (which is important to me), it was really busy and the food wasn't spectacular (in my amateur opinion).  I did love Venice though. But I feel like I got my fill of it, at least for now.

In comparison to Ireland and Grand Cayman, Rome was my least favorite.

How do you afford it?
We live really frugally year round. Really frugally. Things that most people don't give a second thought, we do. We don't go out to fancy dinners, we don't order pizza, we opt for the cheaper menu item when we do go out to eat and try to stretch any gift cards we receive. We don't have new cars or the newest electronics. Our kids rarely get toys from the toy store. For parties, I make instead of buy. Its not like we go without by any means, we just try to get everything for cheaper.

In addition, when we book our travel we do it in the most cost effective way. I scour the internet for best prices. The total cost per person for our hotel (which included breakfast) and our flights was 898.61 (Veena was free).  Sure that meant we didn't get to stay right near the Trevi Fountain or leave from San Diego (Leaving from LAX saved us 1k), but we had a budget we needed to stay within. In Rome, we also tried to only eat out only 1x per day and we also saved money by bringing all our own snacks. We also brought the pack n play which saved us about 80 dollars as well. We tried to save whenever we could.

Most important travel advice?
If there is one thing I can advise to all the travelers out there (again, from my amateur experiences) Id say... plan, plan, plan. Bringing snacks for the kids, although a lot of work, saved time (we didn't have to go in search of food) and money (we didn't have to waste money on things the kids may end up not liking or refusing to eat).  Planning ahead of time and figuring out an itinerary of what you want to see and when saves so much time. It makes for a much more enjoyable experience and you make the most out of your time. And you see the things you really want to see!