252 Days Over Twelve Years is All You Have

Your Version 2.0

A few years back, I presented the notion that not all family travel is family-focused. Some of it is family-tolerant. The topic took us in many different directions, from empowering kids to the influence their generation has, like no other, on the prior generation. One of the ideas that ended up in the parking lot that seemed to evoke the most emotion with the audience was the number of vacation days we have with our children.

Child Psychologists I spoke to when putting together ideas for our Precious Journeys® family travel collection shared results of countless studies they did on the truly influential years in a child’s years that affect decision-making and problem-solving solving, among other traits later in life. It was 5 to 16, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone with a teenager in the house. I then asked the same professionals about travel since we were at a travel conference and the role travel plays in those influential events. While the answers here varied, I could see a common theme, which was the correlation between travel and enhanced education. When it comes to adventure travel, while there is no set age at which to start a child’s travel life, our clients seem to start that journey when their children are around 6 years old. They seem to treat the age of 18 as the culmination of that travel path before their child’s next chapter starts. With a 12-year-old and a 17-year-old in my house, I follow a similar timeline, including taking my son paragliding for his 16th birthday.

Think about that for a second. 6 to 18, that’s 12 years. Twelve years is all you get to impart the wisdom needed to raise a global citizen, truly. Think about summer vacations, spring breaks, and the various holidays. Now take those periods, and think about the time you are able to take to travel with your family, and count those days. Then multiply it by 12 years. You will end up with a number close to 252 days. Don’t believe me? Please do the math yourself and be honest about two things: The amount of time you spend with your children during their break where they are fully engaged with you. The amount of time your children spend with you where they, in the age of social media and electronics, are fully engaged with you. Those holidays are a lot shorter than you think.