"Why don't you just stay in the United States?" This tends to be the question we get asked fairly frequently. It's been eye opening to hear the fear and utter confusion that our vacation style creates! The funny thing about culture is that you don't know it's there until you decide to break it. After my husband and I started our family, I was quickly hit with 'culture' in our vacation choices. Being an east coast family it was very clear: summer vacations to the Atlantic shore and a winter/spring break to Disney World. Maybe throw in a couple bucket list national parks in your kids' childhood and that's how you vacation. Now there is nothing inherently wrong with this American family vacation culture, this is just about acknowledging that it's just a cultural norm and not feeling pressure to adhere to that norm if you want to do things differently.
I have inadvertently wrestled with cultural norms quite a bit in my life - I was one of the first altar 'boys' as a 12 year old girl in our catholic church. I tried to play American legion baseball because there were no summer softball leagues available (failed to convince the coach it was a good idea). I've worked in a technology field for the last 18+ years, many times the only woman in a room. I'm a working Christian mom with a husband taking a turn of staying at home with the kids. Why not take on challenging the American vacation culture?
This blog is really intended to share our family experiences in traveling the world and provide inspiration and practical advice for other families desiring to explore this marvelous planet. I have heard many families desire to do this, but what I see happening is this typical thought pattern: 'I don't know how to plan a trip to <name the country of choice>', 'isn't it dangerous/confusing to go?' which leads to 'I need to use a travel agent' which eventually lands the family to the conclusion that 'It's too expensive'. Dead end, book a trip to the beach.
This blog is intended to mainly focus on the 'I don't know how to plan', debunking the 'scary' factor of leaving the US and ultimately calculating that international travel doesn't have to be more expensive than US travel. When people look at us sideways for how much we *must* spend on vacations, I'm very quick to point out 'that trip was probably less expensive than the average family vacation to Disney World.' So yes, it's more expensive than going camping for a week at a state park (which is also a fabulous option!) but for families that have the budget for Disney, there is an entire world of travel destinations available.
Our goal is having adventures together as a family. It's about experiencing cultures, languages, architecture, landscapes outside of our own. It's about continuously challenging ourselves to not become so comfortable in our own surroundings that we can't function effectively in different environments. It's about building this agility in our children and in ourselves. It's about experiencing the good and kindness in the world amidst being inundated with negative news headlines.
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