Why Traveling the World May Be the Best Gift for Your Kids |

Ryan Biddulph June 16, 2023 travel posts 🕑 6 minutes read

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

After observing children whose parents took ’em along for world travels, I wanted to write this post for parents everywhere.

Generally-speaking, kids who circle the globe have been:

confident
self-assured
relaxed
playful
bold
engaging

In particular, I recall speaking to 3 young globe-trotting girls aged 6-12. I felt stunned by how each kid confidently initiated and held conversations with Kelli and I. Sure they sounded like kids in some regards but also exuded a certain maturity and confidence about them rarely seen in young ones.

Mind you; kids who do not travel may exhibit similar traits to be generally happy, calm and confident. However, I’ve rarely seen it.

Based on my mindful experiences, kids who circle the globe appear to be more mature, confident, flexible and calm.

Each characteristic positions globe-trotting children to enjoy their adult life and to experience sweet worldly success.

Developing these traits early in life saves you some serious headaches down the road.

International traveling kids usually display a higher level of emotional intelligence than homebound kids.

Traveling children face fear and discomfort quite often. Homebound kids tend not to; living in one spot for a long time in one culture following one routine generally removes discomfort and fear from the equation. Hence most adult’s absolute distaste for fear and discomfort; we learn these lessons and mental patterns as homebody kids.

Do you want your kids to be happy, prospering and peaceful?

Consider taking them along for some international trips.

Here’s why…..

Higher Levels of Fearlessness

Traveling kids exit their comfort zones frequently because hitting the road rockets you outside of your comfort zone.

Traveling abroad skyrockets you outside of your comfort zone. Kids who learn how to gracefully live in spots where they do not know the language or cultural norms glide through life’s challenges like a hot knife through butter.

Meanwhile, most home-bound kids become so fixed in their parent’s routines and their own routines that the big, illusory boogey-man of fear waits around every corner any time they think about leaving their comfort zones. These little kid minds typically become identical big adult minds that live in the same spot with the same culture with people that speak their language and share the same culture; sure it feels comfortable to live in such an environment but note how easily these folks surrender to fear and manipulation. Happiness and freedom, I am afraid, are not the result of said manipulation.

Happy, thriving, prospering adults conquer fear and become highly fearless.

Instill this trait in your kids now. Hit the road. Travel abroad.

Increased Mental Flexibility

Traveling children experience things like:

flight delays
long bus rides
hotel rooms or apartments without windows, or without AC
new, local cuisine outside of their comfort zone

Being mentally flexible, open and willing to try something new benefits them handsomely in a world of homebound kids who appear to be more rigid in patterns established for them by their parents.

Having your favorite few dishes and hating everything else is OK as a kid. But what happens when you exhibit the same level of preference as an adult because you never tried anything new? Look around; most “allegedly” adult minds act like emotionally-spoiled children when their preferences go away because of inevitable change.

I have seen little traveling kids with a far higher level of emotional intelligence than most homebody adults.

Guys; I love ya’s all. I do not intend to put anyone on blast. But I will share some uncomfortable to embrace truths.

Expanded Confidence

Most pre-teen girls I observed before traveling:

ignored adults
displayed a bit of a moody nature
stared at the TV (when I was a little kid) or at their phones (common observation during my adult days)

I get the biology deal that the ego uses to excuse their behavior.

One 12 year old, worldly, traveling, pre-teen girl whom Kelli and I met began a conversation with me about my laptop. She proceeded to chat with us – two seeming adult strangers – for 20 minutes before getting back to rehearsing for her play. The experience blew my mind because she held the conversation with more confidence, posture and calm than most adults I chat with.

Huh?

I thought:

“What just happened?”

Traveling happened, folks.

Some homebody kids are confident. Some traveling kids are not.

But typically, children who travel are precocious because each meets kids and adults routinely during their globe trots. Being shy, moody and withdrawn seems almost impossible for traveling kids. People flow at you as if on a conveyor belt. Either you become confident and self-assured to interact with the world or become quite a miserable, isolated traveler…..even as a kid.

Unfortunately, homebody kids rarely get opportunities to meet a high volume of new people. Parental projections often make the world “filled with dangerous strangers,” barring a few close friends.

How do ya think *that* works out for little kid minds who see the world as filled with dangerous strangers, outside of a few close friends?

Newsflash; observe government, political parties and the system in general. Fearing and fighting other humans is how the system thrives. Most minds fear humans because at an early age, parents who rarely travel anywhere project stranger-danger fears onto kids. Said parents also acquire insidious information about the world from nefarious newsmakers versus traveling to places abroad and seeing how the headlines are almost complete bullshit and reality is largely peace, love and respect.

Meanwhile, a 12 year old globe trotter has the confidence to hold a mature discussion with two adults, whom she actively engaged. She did not see dangerous strangers but friends she had yet to meet.

Traveling can kinda do that to ya….

Excellent Communication Skills

Do you want your kids to be happy, free and prospering?

Teach them the skill of communicating with human beings.

Peace is in our oneness and money is in effectively serving and communicating with human beings.

How can you best teach your children to communicate?

Circle the globe with them for a little bit or for a long time.

As an adult, my communication skills multiplied exponentially since I hit the road abroad in 2011. Being in places where I did not speak the language forced me to communicate effectively, gracefully and mindfully through other means. Developing this skill helped me “read a room” effectively when conversing with folks in my native English tongue.

Traveling children develop this most critical of skills because traveling forces you to communicate with the global community in order to:

get around
secure lodging
get food
enjoy your travels

Globe trotting kids observe their parents engaged in these practices then follow their lead.

You will never, ever understand your dependence on our One-ness and your need to communicate with It skillfully until you either decide to become enlightened or start circling the globe.

In their mind, most adults believe that they need to rely on themselves for money, food and shelter. Perhaps some apply the same mindset for their immediately family. But when you decide to cut yourself off from the world your communication skills will suffer because you will never master the art of being relatable to humanity.

Traveling is a simple way to be relatable, to communicate skillfully and to see our One-ness.