In the midst of so many people, both in real life and online, telling me how much of my old life I’d lose after I became a mom, I pledged to continue doing at least one thing: traveling.
I got pregnant with my son more than three years ago, six weeks after moving to New York City after three-and-a-half years in Australia. I’d met my husband there and we’d traveled all over that country in addition to New Zealand, Fiji and Japan (I also took a separate jaunt to mainland China and he a buddies trip to Thailand and Vietnam). I’d traveled a bunch before my temporary expatriatism as well, both internationally and domestically. My parents had brought me up that way, and I’d become a well-rounded person who loves to see new places and new cultures. Why wouldn’t I want that for my child?
When my son was four months old, we took a road trip to the Finger Lakes, carting his infant car seat in to each winery. A few months later, we took him to Jamaica for a college friend’s wedding. Trips to Phoenix, Chicago, New Orleans, Seattle and Vancouver came the following year. This past September, we took him to Ireland for a week. During these trips, we still struggled with the same challenges every parent of a toddler does—picky eating, restlessness on planes and in cars, finicky sleeping. But I hope that these travels, as they progress, help my son become a tolerant, open-minded and curious individual.
I might be on the right track. According to a recent article on Quartz, traveling with your children might grow them into more empathetic adults. Adam Galinsky, a professor at Columbia Business School who conducted research on the benefits of travel on the brain’s neural pathways, says, “Engaging with another culture helps kids recognize that their own egocentric way of looking at the world is not the only way of being in the world. This act of perspective-taking is a critical ingredient in compassion and empathy.” Other research supports Galinsky’s claims.
It’s clearly too early to tell how all of our gallivanting will impact my son. But I hope it’s for the better, and that he sees the world as a diverse, wonderful place worth exploring.
