I got married at 21 years old and had three kids in quick succession shortly after. My husband and I spent the first few years of our marriage and parenthood making little money and drowning in bills. We rented small apartments, filled our bellies with beans and rice and thrifted literally everything.
When our eldest was 9, I went back to work full-time and quickly climbed the corporate ladder. Having extra cash felt like a dream come true. We bought a second car, a house with a mortgage we could now afford and had extra to renovate.
Then the economy tanked. We sold our second car and canceled our renovation plans. We went back to clipping coupons and I slipped into a deep depression. I worked two jobs and earned over six figures, but now our money went to an over-inflated mortgage and overpriced groceries.
A few months ago our family experienced an unexpected windfall. Our finances went from dire to extremely optimistic. We had the chance to really think about what we wanted to do with some of the extra cash.
We talked about saving the money for the kids’ education, putting some extra cash in our retirement funds or funding some of our much-needed home renovations. Instead, I booked a trip to Florida.
Why we chose to travel instead of saving for our kids’ education
Rather than depositing the money in our kids’ education fund, we planned a trip — and left enough aside that we could plan more trips over the next few years. We decided to spend the next couple of years making up for lost time. I hadn’t been on a plane in 13 years. Our kids, ages 12, 10, and 7, had never been on a plane.
According to the 2023 U.S. Family Travel Survey, parents are becoming increasingly aware of the positive benefits of travel. This could be impacted by the pandemic, where parents and children experienced the loss of travel plans and were forced to shelter at home. Eighty-four percent of parents surveyed said that travel helps to make their kids more adaptable and interested in new experiences. Sixty-one percent of parents say that travel helps their children develop and improve their social skills.
Affordability is a concern for everyone; with the rising cost of living, increased interest rates, and increased interest in travel, the price of a vacation has grown significantly in a post-COVID world. According to a study by Hilton, 64 percent of global travelers are willing to cut their spending in other areas so that they can continue to travel.
While we value education and will encourage our children to explore educational opportunities when they graduate high school, we also think that the immediate benefits of travel — from improved mental health and family bonding time to new and unique experiences are worth spending our money on.
Our first big family trip
We spent nearly a week basking in the sun, exploring iconic sites in Miami, driving through the Everglades and swimming in sugar-sand beaches in Naples. On our 13th wedding anniversary, we drove to Miami Beach and ate a meal at Joe’s Stone Crab with our three kids. “Amelia Earhart ate here,” I told my kids, my plastic bib catching drips of mustard sauce.
When we got home I felt positively radiant. Our trip has unlocked the wanderlust in me. While we’ve always been a fairly adventurous family, most of our fun and excursions have taken place within a two-hour drive of our home: weekends at a rental cabin overlooking Lake Michigan, overnights at Niagara Falls, or an Airbnb farm stay where we fed donkeys and my kids were chased by roosters all day.
Local adventures would always be special, but we hadn’t seen much beyond our home base. Visiting Florida reminded us that there was an entire world outside of Ontario.
My kids felt the same way. We started dreaming of future trips we could take. An all-inclusive to the Dominican Republic, where we can sit at the beach all day and be worry-free for a week. A trip to Ireland, where we could explore ancient castles and take in the stunning Cliffs of Moher. A month on the islands of Malta, where we could visit my family and learn about where my grandparents came from while breathing in the Mediterranean Sea and eating the food I grew up on.
We don’t even have to leave the country to discover new worlds — a few days in Quebec City would give us that European feeling, and a weekend on Prince Edward Island would fill our bellies with fresh seafood and give us the chance to breathe in the salty ocean breeze.
It all feels tantalizing and exciting — and worth saving and budgeting for.
My kids’ dreams are changing too
“Mom, can we go to New York City?” My 12-year-old asked, while I carefully maneuvered our heavy luggage through a crowd of people in Terminal 2 of Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.
“Can we just get on the plane to Florida before we make any more travel plans?” I responded through gritted teeth, my shoulders aching from our kids’ heavy backpacks.
By the time we settled into the airplane, my daughter turned to me and grinned, “So, New York City next?”
I surprised her with an equally silly grin. “Yeah, sure.”
While I might not have a massive education fund for my kids, I like to think that we’re giving them a different type of education right now. In New York City, my daughter might watch a Broadway musical and unlock a new dream. At a museum, she might meet a curator and decide she wants to learn more about art history, archaeology, or anthropology. While visiting the ocean, she might learn about marine biology or meet an aquatic veterinarian.
I hope that through travel I can show my children that their future opportunities are endless, and so are their dreams.