Thoughts on Children Travelling

So I have mixed views about travelling these days. Part of me thinks that we shouldn't travel much, due to the ecological costs of it all. Then I think for how little we do, ours is a drop in a very big ocean. I probably don't even drive 3000 miles a year anymore. 

I do think about travel when I was younger and how it helped form me and made me realise what was important in life. 

I can remember coming back from travelling for 3 months when I was 19 and I overheard my uncle talking to my dad a few weeks later, "He went a boy, but he's come back a man." I smiled as I walked quietly away from that one. I had come back with direction, sure in what I wanted in life. 

The three months were incredible, I went coast-to-coast across America with a friend (via Greyhound bus), then went to New Zealand and Australia on my own for a few months. Suddenly I was very far away from my support network and had to work everything out for myself. Admittedly they were very easy countries to travel, but I was only 19, just into becoming an apprentice. I hitchhiked, didn't always book in advance and realised that being calm and going with the flow sometimes just worked. Something I showed my wife years later when we travelled around Europe in a converted ambulance with nothing booked other than two ferries. 

I went on holiday with my parents only until about 14, I then looked after the farm instead, having someone good with the stock was important to dad. I also think I used to drive dad mad that my head would be in a book every time we'd stop on holiday anyway, its something we sometimes talk about, but I'm not sure how I'd feel about leaving one of my children behind at that age. It was a different time though and I'm fairly sure I was happy to have the house to myself (my cousin would stay at night).  But I can remember travelling to France and Luxemburg and I remember that feeling of being in a different country, walking to get bread, everything that little bit different. 

This holiday to Norway, to me having the children with us was the most exciting part. They'd never been on a plane before or left the shores of Great Britain. I felt that having them travel to other places, experience different things, eat different food, talk to different people, would help make them more rounded individuals. 

No electronic devices besides my daughters phone for her diabetes means these three are as thick as thieves together. I adore their relationship with each other. I hear so many parents moan about how their children get on, but ours are like best friends. 

At the end of the day that's what I want from our parenting with these three. I want to help form humans that are good people, ones that are interesting to be around, good company. Giving them a range of experiences helps do that, I love hearing them tell funny stories or putting their experiences into play. Standing back and listening to them talk to a family friend gives me great pleasure. 

I think travel does help form those things. I know we're in a fortunate position to be able to travel, we both work hard but have certainly experienced some luck in life, meeting and falling in love at a relatively young age being the main one. It makes me wonder where our energies should be focused or pushing towards. 

What's your thoughts on travel? 

Is it something that should be consigned to the past, as we're told the world is slipping away, or are we richer for it?