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- My husband and I lived in Canada in our 20s, and we brought our young kids there a decade later.
- Our children were 4 years old and 8 months old, so they don’t remember any of the overseas trip.
- With two young kids, we had to skip or adjust a lot of the activities we’d planned or hoped to do.
My husband and I lived in Canada in our 20s, and couldn’t wait to return a decade later.
Some of our happiest memories were of living in Banff in the Rockies, meeting other young people, going on epic outdoors adventures, and exploring Canada’s national parks.
This time around, though, we had our 4-year-old and 8-month-old kids to take with us. On our overseas adventure, we planned to visit my brother in Vancouver for his 50th birthday and road trip across British Columbia and Alberta.
After our grueling 17-hour flight from Melbourne, Australia, to Vancouver, we hit the ground running. In total, we spent 10 days exploring Banff National Park in an RV and went on a road trip throughout Hope and other parts of Canada.
We had great moments along the way but we learned some tough lessons, too.
We couldn’t do the same things we used to
On our first trip to Banff, we had zero responsibility. This time, we had two little people to care for — and they came first.
I realized pretty quickly that having young children hindered us from doing some of the things we used to love in the area.
Before we arrived, I had naïve visions of being able to go on epic hikes with the kids strapped to our backs. In reality, they didn’t want to traipse up a mountain (on my back or otherwise).
Instead, we took short walks with a stroller and made lots of stops along the way to look at butterflies, pick flowers, and eat snacks.
One night, our housemates kindly offered to look after the kids, so my husband and I snuck away for a cocktail at the restaurant I’d worked at a decade earlier.
Two sips in, they called to say our baby girl wouldn’t stop crying, so we rushed back to their place as fast as we could. All in all, having young kids meant we had a very different kind of travel experience.
Next time, we’ll wait until our kids are older to travel overseas
Banff wasn’t quite the same the second time around, largely because we were in a new stage in life with different priorities: our young kids.
Looking back, it would’ve been better to wait until our children were both older to take them overseas.
I’d hoped that our 4-year-old son would at least remember this trip, but he’s now 9 and a lot of those memories have faded. Sometimes I’ll ask him about Vancouver or a particular lake we visited in Canada, and he’ll just give me a blank stare.
He was just a little too young to appreciate the privilege (and expense) of traveling to another country. I’m confident if we took him overseas today, he’d remember it far better, as I still recall trips I took abroad with my family when I was around his age.
We now have three children and our youngest is a toddler. So, at this time, we’re just focusing on exploring our backyard and taking domestic vacations in Australia.
In a few years, though, we’d like to take the kids on another overseas expedition — ideally one they’ll remember.
