"Babie" wrote:

Some of you may know how much I love to travel. But so far we've only taken
our daughter on domestic trips.

I don't know that international trips are really any different from domestic
trips when you come right down to it. My mother traveled with us from the time
we were babies, but our first international trip was by ship to Europe when I
was 12 and my sister was just 10. The reason it was so late was because my
parents didn't have the money to travel international - in those days (1950)
there wasn't a lot of international travel being done.

Traveling with children means that you have to slow down and not try to pack the
maximum into each day. Schedule time in beaches or parks

How old were your kids when you felt comfortable taking them
internationally?

As I've said, I don't think it matters really, especially on a cruise. My
children saw a lot of the US due to DH being in the Navy and moving around. DD#1
had been in seven different schools by the time she was in 7th grade. We
stopped moving at that point, and DH just went without us until he retired.

I didn't take any of my children international but while my sister's husband was
stationed in Germany and my husband was on a Med cruise (courtesy of the US
Navy) she and I met up in Spain with my niece who was then a year old, and we
traveled from Madrid to Lisbon and back on the train.

My MOM took my children with her when they were between 6th and 8th grade. She
wanted them to be capable of dressing and otherwise taking care of themselves
when she took them. She took my oldest dd to Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti
when dd was 13 and my mom was 63, the next dd to Germany, Austria, Switzerland,
France, England, and Scotland when dd#2 was 13 and mom was 65. This was an
extremely long trip -6 weeks - way way too long for both of them.

Then she took dd#3 to China, Taiwan, Japan, Hawaii and Hong Kong (not in that
order), when dd#3 was 11 and my mom was 70. I think dd#3 was a little too young
for this kind of trip.

When she was 75, she took my niece (age 14) to Italy and then the next month she
took ds to London and Kenya when he was 13. She broke her ribs on that trip
when she was standing up in the hatch of a safari vehicle to take pictures and
the vehicle started off suddenly and she fell onto the hatch opening.

She tried traveling with her great grandson (dd#1's son), but she was a bit too
old to be dealing with a teenager by that time. She continued traveling
internationally until she was 93 but with friends.

DD#1 had a job exchange to England when her youngest DS was only 6. They lived
over there for three years and visited Scotland, Wales, France, Sweden, Norway,
Italy, Austria, Germany, and Ireland from the time he was six until they moved
back here when he was 9.

DD#2 was taking her DS to the Bahamas in her husband's boat from the time he was
a baby, and she visited her sister in England when her ds was 7 and her dd was
2. She also took a short cruise to the Bahamas (also when her dd was 2 or 3),
and just recently they had a vacation in Cozumel. They didn't care for the kids
program on the cruise they took, but I don't know what cruise line it was.

DD#3 also went to visit her sister in England when her son was age 6.5 and her
daughter was age 2.

I take a lot of cruises (5th 6th and 7th this year in December. 17 overall)
but I've not felt ready to take her with me. Jarrod travels with me some of
the time, but usually I travel alone or with friends. I realize cruises are
a far cry from true international travel but I've not been ready to take her
yet.

Nickelodeon did a Summer cruise this year and have 2 planned for next
Summer. I personally prefer to not travel the Caribbean during hurricane
season (because of heat, not fear of hurricanes), but one of the sailings is
to the Mexican Riviera. So we're thinking about taking her on that one next
year. She'll have just turned 6 then and with it being aimed at children, I
think I'd feel safe enough taking her.

When did you first take "big trips" with your kids?

LES!

I have started taking my grandchildren on trips like my mom did, but a trip with
a grandmother is not really the same as a trip with parents. It's more like a
long sleepover. They have to be mature enough to take care of their own
packing, clothing and hygiene and also strong enough to carry their luggage and
some of mine. I took my grandson to Ireland and London last June ('07) and he
turned 14 right after he got back. I took a second grandson on a cruise during
spring break this year. He turned 14 after he got back.

For a cruise, you need to figure out what kind of children's program there is
and how you want to deal with it. My dd didn't like the program on the Bahamas
cruise because her dd was too young for the program even though her birthday was
during the cruise which would have made her old enough, and she (the
granddaughter) is also unfazed by almost anything. My grandson didn't like it
because he wasn't allowed to leave the program unless his parents came to get
him.

So when I took him on a cruise (which I did because the biggest problem with the
first grandson was that there were no people his age on the trip), I wanted him
to be able to check in and out on his own. He was just old enough to do this.
But he was too shy to interact with the girls on the ship (the first grandson is
very extroverted and would talk to anyone and wanted to meet girls whereas this
child rarely ever says anything - I didn't find out how he felt about some
things until he was in the car with his mom on the way home from the airport),
and he thought the boys were kind of nerdy. But he could go shoot some hoops or
play video games (with his own money), and get breakfast and lunch on his own.
And then he went with me on excursions and to dinner. I'm planning to take the
sibling of the first boy with me next summer on another cruise.