Posting from Sweden, via my phone. Apologies for any terrible typos (as usual)
I am nearly at the end of 5 days in Sweden with the two big kids. I was visiting a family that I stayed with as an exchange student 25 years ago.
I think solo travel with kids can be fun. Parts of this were a lot of fun! Parts of this were not fun.
We are sleeping at the airport tonight (in a hotel) before flying out tomorrow at 7am. I googled and there is a flight we could take back tonight instead, which I contemplated before realising this moment - being in a somewhat basic airport hotel, watching paw patrol in Swedish, preparing sandwiches with materials purchased earlier… this moment is the adventure. Travelling with kids is not a destination focused endeavour. Problems happened when we needed to get somewhere at some time or do something different. When we just explored, went slow, and had snacks it was fine. Sometimes good.
Being In Sweden is weird because I used to speak Swedish when I lived here 25 years ago and after 5 days a lot of it has come back and I find myself confused about what language to speak to the kids because in my mind Swedish is a kids language (because I was basically a kid when I lived here) and if they aren’t listening to me in English I can try Swedish.
Speaking Swedish did not improve instruction following.
Anyways, it’s been a good trip. It will be great memories. And we will only get better at family travel. Practice makes… patience?
I hope you are having, or did have fun! I did not know that you used to live in Sweden and speak Swedish! Hej! How did o not already know that? I hope your journey home was safe and quick! I agree with what you said and sometimes with kids (or adults) all you need is the time spent together in the different country, not anything more than that!
ReplyDeleteI feel like you remind me that I bury the lead on these posts often... why did I live in sweden is a legit question! I have added a "why sweden" post now. It was fun to travel, and even more fun to remember the travel!
DeleteThis: "Travelling with kids is not a destination focused endeavour." YES!!! Well said. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteWe are planning to go to Latvia with kids this summer, where I used to live more than 30 years ago. I am probably going to have some language-whiplash as well. My kids are much older, but not necessarily better at following instructions - and similarly to your experience with Swedish, I doubt me switching to Latvian (or Russian) is going to help :)
Oh wow! I just read your blog and realized that you were just in Lisbon, which is where we are hoping to go next year!
DeleteThe language whiplash is more real that I thought it would be. How cool to go back to Latvia (and that you lived in Latvia - that's awesome!) . I think Latvia with kids would be great as well, and probably cheaper than other European countries.