My 15 year old just got back from overseas touring a couple of countries, and it occurred to me that I had not done half of what he has done by 15. He is a good kid and does what he is told, so I felt like he deserves this trip. But now after it is over and he is home, I wonder am I giving him great opportunities or spoiling him?
He is appreciative, don't get me wrong. Am I doing a disservice to him by sending him on a trip that I have always dreamed of but never wanted to spend that kind of money on myself? I want to instill the love of traveling to all of my children, but maybe I went a little overboard on this trip. Seeing Italy and Spain are on a lot of my friends' to-do lists, but like me, they just haven't found the time or can't justify spending that money.
Did our parents and their generation feel this way about us? Their parents? Maybe this is normal when we realize that we ARE giving our kids a little better life than we had (my life was filled with great things that are hard to top). Only time will tell whether I have borne a love for traveling in this kid, or created a spoilt monster that thinks he will get whatever he wants whenever he asks. Back to reality today, he is doing his laundry and weedeating.
To be honest, i think allowing your children to experience the world is one of the best things a parent can give their children. As a child, we were raised in a single parent family, but our mother always managed for us to travel somewheere every summer.. the furthest we ever got to international travel was canada as kids...but we were always traveling to new places and seeing things we had never discovered before... wether it was D.C. , Gettysburg, the Ozarks, and silver dollar city, Niagra Falls(both sides), etc... We all loved it. As we grew older, and we had families of our own(or not in my case)we took our families traveling... I am now near 50, and have for the last decade begun to travel outside the U.S. . Mostly to the caribbean and central America. I love the Carribean and i cruise with my favorite travel companion...My Mother. the one who began my adventursome life 5 decades ago. Last central American vacation we had was spending two weeks in San Ignacio, Belize. It is my favorite country to visit so far in central america. We have been to Grand cayman, Aruba, Curacao, Columbia, Costa rica, Panama, Honduras,Belize, and Mexico to date... and look to going to many more soon...
Do not fear of spoiling him, if you raised him right in his formative years he will see this as an exciting journey that many of his peers will not get to do until they are later in life. He will always have the memories of that time in lisbon, or that girl in italy, etc... And more importantly, he will get to see how things are in other parts of the world, versus how they are here. He may grow to appreciate how well he has it having been born here. I used to think we were the greatest country on earth before i began traveling to other countries, i now see things a little differently, i don't see us as being the greatest, but see us as having lost our way in life, or rather lost our way we should live life... I've seen people with literally 1/15th of my income living in tin shanties living happier than i see most americans who run around chasing the next fad thing.... or even simply being a close, caring family...
I think if he has had the oppourtunity to experience anything like that he will have learned a valuable lesson that cannot be learned here in the states. It gives one a whole new outlook on what the important things in life really are, or should be. If anything, i think your son will be a little more grounded and thankful.. thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Thank you Mister D. I have raised my kids as a single mom, so my sacrifices are sometimes their sacrifices. I have been blessed with good kids and good experiences. I hope the travel broadens their horizons and gives them a different perspective on other people and cultures. How good it is that you travel with your mom! I do hope my kids think of me when they travel, because I do love to go with them.