Years ago, I let my teenagers (15 and 16) travel to DC and Baltimore to visit friends. On their own. So many people questioned me, but I remember thinking, "If I shield them from everything, they will experience nothing...." and so they went. They still talk about that trip, the Metro, and meeting so many people. It was empowering all around.
And as one who has traveled to Haiti several times -- thank you for mentioning the mission trips.
The teams I went with had a "no selfie" policy. I remember thinking, "Would you want someone driving by your house taking pictures of you and just sharing them?" I actually went to document the back-end of missions and to learn about those working there and their missions and communities.
My greatest memories are of spending a day cooking in the kitchen with seven amazing Haitian women. I just worked with them, let them teach me, and enjoyed fellowship in the simplest of ways.
Well done!!! Kids should eat worms, play in the mud and learn to fight in the street, all skills that make a man (or woman) healthy, wealthy and wise. We were a large family (7 kids + 2 parents) and grew up firmly established in the wrong side of the tracks. Let me tell you what I learned…from growing up poor ish, appreciation, from growing up crowded, comfort, from growing up challenged, excellence. Let them out of the bubble indeed! 🤩💕
Thank you! I live in West Hollywood and I love the diversity. I take public transportation, which is unusual in LA, but I'm comfortable with it because I started taking public transportation as a child. And I'll never understand people who travel across the world only to stay in a resort. Kudos to you for raising your kids right.
This is not just an issue in gated communities in the Burbs…
Most kids in what is left of the middle class (mostly upper middle class as there is no ‘middle class’ any more) are over scheduled and over protected from the world…
My 21 year old son opted to do work away instead of college. He's worked on a family coffee farm in Hawaii, helped refinish a boat in Amsterdam and worked on a historic home restoration in the south of France. All on his own dime. I couldn't be prouder of a kid that rarely traveled growing up and had never left the country before!
We routinely ventured forth into the city . We loved going into the hippie/tatoo/great music pubs area (actually their pediatrician, one of the top in our region, had his office there). We loved shopping at resale shops, retro clothing, Aurora Coffee, Junkyard Daughter and eating at the Vortex. )before the kid ban). Both children have had all kinds of interesting travel experiences, with my eldest traveling solo to Southeast Asia and Australia. Our home was beautiful, left to us by my beloved sister’s will. However the HOA was a pain in the ass, threatening me with a huge bill on the day my mom died due to a barely viewable crack in the back of our stucco mailbox. After giving them hell, and a lecture on being neighbors, I vowed NEVER to live in an HOA dictatorship again. I’d rather see 5 pickups and 4 trailers in the front yard than have the storm troopers nail me for leaving grass cuttings on my mowed lawn (which actually protects it from heat). Bravo and congratulations on raising human beings who actually live in the world instead of super sanitizing it!
I sent my daughter at 13 to an outward bound 2 week wilderness leadership trek. No toilet paper, deodorant,razors. A 55 pound back pack with a personal tent. Sleeping bag. A tin cup and spoon. No toilets. Showers or Beds. I wanted to know that if I died she would always be able to land on her feet.
As a mom, this is a hard ask but a good one. As a human 43 year old female who grew up in suburbia, I took my first traveling job and the sheer lack of ability was crippling at first. I had to navigate an airport by myself, public transportation in big cities by myself, hotels by myself. I had always followed the leader, first family and then my husband when we travelled never considering what train I needed to catch, what gate I needed to find at an airport, etc. I was mortified by my own inability to do basic things. I no longer travel for work because it was hard as a mom and wife, but it was eye opening and now when we travel we force our kids to tell us how to navigate a new city including transportation in airports, buses, subways etc. I do not intend to limit them from basic life functions.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Years ago, I let my teenagers (15 and 16) travel to DC and Baltimore to visit friends. On their own. So many people questioned me, but I remember thinking, "If I shield them from everything, they will experience nothing...." and so they went. They still talk about that trip, the Metro, and meeting so many people. It was empowering all around.
And as one who has traveled to Haiti several times -- thank you for mentioning the mission trips.
The teams I went with had a "no selfie" policy. I remember thinking, "Would you want someone driving by your house taking pictures of you and just sharing them?" I actually went to document the back-end of missions and to learn about those working there and their missions and communities.
My greatest memories are of spending a day cooking in the kitchen with seven amazing Haitian women. I just worked with them, let them teach me, and enjoyed fellowship in the simplest of ways.
~Rachel
Exactly. We have to let our kids roam.
Well done!!! Kids should eat worms, play in the mud and learn to fight in the street, all skills that make a man (or woman) healthy, wealthy and wise. We were a large family (7 kids + 2 parents) and grew up firmly established in the wrong side of the tracks. Let me tell you what I learned…from growing up poor ish, appreciation, from growing up crowded, comfort, from growing up challenged, excellence. Let them out of the bubble indeed! 🤩💕
Thank you! I live in West Hollywood and I love the diversity. I take public transportation, which is unusual in LA, but I'm comfortable with it because I started taking public transportation as a child. And I'll never understand people who travel across the world only to stay in a resort. Kudos to you for raising your kids right.
I’m in WeHo too!
This is not just an issue in gated communities in the Burbs…
Most kids in what is left of the middle class (mostly upper middle class as there is no ‘middle class’ any more) are over scheduled and over protected from the world…
I agree. My particular essay that morning was reflecting on a particular group of women and community that I know personally.
I see…that is not clear in your essay. Thanks for the clarification.
I thought this might be a clue: “And you should hear the excuses his friends’ parents give for why they won’t let their kids visit”
Could be…I see that…
My 21 year old son opted to do work away instead of college. He's worked on a family coffee farm in Hawaii, helped refinish a boat in Amsterdam and worked on a historic home restoration in the south of France. All on his own dime. I couldn't be prouder of a kid that rarely traveled growing up and had never left the country before!
That’s awesome.
Brava!!!!!
We routinely ventured forth into the city . We loved going into the hippie/tatoo/great music pubs area (actually their pediatrician, one of the top in our region, had his office there). We loved shopping at resale shops, retro clothing, Aurora Coffee, Junkyard Daughter and eating at the Vortex. )before the kid ban). Both children have had all kinds of interesting travel experiences, with my eldest traveling solo to Southeast Asia and Australia. Our home was beautiful, left to us by my beloved sister’s will. However the HOA was a pain in the ass, threatening me with a huge bill on the day my mom died due to a barely viewable crack in the back of our stucco mailbox. After giving them hell, and a lecture on being neighbors, I vowed NEVER to live in an HOA dictatorship again. I’d rather see 5 pickups and 4 trailers in the front yard than have the storm troopers nail me for leaving grass cuttings on my mowed lawn (which actually protects it from heat). Bravo and congratulations on raising human beings who actually live in the world instead of super sanitizing it!
Same to you.. sister
I sent my daughter at 13 to an outward bound 2 week wilderness leadership trek. No toilet paper, deodorant,razors. A 55 pound back pack with a personal tent. Sleeping bag. A tin cup and spoon. No toilets. Showers or Beds. I wanted to know that if I died she would always be able to land on her feet.
Wow mama that’s rough lol
children in Montana in the 1980s carried rifles and built pipe bombs for fun.
Well I said they should roam, nit cosplay militia
We hunted deer and elk. We also blew up mailboxes and portable toilets.
As a mom, this is a hard ask but a good one. As a human 43 year old female who grew up in suburbia, I took my first traveling job and the sheer lack of ability was crippling at first. I had to navigate an airport by myself, public transportation in big cities by myself, hotels by myself. I had always followed the leader, first family and then my husband when we travelled never considering what train I needed to catch, what gate I needed to find at an airport, etc. I was mortified by my own inability to do basic things. I no longer travel for work because it was hard as a mom and wife, but it was eye opening and now when we travel we force our kids to tell us how to navigate a new city including transportation in airports, buses, subways etc. I do not intend to limit them from basic life functions.