The Investment of Travel in Children
The editors and contributors of this publication travel a great deal. We are the savants of our slice in our professions and our narrow bands of knowledge are desired by many located in far off places. We cherish the opportunity to make a difference wherever we go.
The trade off – and it is a trade off is that we miss times with family, spouses and our children that cannot be made up. Feeling guilty about it or over compensating for our time away – are both counter productive.
What we can do, is share travel. Use the frequent flyer miles and bonus points and take our families overseas to see a bit of the world. Share with our family different languages, different culture, different foods, different histories and experience on the stage of the world.
I sensed this was a good idea, but had no idea what the impact might be.
The dividend came just last week. We watch the news in the morning as the kids are fed breakfast and lunches are made. That day it was a news story about what Germans think of Americans. Americans eat nothing but fast food, everything is supersized, Americans are all fat and Americans don’t care about the poor.
My daughter, who had spent 6 weeks in Germany – laughed. She ate more fast food in Germany than in the US because it was so much cheaper. Between McDonalds French Fries, Turkish food stalls and Doener Kebap Germans’ are more or less on par with Americans. As for everything is supersized and we are all fat – no, she said Germans are keeping their end and gut up. As for not caring about the poor, this was a bump she ran into in Germany. Germany has very high taxes to help with social matters and are dealt with by the state. She had a very hard time explaining the tradition in American of volunteer work, private charities, and public service. It just did not register with her host family.
The dividend was she could and did argue with the very poor quality talking head news reporter.
