politique

A mom who’s been traveling with her kids for 19 years shares the biggest mistakes she’s made since they were babies

August 15, 20240
Cannon’s daughter cries in a car seat.

TheBetterBeyond.com

Cannon said she regrets traveling to too many places in a short time when her kids were babies.

“Prior to having kids, we were used to trying to pack in as many places as possible,” Cannon said. “So if we went to Brazil, maybe for 11 days, we’d move four times just to make sure we could see a bunch of different places.”

But with babies, it’s not so easy to explore several places that require travel days.

“The buses, taxis, and planes are hard on babies and parents,” she said. “As much as I hated keeping to a schedule, messing with a schedule makes things messy. So what we learned in that period was to have fewer transitions.”

Instead, Cannon recommends spending at least a week in each destination and renting a car to explore at your own pace.

With toddlers, Cannon regrets planning more than one activity per day.
Cannon’s eldest relaxes in a hammock in a treehouse accommodation.

TheBetterBeyond.com

She said that as her kids reached school age, planning more than one activity per day was easier, but it was still a mistake to pack the entire day.

“A nonstop itinerary without breaks 100% sucks the fun out of travel, and I am very good at accomplishing this,” she told BI. “Kids, like adults, need downtime to just be.”

Cannon also added that long tours with school-aged kids are hard.

“But if I can find a short tour with an engaging guide, they are worth their weight in gold,” she added.

With teenagers, Cannon has forgotten to consider her kids’ personal interests.
Cannon’s children Lucas and Ella on a forest tour in Ecuador.

The Better Beyond

From selecting destinations to activities, Cannon said it’s not just about taking her kids’ interests into account but also their personality traits.

For example, she said that while her son loves hiking, he’s not comfortable in all natural environments.

“Unlike the rest of us in the family, Lucas has zero interest in ever visiting a tropical forest or jungle again,” Cannon told BI. “I can trace this back to a guided Cloud Forest hike in Ecuador in 2017.”

Cannon said that Lucas grew up watching nature documentaries, so he is acutely aware of how dangerous certain types of wildlife can be.

“During the hike, the guide encouraged us to touch the top of a leaf. Lucas, however, decided to also touch the underside and narrowly avoided a poisonous caterpillar,” she said. “From that moment, he made it clear that he didn’t consider these environments ‘safe,’ though we assumed he’d eventually get over it.”

After the tour in Ecuador, the family of four took trips to the Peruvian Amazon and the Costa Rican rainforest.

In these destinations, “he carefully avoided swarms of army ants on forest floors and bullet ants on handrails,” she said. “His feelings never changed.”

These days, Lucas doesn’t accompany the family on jungle or rainforest excursions.

“Lucas still travels a lot, but to places with fewer creatures that can harm you,” she said. “Ella, by contrast, can’t get enough of the jungle!”