Traveling With a Three Year Old / Herumreisen mit einem dreijährigen Kind

Some of you have commented on how much Nikolas has been doing and experiencing and how you can't imagine doing what we are doing with Billy, Bobby, Daisy, or little Suzie Q. Sometimes we can't believe we are doing it either. Traveling with a three year old is not always easy. In fact sometimes traveling with a three year old makes you wish you weren't traveling at all. If you've ever read one of those 'how to' manuals on raising children, you know that three year olds need stability, structure, and routine. They thrive on it. They crave it. And even with it, every day can be a challenge. And so what have we done? Thrown caution to the wind and brought our three year old to Europe for a whirlwind year of travel. Hopefully we aren't scarring him for life.

One of the biggest challenges of traveling is combining sightseeing (our interest) with playtime (his interest). Sightseeing generally means covering long distances. Depending on the day, Nikolas isn't much into walking long distances and his cries of "Pick me up!" become harder on the back, the bigger he gets. He's also into being a 'Big Boy' and getting him to ride in the stroller usually takes more effort than it's worth. We usually take his scooter along with us wherever we go, which will amuse him for while, but after a mile or more (or if we run into cobblestones, which we usually do) his interest in that wanes. Can you blame him? His bike is a great option for cobblestones, but it's hard to travel with a bike on a train when you also have a suitcase full of toys and a bag jam packed with snacks and juice boxes, just in case boredom/hunger/thirst strikes.

And three year olds can be so contrary. After waking up at 5:14 and bouncing off the walls for a while in your hotel/hostel room, if you suggest you head down to the lobby to play with his cars where making a lot of noise is more appropriate, he'll decide that he'd rather lie down on the floor in the hallway and slide around on an imaginary sled making loud snow noises as he goes (I didn't know that snow was loud, but in a three year old's mind it is). Even if he's famished and hardly rational any more, if you suggest getting something to eat, he'd suddenly rather go into a church and 'look at the pretty candles.' (Unless, of course, there is a McDonald's near by and then you are suddenly a hero. See my next blog entry for more on McDonald's.) And if you expect him to be anywhere near cooperative after riding in a train or a car for an extended period of time, forget about it.

All in all, Nikolas really does remarkably well with all that we keep throwing at him. He loves the idea of train rides and hotels and restaurants and museums, though it might not always seem that way. And he keeps pulling out memories of places that we've been; little things that he has noticed or random things that made an impact on him and his understanding of the world. With each adventure (and sometimes he really does make it an adventure) we are learning more and more about making traveling kid-friendly. One of the best pieces of advice for those of you planning on your own adventure with a three year old: take at least nine students with you. It makes it a whole lot easier.