Travelling with the children is so much easier now that they are older. We can be much more spontaneous, throw things together and head off. In the past few years we have travelled more and I am also happy to travel with the children even if Lee can’t come with us.
However I had a really interesting conversation with my children about travelling. I was looking at booking a last minute break for May half term. We started by looking for a UK break before casting my net wider. I was able to find a really good deal to Turkey for the four of us as Lee cannot come due to work commitments. Dylan voiced concerns about Turkey and headed off to study his world map. Dyl is really interested in geography and is aware of what is going on in the political world. It really surprised me that he was hesitant about Turkey. Once he had thought about it he was interested, he compared it to Crete which is where we are going in the summer.
We haven’t been to Turkey and the prices are very cheap which I guess shows that others are also reticent about travelling there. Would you travel to Turkey at the moment? There is no foreign office advice not to travel. Obviously the concern is about terrorism but we all know terrorist attacks have occurred across Europe in recent years. When you have younger children though it is easy to make decisions for them. You, as parents, choose your destinations and the job is done. However when your children are older it is important to listen to their concerns and let them have their say. A holiday needs to be enjoyable for all. However I also know that I won’t let a small minority dictate how I live and where we go.
Travelling should be a joy and I wouldn’t want to take my child somewhere they didn’t feel safe. I hadn’t thought about it before this week but realised it’s a conversation we need to have.
It got me thinking how we talk to our teenagers about terrorism. I have always answered questions as they have arisen. But how to make children feel safe in our world is not something I have thought much about. When talking to teenagers it is important to validate their their feelings. Acknowledge what they are feeling and then look at solutions.
It has made me question Turkey and I am now still looking for a short break somewhere! But my question is would you go to Turkey especially after your child has raised concerns.
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2 Responses
lovely post!..
Great article nice to read about all this. Thanks for sharing this post with us.