Parents really can give their kids the world

August 31, 2010|By Maureen Jenkins,special to Tribune Newspapers

When first lady Michelle Obama took 9-year-old Sasha to Spain in August, the trip's first-class accommodations and the subsequent flak about their cost got most of the press. What didn't generate much talk: the value of taking kids abroad.

"As long as a trip like Michelle Obama's only gets negative attention, that reinforces the idea that (overseas travel) is extravagant," said Homa Sabet Tavangar, international business consultant, mother of three and author of "Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be at Home in the World." Tavangar first took her now-teenage daughters abroad when they were 4 and 6, and her family vacationed in Spain at the same time as the Obamas.

"You can travel and still not have a global experience," said Tavangar, who has lived on four continents and moved her family to the West African country of Gambia for a school term so her kids could live in a dramatically different culture. "It's less about your location than the mindfulness and the process. But if you can combine the two, leave home and travel with the right mindset, that's the No. 1 gift you can give your kids."

Tavangar said it's the small things kids experience — her daughters having nightly dinners at 10 o'clock in Spain — that often become lasting memories. Helping kids embrace differences between their American lives and what they experience abroad is key.

"Some people say, 'There's so much to see in the United States, why would I leave?'" Tavangar said. "That's true, but it doesn't have to be an either-or. It's still a great privilege (to travel abroad). It's a mental leap as much as a geographic leap."

Obviously, not all parents can afford overseas trips for their kids. Even if they can't, Tavangar said, they can help their kids engage with the world from home.

Keep a globe or world map nearby. There's nothing like reminding kids that it really is a small world, after all.

Get passports. Even if you don't have a trip planned, "it puts international travel in the realm of the possible."

Start a travel fund so the family can work toward a trip.

Maureen Jenkins is a Chicago-based freelance writer who blogs about international travel at