Category: Parenting
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Traveling with TCKs
While living in Europe, we’re taking advantage of cheap (like, $40 roundtrip tickets, with half-price for kids! Thank you RyanAir) airlines to reconnect with friends and family scattered across the continent. The travel also reveals the third-culture kid (TCK) tendencies of my children. I don’t often write about TCKness, but I am a TCK and…
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The Flower Fork and other lessons from 2015
A year is a long time. I don’t remember many details from the first few months of the year, much less details of life last month. I offer this short list as a sampling of things I remember that have made an impression on me this year, things that have instructed or informed my opinions,…
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The Christmas Pig
One of the most traditional events around Christmastime in Romania is the slaughtering of the pig. Ask nearly any Romanian what Christmas means to them and the killing of the pig, a family affair, is almost always mentioned. Santa Claus and presents are high at the top of the list, the birth of Jesus might be…
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What I learned, and changed, about kid’s entertainment
We came to Romania with only the essentials in toys – Lego and Duplo, a few Barbies, favorite dress-up clothes and a favorite stuffed animal. I wondered how the children would entertain themselves in their new environment. Here’s what we’ve learned so far. 1. The girls, ages 6 and 4, spend inordinate amounts of time…
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Not stroller-confined – hiking in Transylvania
Unless you have been reading willtravelwithkids since its inception over three years ago, you probably missed the post about confining kids to strollers on outings. This week I’m in Transylvania, interspersing language school with adventurous outings in the area around Sibiu. This afternoon, during a secluded hike meandering with the children along a groomed path…
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First month in Romania – What I learned in June
At some point at the end of May we arrived in Romania by car. Exact dates and days of the week escape me. In late spring we stored our personal possessions, threw our furnished house on Airbnb and packed up our clothes and expectations into five totelockers, two suitcases and one duffel bag. Romania met…
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Five Highlights of Lisbon – a child’s perspective
It was easy to get the girls, ages five and three, excited for a five-day trip to Portugal to visit friends and be with daddy on a work trip. “Hey kids, we’re going to visit Portugal!” Blank stares. “We’re going to eat lots of pastries and go to playgrounds!” Much cheering and excitement. Then it…
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Cinderella – an unexpected lesson
My mother-in-law and I took my five and three-year-old to see Cinderella. After reading reviews and checking with friends who had seen it, I decided it was suitable. Honestly, the romance, charm, character development, theatrical costumes, sweeping soundtrack, superb acting (think Downton Abbey) and fitting simplicity of the story line will be grossly under-appreciated by…
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Five Reasons I Vaccinate My Children
Over the last decade, the issue of vaccinations has developed into a postmodern debate in which we can express our personal opinion, but should not presume to suggest others should ‘come over to our side.’ The debate has flourished over social media, where parents can peruse opinion posts that reaffirm their values and then share…
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Charleston, South Carolina, Part I: The Guts of a City
Recent posts on willtravelwithkids have talked about the reality of sex trafficking, something the symptoms of which have become more and more apparent to me as we drive the streets in our own town or drive hours away to another city. Our children see these signs and related, intertwined issues, when we travel – drugged…
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