Getting paid to travel can be a beautiful experience. However, travel writers, travel bloggers and travel vloggers often struggle to earn a sustainable income.

Since I was a teenager, the world has always called to me. Staying still in one place was never something I desired. Rather, I aimed to develop a lifestyle that allowed me to go wherever I wanted to go whenever I wanted to go.

Here are my experiences with growing as a traveling mom.

Broader horizons

Traveling, alone or with family, will always broaden your horizons. In my travels, I was able to experience so many different cultures and it helped me to understand why people are the way they are. Different countries have different customs, and the farther you are from home, the stranger they seem.

Before heading to some of the Asian countries, for example, people told me about the strange foods and practices of the locals. However, being present in the country and experiencing these strange customs helped me to understand why they do it.

Patience is a virtue

One of the most difficult parts traveling the world with children is maintaining patience. It is challenging when your children are loud or accidentally disrespectful because they don’t know any better. It is also difficult communicating with others in non-English speaking countries, so trying to get my sick children seen to by a doctor can be hard.

Further, traveling to countries where your home language is not the main language of communication can teach you to be patient with others. You need to remember that you are in their space, so they should have every right to speak their own language. It is you who has to learn to communicate effectively.

Make new friends

Traveling has helped me make new friends. After living in a small town until graduating from college, you best believe I was ready for some new faces. Going abroad, you meet people on every leg of the journey who have similar goals as you do. Becoming friends with people who have similar interests is very easy.

Additionally, my children make friends very easily because they are more easily accepting of people who are different from them. My friends will often also have children about the same age as my children, so they get some new friends by default of mommy having new friends.

Adaptation

Traveling forces you to adapt to new situations very quickly. Changing countries frequently means needing to learn new cultural norms and customs, and perhaps even learning new languages. You might not pick up all of the languages immediately, but frequent exposure to different languages can help you adapt faster.

My children have also learned to adapt very quickly. I find that changing their schools as often as we do is no longer a difficult process. The children are always excited to meet new friends and learn new things from a different perspective. Adaptation is essential to survival, so I know that we will be able to make it in the world without too many problems.

Enriched children

My children have been exposed to a multitude of cultures and languages from a very young age. They are able to learn about other people very easily and are able to talk about their life experiences with ease and excitement.

My children bring new and exciting information to each new situation they encounter and can help others learn about the world through their experiences. Some children don’t have the privileges that my children have, and perhaps their entire travel experience will be based on the stories my children can share.