backpacks on children - bad idea?

For actual travel I think a small back pack is fine,, ( for plane and train rides) ,, but for day to day sightseeing I don't think that such a great idea,, one more thing to whine about really ( " its too hot out to wear it, its too heavy, I forgot it, etc etc.) , plus they will have to be checked in as at some sites.

I took a family tour to Europe with RS last summer, none of the kids whined about being bored,, but then we did not take long meals out,, and picnics are great,, the kids would get up and go and play on the playground etc .. A kid shouldn't have to sit still and read a book while in a PARK! .. LOL

As a child myself in Europe on holidays,, I often carried a small purse( obviously not a choice for a boy),, but when I took my 14 yr sons then carried nothing... there really was nothing for them to carry? I myself do not carry a back pack to sight see, I don't wear one at home ,, just a purse for sunglassses, lipstick, a small map and maybe my camera.

Travel carrying the least always seems the least stressful.

A small book could be carried on the few occasions you choose to go to a long restaurant meal out,, but I really don't see bringing toys and books around as a good idea.. they won't be bored in Europe,,everything is so different!

Absolutely they should carry their own stuff! A jacket, umbrella, snacks, books. Just not anything too valuable. A cheaper electronic game or their own camera, as long as they won't be too upset if it's lost. They should also carry the things that they usually turn to Mom for, like hand sanitizer, tissues, bandaids, etc. They should be learning HOW to travel well.

However, do not expect pickpockets to stay hands off because of the ages of your kids. Again, your kids should be learning how to protect themselves. Have a code phrase like "Time to get walking!" when you are in a potentially dangerous situation, and then after you are safe you can discuss the clues that made you suspicious.

I see that Pat and I disagree! I don't think they have to carry a huge pack, and it could be a messenger bag. I just hate to see Mom acting as a sherpa with the whole family's crap in her bag. Kids should learn to plan ahead for what they'll need, and haul it themselves. Same goes for suitcases. Keeps my load light!

Yes you two do have differing opinions.

I certainly hope my kids are never bored; however, I have a feeling there will be times when they are. We do plan to make this trip as enjoyable and culturally enriching as possible for them as possible. After all, this is how they will be spending THEIR summer vacation. We'll do lots of kid friendly things.

I agree with Karen, I don't want to be carrying everyone else's stuff and I want my kids to entertain themselves if they find themselves a tad bored at times (in the car, on a train, while we finish our meal in a restaurant) - I prefer not to listen to my kids whine. I plan to have a long talk with them before we leave about how everyone in our travel group (myself, my husband, the two of them, and grandma) all have to be easy going and that sometimes they may have to put up with doing somethings they may not love for the sake of the grown ups, just as we will do the same for them (more often than not!).

I like the idea of them being more self sufficient and carrying SMALL back packs (no we won't load them up like camels) - but after reading so much about safety and theft, I wasn't sure my idea was brilliant or crazy. Would a pickpocket likely think the kids would not be carrying valuables or would they think easy target. My kids will be bringing their Nintendo DS handheld games (you can't ask them to quit that stuff cold turkey you know!)

Karen, love the idea about having a phrase like "lets get walking" to alert the kids to the possibility of a theif or danger. I do want my kids to become good travellers. I'm so excited to be introducing them to this type of travel at such a young age and I hope it makes them lifelong travellers.

When we took our children (they started on Europe around age 9) they always took a small day bag. They carried their own rain gear, bottle of water, snack, tissues, and camera (disposable at that time), etc. In "threatening" areas I encouraged them to wear them on the front, as I did. In over 20 years of travel, we've never had anything stolen. they also had to pack 1 carry-on bag. And they had to be able to carry it to the plane!

My kids always wanted to carry their own little back pack with their stuff in it, whether it was a favorite car, doll, frisbee, jump rope,coloring stuff, or a favorite book. It does make waiting for dinner a bit more interesting for them and gives them something to play with in the park. These little backpacks hardly weigh anything, so I can't see why the kids would complain about it. Personally I get quite annoyed with parents who go out to dinner with their kids and bring NOTHING for them to do, which really causes a lot of whining and acting up from bored kids. As a parent, while traveling, I have to schlepp around all the other stuff, so a child of 5 and older should be able to put a couple things in a little bag to amuse themselves with. I like having happy kids with me and this pretty much insures it.

No, I do not think pick-pockets will target your kids. It is a good idea to have some sort of card in the back pack though with your email address on it or a card from the hotel, just in case it gets left behind.

Kerry - our kids each took a backpack with their own stuff - many books, music, etc. They had access to this on the plane, in the car, & in our room. They did not want to carry anything during the day. Long picnics in the park, your kids shouldn't need toys or books because they have the park. Meals were relatively short except for dinners - and we did have some long ones there. The thing is though, we were ALL talking about what we had seen, what we had done that day. It was very different than being at home - we were all, also, usually pretty tired from being out walking all day and the kids were surprisingly good. I will say that we took our son for the first time when he was 9, so maybe he wouldn't have sit still for quite so long at age 7. In that case, if it were me, I'd bring one paperback book along in my own purse for each child at dinnertime. That shouldn't be too much to carry.

And our kids did tote their own backpacks when we were on our way to/from hotel, train, car, etc. So when my son was 10 and wanted to bring 11 books with him, including some hardback ones I did make sure he realized that HE would carry it around, and not me. He did carry it, went through all 10 books in less than the 3 1/2 weeks we were there so we had to buy more. That particular trip we were in England so it wasn't hard to find more books, but we ran out the prior year in Norway and had to look for an English language bookstore in Oslo!

I take each child at 11 and they carry all of their clothes and other items (gameboy or whatever for the plane) in their main backpack to and from Europe and moving from town to town. My eldest son took a real backpack and it was too much. For my daughter, we downsized to a bookbag sized bag and it was perfect. My second son is taking a North Face big shot day pack as his big bag. Then, once we are there, they can decide whether they want to take something each day. If they take it, they carry it though. It seems like they usually chose to just carry a camera on a wrist strap or in a pocket. They do always wear a moneybelt with some money, their passport, and an itenerary with my cellphone number and all of our accomodation addresses.

I was the sherpa with the water bottles and picnic food when we went on long hikes. They would want to stop and eat "here", but I would say, let's just get to the lake. Since I had the food, my ducklings followed along. I guess there was a method to my madness.

I think I mentioned in another post that we kept a tiny combination lock on the zippers of our bags. The kids never had anything taken.

Thieves make some judgments about what to steal based on where they think they can get the most value. If the kids are wearing expensive Ipods and have their own digital cameras, a thief might consider a kid a good target. If the kids have journals, coloring books and crayons, they don't have anything to worry about.

Thanks for all your great advice.

It helped me a lot. Except for their handheld computer games, which I'll have my husband carry for them, the kids won't have anything valuable, just journals, sketch books, definitelly Lego, a stuffed animal for my daughter. They'd probably get a kick out of having locks on their packs too, I'll get combination locks maybe. I will definitely have ID's on my kids with cell phone number and where we are staying. Thanks again.

Kerry, I had that same talk with my girls and it worked great. When we were in the Musee d'Orsay, for some reason they were bored, but they just read their books and sat on a bench and never complained. Someday they'll be sorry they never looked up, but, oh well.

It may not even be a matter of being bored, but reading or playing a game may be a way of disconnecting from the busy travel life.

Excellant points Lorraine,, I kind of found the "its there vacation" comment a bit off putting too. Kids are LUCKY they GET TO go to Europe,, many kids camp for a week at a lake less then 100 miles away...

Kerry, my DD brought her Ninetendo DS too, but rarely used it,, only at night in hotel room sometimes, she never took it sightseeing, she never wanted to,, but if she had asked I personally would have said no. This kind of trip is a big investment for us, and we kind of operate under the this is fun, this is interesting, and look around . I built in time at parks, and looked for fun sites to visit, but I would be a bit choked to have a child "bored" and wanting to PLAY VIDEO games in museums. In restaurants we TALK to each other,, and yes, young children ( under 6 or so) should have some crayons to color with,, but older kids can be taught the art of conversation, and they can engage in planning parts of the touring.. even my 12 yr old learned how to use the metro, and read maps..

Thanks Karen,

Your experience in this area has been very helpful.
We too will be visiting Musee D'Orsay, it's one of my top picks for museums. What did your children like in Paris?

Kerry

kerry, if your kids like Dr Suess, or did when younger, then defiantely do not skip seeing ( at Orsay) what my 12 yr old dd called " Dr Suess's furniture" ,, it is amazing,, it is art deco furniture displays on ground floor, and very fantasitical.. . My dd also loved Degas Ballerina..

I think if you have all agreed to go on this adventure, part of the expectation should be that things are different in Europe and you are there to experience these differences in culture, language, in everyday life. I vote to stash away the gameboys and ipods after the flight over and bring them back out for the flight back, that's it, if you have to take them at all.

But while you're there, teach them how to "not be bored"! Children do not need to be entertained every second! Let them learn, from you, to open their eyes, be a good observer, find entertainment without electronics! Unless the reading was done for a half hour before settling down to bed, I would find it dreadful if my child read a dozen books when he/she could have LIVED those dozen books while on vacation in a foreign land! And I'm a firm advocate of reading, but to chose books over experiences? Why bother traveling if you are only going to fill the hours with the same things you do at home? Besides the flights, why are there hours to fill? Our meals are always fun discussions of what we've done that day, what's planned for tomorrow, all the new and exciting things we've seen! Your enthusiasm for new discoveries and finding delight and beauty in everything will be infectious and teach them appreciation for these things. And we were constantly busy. The train travel could be used for picniking, talking with other travelers or really enjoying the passing scenery that you may never see again. (we play the alphabet game, sighting objects by their first letter, in English or the current language of the country we are traveling through, amongst others)

Someone commented on "it's their summer vacation". Really? These parents are using "their" vacation time, their money and their insight that this will be a huge learning experience and opportunity to expose their children to other cultures and to have a wonderful adventure together! And no McDonald's!Bravo!

Lorraine,

Things were going so well with all the input, until your condescending response. I was only joking when I said it was "their vacation".

I am absolutely thrilled to be taking my children on such a wonderful trip at such an early age. This is going to be an amazing cultural experience for them, and that I can make this happen for them, makes me feel very privaledged. I've told them numerous times how lucky they are to be going on such a wonderful trip, and they are looking forward to it. We will be living in the homes of locals for a good part of our trip (home exchanges) and will really be appreciating life like a local (not staying at fancy hotels somewhere). My kids are extremely good at entertaining themselves because they are not spoiled brats as many american children are. However, it is a long trip away from home & friends and cousins and they may get a little homesick at times; and perhaps, yes, even a little bored on a rare occassion - hence the little distractions. I am sure they are going to be amazed by Europe and enriched by it. I'm not stupid, I would not allow, nor do I expect they will have their faces in a book or be playing computer games incessantly. I frankly found your response extremely insulting. You spoke to me like I'm an idiot and a lousy parent to boot.

Thanks for your help.

My daughters 12+13 carried their own Backpacks and their own Daypacks. In their daypacks they carried:water,bottle,camera,ipod,snack,book,and sarongs (these are great for everything). They both had moneybelts for their cash (i carried the passports). It was Great for me not to be responsible for Everyone elses stuff, and it taught them both to Travel Light.

Kerry....first.....having the kids carry their day bags...good idea.

Only you know your children and what will interest them. When my family traveled, my brother refused to get his nose out of a book. As for me, I couldn't get enough of wherever we were.

A friend of mine decided to take their 5 year old to Europe. Before going over, they all watched travel DVD's of the places they would visit. It them became a game for the 5 year old to spot those places and name them....Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, etc. She was so excited to see those things in person after seeing them on the DVD that she hardly every needed a "diversion" to keep her from getting bored.

It just occurred to me that some of the reason I may see things differently is ,, my dd just doesn't have much stuff to carry,, we had one camera between the two of us( well,we are always together so do not need to carry two cameras right?) Same when I travelled with my 14 yr old son.

We had one camera, , neither brought their IPODs siteseeing( although both brought them for long train, bus, and plan rides, and evenings in hotel) ,, or any other electronics .

We each had a purse for lipstick and brush,, son carried neither of course.

Maybe if kids need to carry a bunch of stuff they will need back packs.

I am not sure wy a young child would need to wear a money belt,, really, they should only carry a bit of money for souvenirs, and it should be assesible, a money belt is not meant to be used like a purse..

sounds like some of your kids carry alot of stuff, so I must assume its just different travel styles, we carried very little, so did not need anyoen to be the pack horse( as one mom said she was) .

Kerry, I do not think you are bad parent at all,, I sense you just really want to be prepared for anything,, and thats never bad. Some kids are easier to keep entertained then others, and you know yours best,, mine would never sit still in a park,, so I couldn't imagine them needing anything to keep them amused! LOL

Ps I don't think Lorraine meant anything by her post either,, it seems just a bit how the orginal post sounded,, like boredome was an issue,, and "stuff" was needed to abate it.

The internet does a poor job conveying tone and attitude , the written word can work both ways unfortunately.

Kerry,

So sorry for any misunderstanding. I didn't realize it was you who wrote the "summer vacation" remark; I was complimenting you as the writer of the original question for providing this wonderful opportunity for your children to travel to Europe. The reading a dozen books remark was directed to the comments of another contributor who said her child had read ten books while away and needed more.

I thought I had something important to contribute to the discussion, namely boredom, and my philosophy obtained from years traveling with children in Europe. Forgive me, I was trying to be supportive and commending your efforts, and in no way meant to insult you or demean your parenting skills. Have a wonderful trip.

I'm the poster who reported that my son read 10 books while on vacation for 3 1/2 weeks in England.

I have posted here many times, often with the same bit of advice, about traveling with children. Traveling with children is not a race, a time to cram in "experiences" every single minute. You will ALL end up being very unhappy. My 2 top suggestions for having a great experience with your kids is:

1)Keep them fed

2)Take it slower than you might on your own. This includes planning some "down time", which in our case, meant that we returned to our hotel room almost every day after lunch for rest, listen to music, or read. It was a great way to recharge in order to have a busy afternoon and a nice long late dinner. Quite frankly, we ALL needed the break from each other.

As I said, my kids didn't want to carry anything during the day, when we were sightseeing. So no - they were not reading while we were touring museums or eating meals. But between the flights, a few of the longer car rides, and our mid afternoon & before bedtime reads my son went through 10 books. Perhaps that is why we made such a point of seeing Tintagel Castle where King Arthur was born and detoured in order to pass through the beach town where Alice (in Wonderland) spent summer vacations. I never travel myself without at least two books, even for a short trip.

And regarding Paris - my kids loved the catacombs (well, my son liked it more than my daughter). They both like Musee d Orsay MUCH more than the Louvre (me too). They wished we could have made it to the top of the Eiffel Tower. They thought Versailles was great and they both liked the food - though we regretted that our son told a restaurant owner in the Dordogne that we had eaten everything so far except foie gras. He made a point of giving us a VERY large portion for our appetizer. It didn't suit me but my son dutifully ate the most since it was his "treat"!

Karen,, did your really return to hotel room every afternnon for down time? Were your children very young? I know my oldest child napped till he was 5,, so down time for him in afternoon was always built into vacations,, but , I never took him to Europe that young.

I think downtime for us was sitting in a park , finding a nice shady bench and eating ice cream!! In Luxembourg Gardens we lucked into live music being played in the little covered gazebo in the afternoon, I don't know if they do that all the time, but it made for a nice break.

Lorraine,

Sorry to over react. It is true, sometimes the written word misconveys our thoughts. I apologize for my emotional reply.

I actually agree wholeheartedly with you about everything you said. I think that's why I got upset. I think that we are all incredibly lucky to have this amazing opportunity to go to Spain/France for six weeks! However, it's the first time we will be taking my kids away for such a long time and I really have nothing to base how they are going to handle it. I am a very organized person. I do as much research/planning as possible ahead of time so that the trip can be more pleasurable. My original questions did not concern WHAT to bring for the kids to entertain them (I do believe Europe will provide incredible entertainment & eye opening experiences!) I really wanted to know if it was appropriate for them to wear a small backpack without worrying about them being targets of pickpockets/theives. I also want to teach them to be more independent. From reading everyones responses, I think it will be fine for them to carry a small backpack when they decide they want to bring stuff along on any given day.

Kerry

Pat - yes, when we traveled with our kids - from ages 9-19, we were always traveling in the summer, July & August. It was hot (even in England, which we still refer to as "Sunny England"). In order to see the big sights without too much trouble and too much heat, we were up most mornings at 7:00 and on our way by 8:00. This is how we were able to see St. Peter's square and church almost relatively deserted for a July day. But getting out that early took its toll so after lunch we would head back on MOST days to our hotel for about 2 hours. Mostly it was the adults who would nap for an hour while the kids were quiet but not really sleeping. And this break, especially in Italy where you don't eat dinner until 9:00 or France where dinners (with son now 12) were 3 hours long, helped us all to have a great evening.

And forgot top tip #3 - Eat lots of ice cream - it tastes different in every country and its wonderful!

All right, it was my children who were the rubes in the museum. You have to pick your battles, and I did not think "You look at this Renoir right now, young lady!" would really do anyone any good. They respected us enough to let us look without complaining, so we respected them enough to leave them alone.

Kerry, Paris hightlights included the Eiffel Tower, Montmartre, Notre Dame, and souvenir shops. They loved bakeries, butcher shops, and the open air market. The book stalls along the Seine were fun. The 15 yr old liked figuring out buses and the Metro, but the 12 yr old was intimidated. They loved food. Both girls were very open to new things,(except art!) and enjoyed seeing how other cultures lived. They were not thrilled with the Bateau Mouche river ride, but that had something to do with the sudden unexpected rain and crowding issues.

Their highlights may be different from yours, but as long as you don't march them through Europe like a dictator, they'll have great memories. We had a lot of laughs and no breakdowns. I count that as success!

So far I have only traveled with kids to the Caribbean. I did have them carry their own bags when were were sight seeing. On this last trip I had my 8 year old nephew with me. Because I did take him out of school for this trip, he was asked to do a video project to present back to the class. He had his own video recorder. I didn't want him tied down with a backpack so I went with a waist pack for him. He carried everything he needed in this pack. Even his small video recorder, pen and small notebook for his school project.

I've been travelling with my kids to Europe since they were less than a year old and that almost every year. They started with their own backpack filled with toys and books (later electronic gadgets) at about age 2-3 just mainly for getting to Europe on the plane and for travelling between locations. Once we've arrived, there was no need to carry that stuff along while sightseeing. Electronic gadgets get placed in the hotel safe as soon as we leave the room. Yes, they've read alot as well, but often just when we took some down time. And let me tell you their parents like the down time too!

While touring we carried their water and jackets when needed when they were younger. Starting at about age 9/10 they've had little messenger style bags. They do use them when it's hot while touring and they need their water bottle but otherwise often leave it behind at the hotel.

If they do get bored while waiting for food or waiting for a bus they sometimes get to play a game on daddy's blackberry. But it doesn't happen very often.

Love the picture! I can't wait to see what the highlights of our trip are. Sometimes it's not at all what you think it will be. I can just imagine what my 7 year old daughter will reply upon asking what her favorite memory was. She'll probably say something like "playing with that kid with the green shirt" or something - she's the social butterfly in the family. All your memories of Europe with your kids make me so excited to create our own wonderful memories! I can't wait.

Kerry

Yep, it is like spending the day at the zoo, and all your child talks about are the squirrels she saw running around the landscape! One never knows what will stick as a memory.