Taking the kids to Europe

Wow! That was a bit depressing. I can tell you that definitely was not our experience. We took our kids to Europe 2 summers ago and to Japan this past summer. They had an absolute blast. Now they're trying to figure out where in the world we should go next.

Was that suppose to be typical? I was with my grandson on two trips to France when he was 4 ( a month from his 5th birthday, and the last time at 10 (a month from his 11 th birthday). That was in 2011. He never displayed any such typical American behaviour or attitude, be it food wise, going pony riding, to the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides, taking the 5 hr TGV train ride from Paris to Perpignan, walking ca, 30 mins with luggage in tow from the train station to the hotel in Collioure, to and fro, etc.

I think it's funny! It's a cartoon, not an editorial!

And I would expect RS Forum-related kids to have the travel gene!

Me too, Zoe! I thought it funny. I have to say I do not relish traveling with children though. We had a 13-y-o grandson visiting who ate nothing but pizza Margherita, spaghetti al pomodoro, and bread for a week.

Agree it is a cartoon & supposed to be funny. I've been traveling to Europe with my kids since they were 9. They just started college and are trying to figure out careers where they can either travel for work or have a enough time AND $$ to travel a lot. They have also forgone expensive birthday & Christmas gifts in lieu of vacations. They definitely inherited the gene!

I took my kids and step-kids all over Europe. They loved it. It was a little hard on my 5 year old, but once he became about 7 he loved it. Museum can be tough with kids, but there are many things they love.

Our kids loved places like the Eiffel Tower, Coliseum, St Peter's Basilica, the Swiss Alps, the canals in Venice and more. Kids love scenic places and unusual places. My kids loved the Sistine Chapel and were in awe of the art. My son was 7 and didn't want to leave.

We found plenty of food that the kids loved.

As for the article from the New Yorker, those appeared to be spoiled brats that needed a firm adjustment.

Two lessons, learning through comedy:
Nasty kids at home; nasty kids on the road.
Try a test run by visiting museums, countryside, etc. in your region. If they pick at their food on native soil, ditch them with grandparents and go alone, at home and abroad.

I think most of our kids have been those kids at one point or another. Especially around age 14. In fact, I vividly remember being that kid at 14.

For a while we were renting a cabin in the woods, and going out for the day to the beach or town. This worked well for a few years, until the girls were in their early teens. Then suddenly, their circadian rhythms had flipped, and they wanted to sleep all morning. My husband would get up at 6 am, drink coffee for a while, and then want to go. He'd be mad that they weren't even awake at 10, when he thought he'd been so patient in waiting for them, and they'd be mad that he was waking them up so early. We stopped getting a cabin in the woods after that. (And the only reason our son wasn't with us was that he had his license and a job, and we'd had the same issue with him on previous trips. First chance for him to stay home, we took it!)

I think travel with children is highly dependent on two things - how adaptable they are and how much adults want to adjust the way they travel. If your kids are used to traveling to Disney every year for rides and characters, a trip to Europe may be a bit of culture shock - no Mickey waffles, chicken fingers nor constant streams of soda. If parents insist on dragging their kids around from museum to museum all day and on eating at only the finest gourmet restaurants in Europe, you're going to have a bad time!

I've been able to take my kids anywhere and everywhere because they're used to it and realize our trips aren't all about them. Our family trips aren't all about the adults either, so it's a compromise of fun, kid-friendly activities and adult things like history, important sites and local food.

(Snort). If I had brats like that I wouldn't take them out of the house, never mind take them all the way to Europe. Unfortunately, these aren't caricatures. I've known kids just like those depicted in the article. Fortunately mine (while certainly not perfect little angels) actually enjoyed travel and trying new things.

Ha, Laurel. I thought it was humorous, too! And not our experience, either. We have taken our children and grandchildren to Europe several times and not had any of these issues. I'm currently planning a trip to Paris for a week with my granddaughter for her high school graduation. Her first trip to Europe with me was when she was 7. I absolutely think you, Zoe, are right, about families inheriting the travel bug.

I had to laugh also. Unfortunately I do know kids like this .

I got my love of travel from my parents. As a child we traveled by trailer through the southwestern and northwestern US. We also took a trip to the Tahiti. However we also raised with "The LOOK" . If you were too, you know what it is. So we would not even consider a reaction like the one in the cartoon. Of course back then we also did not have, computers, iThings etc.

But we also got left with relatives once or twice when mom and dad did want to take us.

I thought this was funny!

I think some of you either never have had kids or forget how your kids really were.. memory has a way of doing that ;)

I agree with Finnlee that a lot has to do with compromising.... we have been to Europe twice now with our 12 and 9 year old.... They both loved it but for sure there were some places we went that would not have been their pick... but then we did a lot of very kid friendly things as well that would not have necessary been my pick.

If your kids always joined along happily, always thought the restaurants you picked were great, were fine with hours upon hours of museums and never once complained or rolled their eyes, I need your phone number!!

Gosh, I am 44 and I know I have my moments too ;)

It's a funny cartoon but, as with most cartoons, there is an element of truth to it. The sad part about the truth element is that, while there are exceptions, there are still too many folks raising kids with "I-things" rather than "The Look". One of my neighbors refers to her daughter's daughter as "Pay Back".

I saw a bit of myself in that. In my youth my parents took us all across the USA. I do remember my sisters & I complaining any time they wanted to stop at an antique (anti-kews to us) shop. Our trips were a combination of tourist sights and visiting friends and relatives. In the evenings we were given free reign at the campground we stopped at for the night. My wife & I took our 3 children aged 9, 13, and 16 to Paris for a week. As one would guess we all had a good time except for the 16 year old. These 3 kids always traveled well. It was at home that they were not the perfect angels they are today.

Those cartoons paint a gloomy picture of how today's adults parent their children to be selfish brats. Stereotypes are built on reality.

When these kiddos graduate from college and interview with me for their first full-time position, they better have matured or they will be in for a rude awakening! LOL

When my husband and I entered The Louvre and picked up an information guide we became overwhelmed. I knew the Louvre was big but I had no idea it was that big. We had no idea where to start.

One of my kids took the map out of my hands and they both plopped down in the middle of the floor and started drawing circles around the exhibits they wanted to see. I have to say their selection was awesome and just downright fun.

The Louvre was really family friendly and foreigner friendly. no one sneered at us when my daughter made my husband & I mimick a painting of a kissing couple being shot by cupid. (My daughter pretended to be Cupid.) Or scoffed when my husband pretended to Clark Griswald passing out when trying to see all of the Louvre in 15 minutes. If someone did we were having to much fun to notice.

My daughter wanted to see a statue of Zeus since she was into Percy Jackson books at the time. She was treated like an important person with an important question by the museum staff. We couldn't get enough of Nepolean's Apartment. We all agreed no more dead mummies.

We truly were among the last to leave. I don't know a lot about art but my kids understand they saw great art, they saw some really old art, and some really famous art. They both decided that they much prefer to live during the Renaissance and not the dark ages. They also know that if they want to see impressionist painting they have to go to another museum.

I just wanted to share a small part of my family's European experience.

I am sure all the Rick Steves people's kids are perfect. Its the non-Rick Steves kids that drive me up the wall. If you see an 11 year old kid sitting at a dinner table, behaving and being polite, my money is on the fact that he is continental European (unless he came in through the back door, in which case he is one of your kids). If he is throwing crap on the floor and screaming and being just generally obnoxious then my money is on the fact that his first language is English. Unless its a place that is really, really expensive and really, really gaudy with bad food, then i give even odds that the first language is English or Russian.