Family Matters

Posts Tagged ‘travel’

In most home, space is a very limited resource. We all wish our house was half empty with only what we need. Every time our family moves (and I have moved 27 times already), we discover how much we have accumulated. 17 years ago, Gal and I moved to another country with 3 suitcases, 2 boxes and a little girl. Today, we would probably need a 40-foot high-cube container.

Accumulating things is part of life. We accumulate things because we think we might use them (later) or because they have some sentimental value. Just a while ago, I wrote about how hard it is to get rid of kids’ artwork to clear valuable space for new creations. Taking digital photos of many of our things can be one solution to saving space, but there are always things that we cannot throw away as parents, or that our kids, partners or other family members need to decide what to do with them.

When I was 16, I made myself a treasure box and put all my treasures in it – cards I had received from people, special show tickets, photos and awards I had won. Having that box, which I made out of a shoebox, was a great way for me to monitor what I was keeping and what I was not. The space in the box was limited, so I could not keep everything.

Are kids of some ages worse than others? Is there a link between age and behavior? Are teens especially terrible?

I think not.

A few days ago, I went to pick Tsoof up from school and bumped into his guitar teacher, Andrew. We had a chat about Tsoof’s progress and how much he was enjoying his lessons, and then Andrew asked me, “How old is Tsoof?”

“Just turned 14″, I said.

“That’s the worst age”, he said, “Lots of kids stay nice until about that age, but then they start having problems and going wild. That was the most difficult age for me too”.

As it happens, both Ronit and I have heard this sort of warning from many people, so Andrew was expressing a very common notion about teens and how they change, but it made me want to write this post.

Last weekend, we took the kids to see a sculptures exhibition on the beach. I love art and I want to expose my kids to any form of art, so I thought a day at the beach, walking barefoot and seeing an exhibition, would be well worth the one-hour trip. I also hoped it would be a great day after a very hectic week. In fact, it had been a very hectic month. I think I had lost track of time – everything had been great and exciting, so I do not even know when the pressure had started.

Many people tell me kids do not really understand (and therefore like) exhibitions, but I remember my kids in Paris, enjoying every art piece in what others thought was a boring gallery at very young ages.

A few years ago, Eden and Tsoof also enjoyed a pottery class, where they fashioned cups and dolls out of mushy clay, baked it and decorated it. They even got to spend a day with a professional sculptor and learned how to carve limestone.

I am a big believer in informal education and I think kids get excited by new things if we get excited about them and then they learn a great deal from them. I have found this to be true with traveling, with food, with music and certainly with visual art.

So away we went to see the sculptures.

Traveling does not trigger the same thoughts and ideas in everyone’s mind. For some, traveling means carrying a heavy load, while for others, it means feeling calm and relaxed. Some are stressed by the planning and organizing, while others imagine the views and the pictures they will capture. Some fear the unknown, while others look forward to great surprises.

This list-making post is for the travelers among us. It is for those who love traveling and the thought of going out of their comfort zone to a new destination excites them.

This post is also for those who have never traveled (much), but wish they did (more).

It may even be for those who have had no desire to travel until now…

I can write about traveling because I am a world traveler and love every second of it.

But I was not a traveler all my life.

Yesterday, I started writing about my secrets for riding in cars with kids. If you are a parent and you have kids, I am sure you are asking yourself how to make the ride safe and happy for everyone. I hope the secrets I give here from 20 years of experience and many hours of being in the car with my kids will motivate you to get into the car with your kids and go on wonderful journeys of fun and joy together.

Riding in the car with kids is challenging for many parents. When the kids are younger, when the rides are longer and when you are the only adult in the car, it can be even worse.

About 3 month ago, the kids, our 7-year-old daughter Noff and our 13-year-old son Tsoof started playing the “Punch Buggy” game. If you do not know this game, it involves looking out for a buggy (a Volkswagen “bug”), and the first person to spot one punches the other and says “Punch Buggy”.

Many parents feel unsure about whether their kids are getting too much or not enough homework. Some complain that their kids sit for hours to do their homework, while others say, “I never see them sitting for 5 minutes”. Over the years, with three kids in different schools, I have also said that homework was too much or that I do not see the kids doing homework at all.

I think many children hear negative expressions about fast food, when in fact, not all fast food is bad. There are many kinds of fast food that are very healthy and can be made in a short time at home or at a commercial outlet. Sometimes, the faster it is to make the food, the fresher and healthier it is.

When you decide to leave what you consider home and travel, you get to meet people, who would never have come into your life if you had not left. When people ask me about the emotional and social difficulties of moving from one place to another, I tell them that I get to meet wonderful people and that to help myself adjust to a new place, I tell myself that the new place has many true friends I have not met yet.

So how do you know your true friends?