After returning from traveling through Vietnam for two weeks with my mom, many of friends asked, “There is no way I could travel solo with my mom for two weeks.” I’ll be honest. My skepticism did surface when the idea initially surfaced. I didn’t think it would be bad. However, I knew our travel styles were different. There is a 30+ year age difference, and I knew my mom could annoy me. I was worried. Worried it would be constant battles and little fights. Amazingly, I’m happy to report, our trip was not a series of fights. Traveling with a parent as an adult wasn’t what I expected.
Different Than Expected. Traveling With a Parent As An Adult
Planning Our Trip
I love planning a trip and all the research that goes into it. I find that I learn so much about the place I am traveling to that its worth my effort. The process is incredibly enjoyable for me. While I love planning a trip, I also want the other person involved with decisions because then they are as accountable for the trip. This was the problem. I dealt with the trip planning. My mom gave me very little input, and it drove me crazy.
To me, this meant that if something goes wrong, like the hotel or an excursion wasn’t as advertised would it be my fault? what if it didn’t go as planned? Then was it my fault? To my mom, she felt that because I loved the planning process, she was good with whatever I chose. We had two completely different points of view.
Accepting Different Travel Styles
Throughout the two weeks, there wasn’t much drama or any significant problems. My mom takes a million photos, so I had to accept that because that is what she enjoys doing and why she loves traveling so much.
I knew there was a slim chance she would be happy with the hotel first room they showed us. I was ok with having to either change rooms or get an upgrade to the initial room. She is just picky about her room.
When we did fight, after one exceptionally annoying incident when trying to buy some woven, zippered pouches from a group of tribal women, we talked about the incident at length. Decided how we could learn from it and change to travel better together. Because I guess, that’s what adults do. Adults talk things out.
Communication
However, let’s be honest, moms love to talk about communication. Honestly, the Lord knows, we had those conversations on this trip. She is a mom. She can’t stop talking about better communication. I’m not saying it wasn’t necessary or helpful. Perhaps it’s just something expected when traveling with mom.
Overall, it was a great trip. I know how much it meant to my mom to be able to travel with me. Our travel was special, especially since travel is such an important aspect of her life, as well as mine. I think our relationship is stronger. Travels common side effect is stronger relationship or ones that end. Therefore, I’m extremely thankful that travel made our relationship stronger.
To learn more about the trip you might want to read this post.
Want to see if you are ready to travel?? Best Travel Considerations -Travel or Not?
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View Comments (2)
There is much I could say about this especially how we Mom's can be so annoying to travel with and taking responsibility for decisions but having your Mom to share the experiences with is truly a blessing and you will treasure it for a long time. One of my life long decisions I am most happy about was taking my Mom and sister to Italy for 10 days. Can you imagine! We were all so very different and had disagreements but the memories live on and bonded us in ways we never could have imagined. Treasure everything together!
Hi Michele, Thanks for your comments. I completely agree with you. I had no idea that it be so much fun and so rewarding. I think everyone should travel with their older kids. We learned so much about each other. It really was a blast! I think instead of a GAP year, ya can call it a Blast trip.