Traveling with kids can feel overwhelming, but it does provide many benefits to kids and your family. I welcome Preethi Harbuck who is a mom of six, avid traveler, and creator of @localpassportfamily, a blog and social media platform to support families as they travel to discuss:

• How travel changes our kid’s world for the better
• What they learn by travel (both locally and internationally)
• The one thing not to forget when traveling with kids

00:00:01:02 – 00:00:27:11
Preethi Harbuck
Know that kids are curious. They are seeking. They want that connection. They want that education about learning. They want to connect with you and with other humans. And we’re honestly all connected. All of this is connected. Our travel, our advocacy work, it all ties in together and we can help our children be better members of society, better citizens, better humans, as we give them those opportunities to connect with other peoples and places around the world.

00:00:27:13 – 00:00:47:13
Dr. Mona
Welcome to the PedsDocTalk Talk podcast. This show’s success is largely due to you and the way you share the podcast with others and leave reviews, so thank you for the support you show us. I’m so grateful to have the most amazing and diverse guests to guide you in your parenting journey. Topics about all things parenting, infant and child health and development, and parental, mental and physical health.

00:00:47:15 – 00:01:09:19
Dr. Mona
Today’s guest may or may not need an introduction because you may know her from social media or maybe you listened to our previous episode. Her name is pretty hard, but she’s the creator of local Passport family, and she was on my show talking about the top five tips she has on traveling by plane with kids. Today we’re chatting about five skills kids learn from traveling.

00:01:09:20 – 00:01:12:10
Dr. Mona
Thank you so much for joining me today, Preethi.

00:01:12:12 – 00:01:15:03
Preethi Harbuck
Thank you for having me back. I’m so excited we get to chat again.

00:01:15:07 – 00:01:30:14
Dr. Mona
I’m so excited to, You are obviously the creator of Local Passport Family, an amazing blog and Instagram handle that talks about all things traveling. But for anyone who’s not familiar with who you are, if you can introduce yourself and your platform as well.

00:01:30:16 – 00:02:00:08
Preethi Harbuck
Absolutely. So, like you mentioned, I am the creator of local Passport Family, which is a blog and family travel Instagram account, but it goes much beyond family travel. We focus a lot on inclusivity and accessibility, particularly for the outdoors and all travel spaces for folks from marginalized communities and from other walks of life. We love sharing experiences and adventures to help families connect with each other, as well as people and places around the world, and then use that in our growth and learning and advocacy.

00:02:00:10 – 00:02:03:09
Dr. Mona
Yeah, and you’re also a mom of six kids.

00:02:03:11 – 00:02:05:14
Preethi Harbuck
And a mom of six children.

00:02:05:18 – 00:02:18:19
Dr. Mona
Yeah. I love obviously hearing all you do with things, you know, the society, the outdoor, indoor. But your experiences as traveling with a large family, I mean, there’s a lot to learn from you from that. So thank you for all that you post out there.

00:02:18:21 – 00:02:20:14
Preethi Harbuck
Thank you for listening and I appreciate it.

00:02:20:20 – 00:02:43:04
Dr. Mona
Yeah, and we already chatted, like I said, about top five tips on Traveling by Plane, which is an amazing episode if you’ve not listened to it already. But now we’re talking about the developmental and emotional aspect of traveling, which I also love, which is skills that our kids can learn. So tell us more about where to start there and what are your tips and why you feel like traveling is so beneficial to children?

00:02:43:05 – 00:03:02:01
Preethi Harbuck
Absolutely. So something that is always been really important to me and something my husband and I have discussed from the very beginning as we started traveling with our children, is using travel as an opportunity for growth and education. Of course, we love seeing beautiful places around the world. We’d love exploring beaches and mountains and cities and, you know, all those fun things.

00:03:02:06 – 00:03:21:12
Preethi Harbuck
But at the end of the day, we want travel to be an opportunity for learning, for our family, for connection, for growth, and to push us into advocacy for others as well. So the first skill that we really hope that our children, and I hope your children as well learn from travel, is openness and curiosity to other peoples and cultures.

00:03:21:18 – 00:03:39:16
Preethi Harbuck
We’d love taking your children around the globe because it helps them connect on an individual level with different peoples and places and cultures. You know they get to talk with others and learn from them and be in their homes and their cities. I feel like travel just makes it real in a way that can’t necessarily be when you’re learning from home.

00:03:39:16 – 00:03:59:10
Preethi Harbuck
I love when we have opportunities to learn from people and to connect with people from home as well. We do a lot of traveling through books, through other educational resources, through videos. I run a global children’s book club for families. It’s a virtual book club where we study different countries each month and read books about them. And I love doing things like that.

00:03:59:16 – 00:04:17:06
Preethi Harbuck
But being there in person, when you’re traveling is just such a unique experience, and it makes it so real and alive, especially for little ones. So I love that opportunity to foster that curiosity, to encourage them to think about how things are similar and different and why why it is that way.

00:04:17:08 – 00:04:30:15
Dr. Mona
Now, I know you have obviously six children, a partner and yourself. Has there been a place that has been like across the board somewhere where everyone kind of had a consensus that, wow, this was a great cultural experience for you all?

00:04:30:17 – 00:04:50:11
Preethi Harbuck
Oh gosh, there are so many, so many things I, we, I have is 70 countries and we I think is currently 53 countries for my oldest. Yeah. And we just visited our final national park in American Samoa for final U.S. National park. So we’ve had lots of really wonderful experience. Is there a couple of places that do stand out?

00:04:50:16 – 00:05:13:15
Preethi Harbuck
We recently visited the nation of Samoa after we visited American somewhere. We visited the nation of Samoa and that was just a really rich, wonderful cultural experience. The people there are just so warm, so inviting, and so connected to each other, and family is so strong. Their community is so strong. So we love learning from and seeing that and being witness to that connection.

00:05:13:21 – 00:05:28:20
Preethi Harbuck
And it’s just stunning there. So that was a really special one. We loved Jordan, Morocco. I have a special place in my heart for France. I studied abroad there and we love London with kids. There just so many incredible places. It’s really hard to pick one.

00:05:28:22 – 00:05:46:17
Dr. Mona
Yeah, no, it’s great. And I love what you’re mentioning about exposure to culture. I mentioned on our other episode two, my husband and I used to travel a lot on our own before our son, and our envision when we had our son was that we would take him everywhere, internationally, nationally. And then the pandemic threw a wrench in our plans that first year.

00:05:46:19 – 00:06:05:20
Dr. Mona
And then also just, you know, infertility and stuff like that. We haven’t been able to take those international trips. So I think I agree with you. If we’re able to and again, I know different families may have different abilities means, you know, you don’t have to go every month or anything like that, but even just saying, hey, look like once a year, this is going to be something really important for us to go somewhere new.

00:06:05:20 – 00:06:26:17
Dr. Mona
And there’s so much benefit, like even myself and my husband. Like what we learn, I think about Japan a lot, like Japan was one of the most culturally amazing countries that we visited, and we talk about all the time that we just can’t wait to take our son back to Japan. Like the people, the food. You don’t always learn that from books and from TV shows and movies, and you learn some degree.

00:06:26:17 – 00:06:39:18
Dr. Mona
But when you’re with them and getting to talk to the locals and saying, what are the struggles that you all are dealing with? Like, we’re really big on that. My husband and I, I know my children probably won’t do that, but it’s like, what are you all dealing with here? Like, what are the things that make you happy about living in Japan?

00:06:39:18 – 00:06:56:12
Dr. Mona
Rather, things that are not like you just feel like you learn so much about how other people’s live and tolerance and acceptance for everyone you know. And it’s such a beautiful thing, and I’m so happy that your children do that. And I do believe that our children learn more about cultures and acceptance and diversity through that process. That’s great.

00:06:56:12 – 00:07:17:06
Preethi Harbuck
Absolutely. And that said, that’s why I really try as much as I can to provide those opportunities. Even when people aren’t able to travel, it feels like an enormous privilege to have that opportunity. And so as much as I can, I try to share, you know, click along videos or share book recommendations and other opportunities to explore the globe right from home, because we can get so many of those opportunities.

00:07:17:06 – 00:07:41:05
Preethi Harbuck
And that’s a wonderful thing. With an internet connected world, we can even connect with people from across the globe, right from our homes. And that’s such an incredible opportunity. And I hope that more than anything, we can take those insights, those opportunities to learn and convert them into advocacy. You know, we want to be loving and compassionate and inclusive, but at the end of the day, we need to take action based off of those things as well.

00:07:41:05 – 00:07:48:08
Preethi Harbuck
We need to convert that into actual advocacy to create more equitable situations. Communities, homes for everyone.

00:07:48:10 – 00:07:52:15
Dr. Mona
Yeah. Oh, I love it. That’s a great number one. What would be the other skill now.

00:07:52:17 – 00:08:13:07
Preethi Harbuck
Absolutely. So the second one is flexibility to change as travel just almost never goes as planned. You know, there’s always going to be some sort of wrench that gets thrown at either with flight schedules with, you know, or accommodation. When we were in our on our recent trip, we were in Tonga, we landed on the main island and we showed up and we thought we had our hotel booked.

00:08:13:07 – 00:08:31:06
Preethi Harbuck
They had confirmed multiple times and we had two rooms there because we have a large family. We showed up, they had no reservation for us, so we’ll deal. We’ll just drive around to, you know, one of the other seven hotels on this island and try to find another hotel room. No big deal. So and we found a fair amount of practice with, you know, being flexible with things like that.

00:08:31:11 – 00:08:50:14
Preethi Harbuck
But then we drove around to the other seven hotels that all had zero availability. So we’re starting to think, like, are we going to have to sleep in our van tonight? We weren’t really sure what was going to happen, so we never talked to the first hotel. They had one room and were so kind to let us bring in, you know, an extra crib in there, bring in extra mattresses.

00:08:50:14 – 00:09:12:15
Preethi Harbuck
So we all squeezed in there and it wasn’t, you know, the ideal sleeping situation, but it was totally fun and great. And our kids were wonderful with it. And, you know, often I feel like our kids are more adaptable than we give them credit for. And travel allows all of us to flex those muscles. Maybe me especially, I tend to not be a very spontaneous person, so it’s good for me as well to practice having those opportunities to be flexible.

00:09:12:16 – 00:09:33:14
Dr. Mona
Same with me, I love it. My husband is the way more flexible, one of the two of us, and so I feel like maybe that’s an important balance in marriages or relationships, because one person, we both can’t be like me or we both can’t be like him. Yeah, I love that. I love that your children made the most of it, and I’m sure it was a stressful moment or experience, but making the most of it is what parenting is really all about, too.

00:09:33:14 – 00:09:44:13
Dr. Mona
Like saying it’s not. It sucks right now. We may not have somewhere to stay, but what are we going to do? Are we going to just. Yeah, yeah, said about it forever or are we just going to make the most of it like we do an outside of travel? You know I love that.

00:09:44:15 – 00:09:59:00
Preethi Harbuck
Yeah. And I feel like it develops as problem solving skills as well. Like you know okay, are we just going to stay on the side of the road and sleep in the van overnight when it’s really hot and you have an outside and we can’t open the windows at night because, you know, we might get Disney fever or something.

00:09:59:02 – 00:10:07:21
Preethi Harbuck
Yeah. Or are we going to go back and try to figure out a solution? You know, I feel like witnessing those opportunities for problem solving can be really helpful as well.

00:10:07:21 – 00:10:12:20
Dr. Mona
Yeah. I mean, that modeling that they’re getting from you and your partner are so great. Like they’re seeing all of that happen in real time.

00:10:12:20 – 00:10:18:21
Preethi Harbuck
They’re remembering more of the modeling for like, problem solving and not just being really frustrated because.

00:10:18:23 – 00:10:27:02
Dr. Mona
Then they see how you deal with frustration. You’re like, that was annoying, but we’re going to do this. It’s all human, human emotions. And in real time I love it. That’s a great.

00:10:27:02 – 00:10:49:06
Preethi Harbuck
One. Awesome. So the third one that I was thinking of is honoring others needs as well as your own, you know, because obviously at home we try to create wonderful, safe circumstances for all of our children. We look at individual needs, you know, providing opportunities for sports and activities and good sleeping situations and all of that. Yeah, and we try to do that while we’re traveling as well.

00:10:49:11 – 00:11:20:13
Preethi Harbuck
But sometimes we need to again, be a little bit more flexible with honoring everybody’s needs. Sometimes some needs take precedence over others. You know, we might need to be, again, a little bit more flexible with the exact sleeping situation with knowing that, you know, my younger sibling cannot go on this big zip line, so we might need to take turns with mom and Dad instead of everyone going out together as a family, we might need to be a little bit adaptable in terms of who is staying and which hotel room, and who is sitting in which airplane seat, who gets a window seat.

00:11:20:14 – 00:11:38:02
Preethi Harbuck
You know, it provides a lot of opportunities to honor others needs as well, including parents. You know, I touched on this a little bit in our last podcast interview, but needs are about the kids. We try to take their needs into account when we are traveling and find activities that are interesting and exciting for them, but we also look into our needs as well.

00:11:38:02 – 00:11:56:18
Preethi Harbuck
You know, we might be visiting a museum for a couple of hours, an art museum where it’s not my kid’s first preference, but it might be my first preference. And we all get to learn to enjoy things that other people enjoy. You know, even if it’s not our first pick, it allows us to look at other people’s interests and participate in that and be excited about that as well.

00:11:56:20 – 00:12:13:06
Dr. Mona
Yeah. So important. So great. So far. I love this openness to culture, flexible to changes, honoring others needs. Such important like you said, the whole conversation life skill so we can learn so much from just each other and also just the experience of traveling by all of this. What would be the fourth one?

00:12:13:08 – 00:12:32:16
Preethi Harbuck
So the fourth one is getting practice, feeling different. You know, a lot of times our kids are in comfortable situations in their schools where they speak the language in their homes, where, you know, they have their own space, they have their toys. You know, we try to help them feel like they are leaders in their own lives. They have ownership over their own lives.

00:12:32:18 – 00:13:01:05
Preethi Harbuck
Travel often feels different. You know, they’re in a new culture with new foods and often a new language. And I love that they get that opportunity to practice feeling different, to practice not feeling like everything is normal or familiar to them. You know, I hope that it helps build a little bit of empathy for so many people who move into different situations, who maybe move into our community with either fewer resources or who move in without comfort with language, who are experiencing new foods.

00:13:01:10 – 00:13:14:08
Preethi Harbuck
I hope that it helps them feel more confident and comfortable reaching out to others in their schools and our community to welcome them in, to help them feel comfortable, to help them know that they are included and meaningful and valued as well.

00:13:14:10 – 00:13:29:00
Dr. Mona
I love it! This is so great, would you say? I mean, I know we have one more to go, but would you say there’s when you look at all your children as a mother, you know, is there one of these things that you feel or maybe it’s not one of these things? Is there one thing that you feel like you’re like, well, this is travel doing this?

00:13:29:00 – 00:13:43:17
Dr. Mona
Like, you know, I know a lot of this can happen even if you don’t travel as well, but is there something that you really feel of all of these that is like, I’m so grateful for this experience and have gratitude for being able to do this because I see my three year old or I see my, you know, teenager being able to accomplish this.

00:13:43:19 – 00:14:03:09
Preethi Harbuck
Yeah. I mean, I feel like it’s that reaching out, you know, when I see my kids feeling, you know, remembering like, oh, I know what it was like to feel like I didn’t belong or when I was sitting in a church class in a different country, and I didn’t speak the language or I didn’t feel like I was, you know, the person who understood everything that was going on that was uncomfortable.

00:14:03:15 – 00:14:17:15
Preethi Harbuck
How can I work to make this situation more comfortable for someone else? How can I befriend someone else? How can I advocate for someone else so that they feel equitable representation and equitable access in our home community as well?

00:14:17:17 – 00:14:21:09
Dr. Mona
So good. And one more to go, which would be the final one?

00:14:21:11 – 00:14:52:04
Preethi Harbuck
Absolutely. The final one is just prioritizing family and having, you know, there’s so many wonderful learning, educational growth opportunities in travel. But part of it is just having fun and connecting together as a family. And I hope our children learn that prioritizing family is something that is part of our family culture. That is something that’s important to us and we will put aside other purchases, put aside other activities and experiences, and favor, prioritizing our family and the growth that comes from connecting with each other.

00:14:52:04 – 00:15:15:05
Preethi Harbuck
And I hope they learned the skill of putting our family first and putting other people first. You know, putting humans first over staff over other things, you know, obviously, like and this is not to say that boys are bad or anything like that, you know, going to be wonderful experiences and they can craft experiences, but more so to be choosy with what we prioritize in terms of our time and our resources.

00:15:15:08 – 00:15:40:02
Preethi Harbuck
I want them to learn the skill of considering their own personal resources, whether it’s time or money or, you know, mental capacity to support and determining where to apply that, whether it’s to family or to friends or to other activities, you know, learning how to manage those resources that we have, I feel like is such a valuable skill, and learning how to prioritize them for the maximum benefit.

00:15:40:04 – 00:15:57:02
Dr. Mona
I love all these that you’ve mentioned because it’s all these things you don’t have to travel like it’s travel in general, right? You don’t always have to travel internationally. Like I think there’s a misconception that you got to go far to experience the cultures and experience the the flexibility and experience all the things that you mentioned. But travel in general, right?

00:15:57:02 – 00:16:11:07
Dr. Mona
Like the flexibility. I mean, that’s very what’s going to happen if you’re traveling by plane or by car or different time zones or across the world. And the openness to culture, I mean, culture is defined in so many different ways, right? You could go to a different state and experience.

00:16:11:07 – 00:16:36:22
Preethi Harbuck
A different, different community within your own city. I think part of why I initially started my account, actually, and the reason it’s called Local Passport family is because I am a big advocate of exploring locally either where you actually are or like a local somewhere that I travel to. You know, that was kind of the whole point of it because there’s so many opportunities right, in our own, you know, communities and our own cities to explore, to get to know other people.

00:16:37:00 – 00:16:58:22
Preethi Harbuck
Oftentimes, I know I get stuck in my own little like bubble. And our school neighborhood world, but when we get outside of that, when we connect with people outside of our immediate communities, we can often learn so much. We see other perspectives. We see other people up close and their challenges, their strengths, their needs. And we’re better able to connect with humans around the globe.

00:16:59:00 – 00:17:09:22
Dr. Mona
I love it. It’s such a great conversation. It’s always such a pleasure having you on. I could talk to you more and more about everything. Maybe another episode about managing with children of different ages and schedules and all?

00:17:09:22 – 00:17:10:21
Preethi Harbuck
Absolutely. Yeah.

00:17:10:21 – 00:17:15:05
Dr. Mona
I just love chatting with you. What would be your final message for everyone listening today?

00:17:15:07 – 00:17:44:00
Preethi Harbuck
I think my final message is to know that kids are curious. They are seeking, they want that connection. They want that education about learning. They want to connect with you and with other humans. And we’re honestly all connected. All of this is connected. Our travel, our advocacy work, it all ties in together and we can help our children be better members of society, better citizens, better humans, as we give them those opportunities to connect with other peoples and places around the world.

00:17:44:02 – 00:18:02:01
Dr. Mona
Love it. Such great again, such great advice and education and support for travel, for just life in general. Parenting in general. That’s why I have said before, I love following you. It’s not just about your account, it’s not just about travel. It’s about so much more like this episode portrayed. Right? Obviously, this is skills that our children learn from travel.

00:18:02:01 – 00:18:07:22
Dr. Mona
This is what we will learn from traveling. And this is also what we learn as parents. So thank you again for joining me today.

00:18:08:00 – 00:18:10:13
Preethi Harbuck
Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure chatting with you.

00:18:10:13 – 00:18:12:19
Dr. Mona
And where can people find you to stay connected?

00:18:12:21 – 00:18:23:14
Preethi Harbuck
Absolutely. You can find me at local passport family on Instagram or local passport family.com is my blog. I’m also currently working on a book with National Geographic working on road trips for families, so be sure to check me out there!

00:18:23:16 – 00:18:28:10
Dr. Mona
Awesome! And I will be linking everything to the show notes, but thank you again for joining us today. Preethi

00:18:28:12 – 00:18:29:15
Preethi Harbuck
Thank you for having me.

00:18:29:19 – 00:18:48:11
Dr. Mona
And for everyone listening. I hope you love this episode. It’s always a pleasure having her on. I love chatting with so many different guests about all things parenting and health, and it’s just so wonderful to have this diversity of experiences. If you like this episode, make sure you leave a review and a rating and I cannot wait to chat with another guest next week.

00:18:48:13 – 00:18:53:07
Dr. Mona
Thank you for tuning in for this week’s episode. As always, please leave a review.

00:18:53:09 – 00:18:54:20
Dr. Mona
Share this episode with a friend.

00:18:54:20 – 00:19:04:06
Dr. Mona
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