Why You Shouldn’t Take Your Kids to New Places

Youth is wasted on the young and extensive travel is wasted on kids, according to one child psychologist.

Even though parents may think a trip to ancient ruins or throughout Europe may be an excellent history lesson and opportunity for their children, Dr. Oliver James told The Telegraph that “home-based holidays are what most children really want.”

Basically, James said, all kids want is to go back to the same place year after year — although how children process place and adventure changes as they age.

Up until age five, kids aren’t equipped to appreciate new places, he said. But from about five until 10, kids can become very nostalgic, form an attachment to a single place and want to return there constantly. Once they reach their teenage years, James says most kids are ready to hit the road and explore new parts of the world.

However, even then, they may just want to return to the same places. “Children are now under so many pressures that the associations of one particular place where they know they can return and be free from those, can be very powerful and positive,” James told The Telegraph.

Parents can interpret James’s advice in several different ways. They can wait until their children are older to begin taking them around the world — or they can leave the kids at home and go on a second honeymoon by themselves.

Or there’s always a third option of parents continuing to travel around the world: hoping that their children are exceptions to the rules.