“Why aren't we flying? Because getting there is half the fun. You know that.”
That was one of many immortal lines from Clark Griswold in National Lampoon’s “Vacation.” I’m with Clark. I believe in the power of family road trips and the importance of spending time with your kids before they leave the nest.
My wife and I have worked hard to make these road trips happen for the last six or seven summers and, surprisingly, they seem to meet or exceed my lofty expectations when I’m planning them. We’ve crisscrossed the U.S., and our kids have seen more in their young lives than I saw before I hit my 20s.
In an era of rampant consumerism, where we’re hounded to “buy this” and told “you must have that,” we push back. We try to foster the value in our kids that time together as a family, and shared experiences, are more important than the stuff we might buy them.
I’ve repeated this mantra many times with them, going so far as to say, “Well, we could buy that or we could set that money aside for our next trip.” Inevitably, I get the pause and then the look that says, “Yeah, we’ll take the trip.”
Have our trips been perfect? Of course not. We’ve had meltdowns, temper tantrums and plenty of “are we there yet?” And we’ve visited a few places I’m sure my kids won’t fully appreciate until they’re older.
What’s most important, though, is that we’re permanently embedding experiences and memories in their mental hard drives that can never be erased. No toy or electronic gizmo will ever top that.
I’m Wester Wuori, and that’s my perspective.
