I was so excited for Lucas to travel. I was five years old when I first flew on a plane, and I always enjoyed traveling, despite my fear of flying. I was just a child when I first visited Bangkok and Hong Kong with my parents, and a teenager when we first visited San Francisco and Dubai. I was really hoping that Lucas would feel the same excitement and wonder as I did upon seeing things new and different.
We were in Bangkok for a week, and I was eagerly looking for places we could visit that would interest Lucas. One day, we visited a small temple near our hotel.
Lucas looked at one building and said, “Let’s go na.” He wanted to go to the mall.
Granted, it wasn’t the grandest sight. I suppose it was a little underwhelming. But still, I got annoyed.
He’d been asking for pizza and pasta and ice cream, and hadn’t tried any of the local food. When he wasn’t interested in the temple, I guess I feared that he was bored. It didn’t help that we’d been walking under a hot sun, and the brick oven pizza place where we had been planning to have lunch was closed.
We had a serious talk about traveling, exploring, trying new things. I reminded him that we didn’t come to Bangkok just to do the same things and eat the same food as back home. I told him to look around, see what was different, to just observe and see what looked interesting.
In hindsight, I guess I was afraid that he would turn out to be one of those people who wasn’t interested in what was different and unfamiliar, who would only be comfortable with what he already knew. I realize this was unfair, because Lucas is indeed a very curious boy, often fascinated with what’s around him. I also had to remind myself: it was his first time in another country. He was surrounded by people who spoke a completely different language. His daily routine was completely gone, and he was sleeping in a hotel bed. Everything was new and different, and that could be terrifying.
It was exhausting to negotiate, and to explain things, but was important to remember that I was meeting a new persona of my son’s: Lucas the traveler.
That same day, he tried Thai iced tea and felt much better. And he promised to try all the local food.
I guess we’re both learning what kind of traveler he is, and how I can still be a good parent while traveling. Wherever in the world we are, patience–with myself, with my son–always helps.
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