It is much easier than you think to travel abroad with small children and especially babies. Okay, I take that back. If you are the parent who cannot leave the house without a HUGE diaper bag of crap just to go to the market then perhaps you should stay home 
But all you other parents listen up to Tara’s Top Reasons to Travel with Small Children:
1) Before the age of 2 you get MAJOR discounts on airfares. If you are working on a budget like us this makes a big difference. For our first trip to India when Rowan was 1 we paid about $300 for her ticket or a 30% discount on full fare. Now she is three and even though you still get a wee discount, about 75%, we ended up paying about $1000 for her ticket. I know, I still can’t believe it.
If you need to practice traveling abroad with a baby before you can work up the nerve to go abroad then do it. Children under 2 travel for FREE within the states. FREE. I like that word. I flew with Rowan her first time when she was 5 weeks old from California to Florida. Her first year she probably logged more miles than most people do their whole lives.
2) If you travel abroad with babies or small children you interact more with local people. You know what they say about the best way to meet women if you are a single guy – you take a baby or dog with you? It works with foreigners too. Everyone loves kids – mostly – and children are non-threatening and soften the interactions people have with you.
3) It is a bonding experience with your family. ’nuff said.
Reasons you should not travel abroad with your small children:
1) You enjoy vacations where you sleep till noon, lazily roll out of bed and stroll to the nearest cafe and sip espresso and munch on a croissant while you read the morning paper. THESE TYPES OF VACATIONS DO NOT HAPPEN ONCE YOU HAVE KIDS unless you bring a nanny and have them in a seperate suite than yours.
2) You freak out when your kids eat dirt or get a boo-boo. It happens. Rowan had a pacifier in India and it probably dropped hundreds of times in the dirt and she would pick it up and put it right back in her mouth. I know it is gross, but you can’t clean it every time
3) You cannot break out of your routine and/or improvise. We have met many parents when we travel who do this thing where they trade off watching their kid because if they all went out and did something it might disrupt the kids schedule and then armageddon would happen. Then what happens is the parents have 2 seperate vacations because they are never together. One parent is out at lunch with friends and the other is home with the kid, or any other activity for that matter. I am all for schedules with kids, but sometimes it is okay to do something different. Really. And they are pretty adaptable so even though you think they will NEVER be able to handle a different type of situation it probably is you that cannot handle it.
