Mother and child grow up together through experience

My friend often spends her days off for her and her children to travel together. Living in the city all year round, they will definitely spend their days off in the countryside. For example, during Tet, it was Dak Nong, and soon it will be Quang Tri. She gave each of her children a notebook so they could write down interesting things. Their trips usually last a week, traveling by train, stopping at new villages that neither mother nor child have ever been to. In that village, there are family acquaintances and friends who are willing to give up their rooms and beds for the mother and children to stay.

Sometimes I share with my friend about my naughty boy. She asks why he doesn’t carry his backpack on the train like his mother and son?

Take your child out, there are hundreds of interesting things out there that will keep your child's attention and leave him no time to mess around. Let your child see that many people love him, the number of people who love him is much greater than the number of people who look at him with "annoyed" eyes. And more importantly, you and your child have many conditions to bond, many opportunities for him to develop. "My child used to be quite introverted, didn't talk much, and had poor writing skills. But just a few times with his mother helped him develop these missing skills" - She persuaded.

She said, one time she decided to take her child on a backpacking trip to Quang Binh, to the house of Mr. Ho Khanh - the discoverer of Son Doong Cave. The price to stay at Mr. Ho Khanh's homestay was 1.4 million VND. A very worrying amount for a mother with an unstable income like her.

But she did not hesitate for long because she thought there would be many experiences. Indeed, she and her children talked with Ho Khanh's mother until 2am. She told the story of how Ho Khanh loved to explore nature since he was very young. The children were also very excited, forgetting to be sleepy. Those practical stories helped them to be more excited about trips that were more experiential than touristic.

One time, she got up early to watch the sunrise. Seeing her child sleeping soundly, she couldn't bear to wake him up and go alone. A motorbike taxi driver agreed to take her for a very low price. She didn't suspect anything because most of the locals in the areas she went to were very nice. However, when she rolled up her pants to wade on the sand, the motorbike taxi driver followed closely, his eyes staring at her, making her shiver. She quickly turned back, missing the sunrise. "The trips are not only for children to learn, but mothers also need to learn many things in life" - she concluded.

My friend told me that during the holidays, she invited her father to go on a trip. Her father said: "In this difficult situation, you have two children to take care of alone, and your salary and bonus are not much, why don't you save for the future? Wait until you are well off and then go...". Her friend pouted and said: "At that time, if you are not well off, you won't be able to go with the kids?". Her colleague also wondered: "I see that you don't write much, so why do you have money to go out all the time?". Her friend jokingly said: "I have a "rich man" backing me up, that's why I have money to travel all the time!".

My friend is a single mother of two boys, one is 6 and the other is 4. Of course, she is not rich, nor does she have a rich man backing her up, but she does not think: "You have to be rich, you have to have enough conditions to travel and enjoy life!".

Everyone has their own love, their own priorities, their own way of arranging their life. With what you truly love, consider important and need to be prioritized, you will automatically arrange your time and finances for it. For you, arranging to go out and experience with your children is as important and necessary as eating, drinking, sleeping, and saving for the future.

You told me about your cousin, who lived in a rented house when she was young. She saved up and bought a small house in a foreign land. She had just bought the house when she passed away, leaving behind a 7-year-old child. Now her husband is preparing to remarry as soon as the mourning period for her is over. Her brother-in-law also plans to send her child back to the countryside for his grandmother to raise, because living with him, the house is cramped, and the couple will have many inconveniences. During her nephew's childhood, there were probably few occasions when mother and son went on vacation together, capturing memories with beautiful photos, because the mother was busy making a living and saving for the future...

You often tell yourself, this life is not short but you also cannot know how long it is, how many years you will leave your mark on this life. If you save joy and save too much happiness for the future, will you ever regret it? If you say you wait to be rich and abundant, that time will be endless, because no one is ever satisfied with their abundance.

Our children need to be assured of their future, that is absolutely right. But at present, they also need to be nurtured with joy and experiences with their parents. They also need to have beautiful and colorful memories, not just images of mothers working hard in the kitchen cooking and forcing their children to eat, fathers working hard, occasionally buying their children a toy and then being busy with work, games and other interests of theirs.

Take your children out to let them know that the world is not limited to four walls and colorful YouTube clips. Their space is not only limited to home, the street, to school, with dust and traffic jams, but is also as long as the roads across Vietnam, Asia, Europe, as wide as the sea, as high as the mountains, as vast as the wind... Take your children out to let them taste the salty taste of the sea, the very rustic, very fresh BBQ dishes, the flavors are very different from fast food and kindergarten food. Take your children out to play, stay at resorts with good service, be treated politely by the staff, take your children to experience the market, the livelihood of the locals; let them understand that life has many different levels. Whatever you do, as long as you love your work, you will have results. Wherever you go, when you are polite, you pay others fairly, you will be treated well, and you will be able to buy good services. Mom just needs to give up a few lipsticks, a few outfits, and a bag to take her child out.

There are so many profound and effective lessons for children and mothers from these trips, why not pack your bags and go together?

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I am preparing to pack my backpack and go with my child, the 30/4, 1/5 and a whole summer eagerly waiting ahead. Going so that both mother and child can grow up together.