According to Harvard Medical School, a mother/daughter trip taken once a year can help relieve stress, improve immune responses, and decrease the chances of heart disease for both mother and daughter. Spending time together outside of your routine day can make it easier to laugh, talk, and engage. Just as important as change in general, trips improve health and increase longevity. A new, exciting adventure challenges the mind to navigate the unknown, leading to healthy new brain activity. Schedule changes, transportation, new scenery, and simply the anticipation and preparation for a trip all lead to vigorous brain function and personal growth.
Our trip was to a nearby city where we stayed just one night and acted like tourists for two days. We made our own itinerary, walked for miles each day, explored, took photos, and spent every minute together, not only learning about the city, but learning about each other. We budgeted, discussed the agenda and our interests, got tired, grumpy, and annoyed sometimes, but relied on one another because we had to.
Stepping away from the daily routine of home, work, and school granted both of us discovery and excitement and the ability to share these immediately with each other. Traveling replaces the ordinary and the predictable, and reveals character traits that may not be present at home. When something goes awry, which it usually does, mothers and daughters discover one another’s resilience and resourcefulness.
Traveling instills independence and encourages self-confidence; and ideally for young people, it presents the array of career choices the world has to offer. Teens, when exploring and traveling, step away from social media, engage with others, learn flexibility, make decisions, and observe the grand scale of experiences and opportunities available in the world. No other experience offers so much for your teen.
Tiny toes of toddlers and babies with little bald heads getting pushed in strollers and being held on shoulders are for whole family trips to Disney, camping, and the beach. Those early vacation years are for unifying and solidifying the family. When my second son was born, I regularly made ice cream or bookstore dates with my first son who was four. I would make mention of this “date” to him throughout the week so he would know how excited I was for this upcoming one-on-one time with just him. Perhaps this recent little city trip, this one-on-one was similar. The anticipation made it exciting, even if it was only an overnight trip.
Whether a new state or country or a nearby city, the trip offered adventure and a refresh for what can often be trying times during the teen years. The two of us alone in an unfamiliar place made us both a bit vulnerable, and what I believe, was a comfortable opportunity for her to open up to me.
Perhaps this idea will become a lifelong tradition for the two of us. I hope so; in the meantime, we’ve got many places near and far to explore and I’ve got many more stories to tell, before she finally flies on her own.
