Geographically Challenged

The fourth little traveller has much to enjoy about being the youngest. A quick walk though our house will show the fourth traveller straddling the back of his sister while she ponies him around the living room. His older brother is often forced to include him, give him the extra turn, be gentle with the baseball and drag him along when he’s out with his mates. Our eldest traveller holds his hand while crossing the road, carries his lunch to the table, and tickles him while watching the telly. He is more than happy with his branch on the family tree – until it comes to travel.

The eldest traveller had filled her first passport by age three. The second left her country of birth at three weeks, and was living in her fourth country by age four. The third traveller had spanned five nations in his first five months on the planet. Whereas our fourth little traveller was able to settle in a little more. He was our first child to arrive home from the hospital with no rush for a passport, and no immediate need for a suitcase. I smiled contently as I decorated his room, and smugly went through his 2, 4, and 6 month vaccinations at the same venue (this is a luxury to the well travelled child). His first flight was made to Australia at five months, his first real move at age two. And while he may be the only child in our household with two differing passports (Canada and Australia), his travel log is somewhat smaller.
Recently I overheard a conversation happening in the back of the car. The second and third little traveller mentioned something about South America.

“Wait!” said the fourth little traveller with a furrowed brow and a hint of suspicion “There’s a South America?” It was a revelation to him. He’d not heard of this place called South America.

“I knew there was a North America, but there’s a South America?” The elder three rolled their eyes.

The second giggled “You really really need to get out more”.

“So is there a West America and an East America?” he was beginning to sound panicked.

“Mum has Henry even started geography at school yet?” the third traveller asked with exasperation.

I caught the fourth travellers eye in the rear view mirror. I knew what was coming.

“Have I been to South America?” he asked accusingly.

“No, you haven’t”

“Have THEY been to South America?”

“No, they haven’t” I smiled. Knowing that this was what was really important to him.

As the youngest child he suffers from serious FOMO – fear of missing out. That extra trip that they got to Disneyland. The boating holiday in the Whitsundays. The toy aeroplane they all talk about in the playground at Malta. “Where even is Malta?” he asked one day.

As I unloaded his backpack yesterday I noticed an exercise he’d done in class. As a get to know you game the children had had to fill in details about themselves and answered a series of questions. Halfway down the list was the question “Who has lived in Africa?” I noticed Henry had filled his name in.

“Umm darling, you actually haven’t lived in Africa.”

“What?” he said with the hysteria of a stockbroker on black Friday.

“You didn’t live in Africa sweetie, we lived there before you were born.”

The brow furrowed again, he looked across the room to where the other three were doing their homework at the table.

“Did THEY live in Africa?”

I decided it was time for an ice-cream.
 

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Comments

  1. My in-laws lived in Aden in the 60’s (and wild it was from all reports) and my husband was the only member of the family not to have lived there, he used to say (according to legend) “What’s all this Aden stuff?” when he was a little lad. Even just with travelling my kids like to work out who went where!

  2. My hubby and 2 of his three brother’s were born in San Tome, Venezuela. I always felt sorry for the youngest one as he was born in Australia after the family repatriated – he definitely needs an ice-cream 😉

  3. Funny! I have this conversation all the time with my youngest, Holly, who thinks she’s missed out on a lifetime of fun!

  4. Corinne Rochette says

    Ah, one of the problems of being the last child!
    Then there is the other end of the spectrum.
    My eldest being a senior, the younger kids are starting to realise that he may leave home soon… and my #3 came to the realisation that ‘poor #4, she’ll be by herself when we’re all gone!’. Luckily child #4 hasn’t quite realised it yet!

  5. Ahahah! Mine are couting the countries they visited including the ones when I was pregnant with them. “I was with you mommy right? So there you go, I visited it too!” (caption: so long, loser!) FOMO! I ll remember this acronym.

  6. Kirsty- I notice you said your second child left their country of birth at 3 weeks old. Can you do a post on travelling with a newborn? I may have to travel long distance with a 4 week old next year and am very, very nervous about it!

    • Sure thing Amna, my first three all had to travel as newborns. The first little traveller did a 7hr flight at 11 days old. The 2nd did 2 long haul flights at 3 weeks and the 3rd did a quick zip from Malta to Tripoli at 4 weeks. They all did really well. I’ll have a think about a good post for flying with newborns but in the meantime try not to be nervous. Flight attendants have seen it all and if there’s one thing that newborns do often is sleep. You’ll be a pro by the time you’re 2 hours into the flight. xx

      • Thank you so much for the reassurance! All the baby boards are full of doom and gloom and horrible predictions by people who haven’t actually done it! So glad to see this!

        • Having flown London-Southern Africa (Lusaka & Gaborone) on 3 occasions with my 2 or 3 week olds (who are now 8, 6 & nearly 2), I can confidently say that is the easiest flight you will ever do with a child! The younger the better. They sleep, they feed, they poo. That’s it. And even the most bored/cynical of flight attendants can’t resist a really tiny baby 🙂 You & your bundle will be fine, don’t worry. It’s far less stressful than trying to get them a passport!

  7. Absolutely brilliant. So well travelled but every now and again they surprise you and make you giggle!

  8. Wonderful post, Kirsty. I love kid stories and this one of yours ranks up there among the best.

    On traveling while an very young, my younger brother claims his memory is so long, he remembers the camping trip that he went to with Dad and came home from with Mom. (took me a few seconds to “get it”-I miss that boy and his humor.)

    Ice cream for everyone-it’s raining in Northern California this morning and your suggestion of ice cream ranks high up there as a party activity to celebrate the beginning of the end of our drought.

  9. Therese Oxholm says

    Thank you so much for this post!

    One of my boys (now 6) had to make a presentation at our
    school here in Texas on his birthday. He had to stand in the middle of the class
    and tell about his life so far.

    ”When I was born, I moved to Australia.

    When I was 1, I moved to Norway.

    When I was 2, I went to Disneyland (while still living in
    Norway, mother may stress). When I was three, I got a little sister.

    At four, I don´t remember.

    At five, I moved to America. Hopefully, I´ll be here a
    while.”

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