Why I Want My Son to See the Entire World Before He Leaves Home
There are certain lessons you can teach your children with words.
And then there are lessons that can only be taught through experience.
Travel belongs firmly in the second category.
When people ask why I insist on showing my son the world before he leaves home or goes to college, I say that I believe travel is the most powerful education he can have.
Because everything I know about how the world really works, I learned by seeing it with my own eyes.
The First Time the World Opened Up for Me
I started traveling for work in my early twenties. I don’t remember the exact age—22 or 23, somewhere around there —but I remember the feeling with absolute clarity.
It was my first time traveling to Asia for work as a Designer.
China.
India.
India.
And suddenly, the world became much bigger than the one I thought I knew.
China astonished me. The pace, the technology, the efficiency, the ambition. Entire cities moving with precision and scale I had never imagined. It shattered any narrow ideas I had about what “advanced” or “developed” really meant.
India, where I grew up, grounded me in something else entirely: resilience, history, contrast, and humanity layered over centuries. I could see both the limitations and the brilliance of systems shaped by culture, population, and tradition.
That contrast alone reshaped my thinking forever.
Growing Up Between Worlds
I grew up in India and moved to Canada during my teenage years. That transition alone expanded my perspective in ways I didn’t fully understand at the time.
Later, I studied fashion design in the early 2000s — a time when the internet was still new, social media didn’t exist, and information moved slowly. We learned by doing. By observing. By traveling.
What truly educated me wasn’t just school.
It was a movement.
As my career evolved, so did my exposure to the world. Europe became familiar — London, Paris, Italy. Asia became a second professional home — Hong Kong, Shanghai, and China again and again for nearly two decades. North America unfolded city by city — New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, and so many others.
But this wasn’t tourism.
I wasn’t passing through for photos.
I was traveling for work.
Which meant I saw how people lived.
How they worked.
How they negotiated.
How they built businesses.
How their systems functioned.
How culture shaped behavior, ambition, and daily life.
How they negotiated.
How they built businesses.
How their systems functioned.
How culture shaped behavior, ambition, and daily life.
That kind of education doesn’t come from books alone.
What Travel Teaches That Nothing Else Can
You can read endlessly about different cultures.
You can watch documentaries.
You can scroll through beautifully curated social media feeds.
You can watch documentaries.
You can scroll through beautifully curated social media feeds.
But none of it compares to standing inside a different system and realizing:
This way of life works — just differently than mine.
Travel teaches humility.
It dispels the myth that there is a single way to succeed, reveals that intelligence and success look different depending on where you are, and proves that values and priorities are a product of culture.
For me, travel didn’t just broaden my worldview.
It refined my judgment.
It taught me to observe before concluding.
To listen before assuming.
To respect differences without romanticizing or dismissing them.
To listen before assuming.
To respect differences without romanticizing or dismissing them.
These are not soft skills.
They are life skills.
Parenting by Example, Not Instruction
As a parent, I’ve learned something essential:
Children don’t follow our instructions.
They follow what they see us value.
They follow what they see us value.
If you want your children to be curious, you must live with curiosity.
If you want them to be adaptable, you must model adaptability.
If you want them to see the world as expansive, you must move through it yourself.
If you want them to be adaptable, you must model adaptability.
If you want them to see the world as expansive, you must move through it yourself.
This is why, as a mother, I insist on travel as essential: I want my son prepared for real life, not just fantasize about it.
Not just luxury travel.
But intentional exposure.
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Why I Travel With My Son
From early on, I made a conscious decision to travel with my son whenever possible.
Not just to entertain him.
But to introduce him to new perspectives.
We spent two weeks in Italy together, walking through cities, eating slowly, and observing history layered into everyday life. We’ve traveled together on vacations where the goal wasn’t escape, but presence.
I want him to see how people live outside his own bubble.
I want him to understand that:
- Comfort looks different everywhere.
- Success wears many faces.
- Intelligence is not limited to one language or system.
- The world is bigger than his school, his city, or his social circle.
I want him to carry that awareness with him before he ever has to define himself in college or adulthood.
Travel as Preparation for Life
This belief shapes both my parenting and my life: Travel prepares you for opportunity by equipping you with awareness, adaptability, and real-world insight.
Travel prepares you in subtle but powerful ways.
It prepares you to:
- enter unfamiliar environments with confidence
- read social cues
- adapt quickly
- ask better questions
- think globally instead of provincially
These skills matter whether you become an entrepreneur, a creative, or anything else.
They matter in relationships.
They matter in leadership.
They matter in how you see yourself in the world.
They matter in leadership.
They matter in how you see yourself in the world.
I refuse to let my son’s first real exposure to the world happen after he leaves home. I want him to stand on his own with a grounded, realistic worldview.
I want him prepared.
What COVID Delayed, But Didn’t Cancel
Like so many families, our plans were interrupted by COVID. Trips were postponed. Borders closed. Timelines shifted.
But the intention never changed.
We’re already planning future travel — China, Japan, Indonesia, more of Europe, and beyond. Not as rewards. Not as celebrations.
But as education.
Because the world is not something you visit after life begins.
It is where life is shaped.
Children Who See the World Walk Differently Through It
Children who travel, truly travel, move differently.
They are less afraid of difference.
Less rigid in thinking.
Less impressed by status.
More curious.
More grounded.
Less rigid in thinking.
Less impressed by status.
More curious.
More grounded.
They understand that life is not lived on one script.
And most importantly, they learn this not because their parents told them so, but because they experienced it alongside them.
This is parenting by example at its purest.
Following Footsteps, Creating Their Own Path
I don’t want my son to become me.
I want him to become himself, with a wide lens.
But I do want him to inherit one thing:
An understanding that the world offers endless perspectives, challenges, and possibilities.
That lesson changed my life.
And if he carries even a fraction of that awareness into adulthood, then every mile traveled together will have been worth it.
