I delayed having kids to explore the world. I shouldn’t have done that.

• I knew I wanted kids and a big family, but I put off having them because I wanted to travel first.
• I thought having kids meant the end of my adventures abroad.
• Now I know that traveling with kids is different, but so much fun.

As a newlywed in my 20s, I knew I wanted a big family. Yet, my husband and I agreed to put off having kids.

Like many prospective parents, we wanted to establish our careers and build a nest egg. However, the biggest reason I put off having children was that I wanted to continue traveling.

I was afraid I would need to stop traveling once I had children

I feared that once I had children, I would no longer be able to travel to far-flung places around the globe for weeks at a time or squeeze in quick getaways during long weekends. I assumed that my life of adventure and constantly exploring somewhere new would come to an end as soon as I became a mom.

I waited for years, but when I was 30, I decided to take one last trip with friends before trying to conceive. I had an epic trip to Costa Rica, and I returned home ready to retire my passport.

Traveling seemed overwhelming for a while

When my oldest daughter was born, life changed in an instant. There were sleepless nights, endless pumping sessions to keep my daughter fed, and a host of baby gear I couldn’t imagine taking on the road. At first, travel seemed overwhelming. Would my daughter sleep in an unfamiliar room? Could we get by with a smaller stroller? Was traveling safe for a baby too young to have all of her childhood vaccines? Although wanderlust pulled at me deeply, I stayed put.

Eventually, I realized I could travel again

Slowly, my family settled into a routine, and I felt more confident caring for my daughter. We eased into traveling by visiting family in Philadelphia and the Twin Cities. Then, we ventured to familiar places, such as Chicago, where my husband had lived before we met. Over the years, we added three more children to our family and kept traveling around the country.

A few years after my youngest was born, I decided to take my children to Europe. I started by going to London, a city I knew well, and Paris, where I had been a few times before. I felt comfortable in both cities, knowing it would be easy to access healthcare if my children became ill, and I didn’t need to worry about my kids drinking unsafe water from the tap.

Traveling with kids is different, but just as much fun

Our first trip to Europe was different from my previous visits. Instead of going to bars at night, I sought out ice cream surrounded by cotton candy because I knew my children would love it. Instead of lingering at museums, we wandered through castle moats and went to amusement parks and playgrounds. My travel experiences now are different but just as good.

After that first trip, I realized I could take my kids anywhere. I have since taken them all over the world, from the gorgeous beaches of Turks and Caicos to glaciers in Iceland, the ruins of Petra, and the Great Pyramids of Giza.

They are living a childhood I couldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams when I was growing up. I am fortunate to be able to give them these experiences. Moreover, I am living a life like the one I had imagined for myself – one that includes seeing the world.

My kids make travel better

With time and experience, I realized that I had unnecessarily feared that having children would prevent me from traveling. I realized that I didn’t need to put off having kids to keep traveling, and that I didn’t need to wait to travel once I had kids.

Now, with years of traveling with children under my belt, I can confidently say that my kids didn’t ruin traveling for me. To the contrary, they make traveling so much better. I love watching the delight on their faces when they see something they learned about in school, such as when my son set foot into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). I appreciate that my kids push me to have more fun and relax, such as by encouraging me to spend an extra day at Universal Studios in Japan. They inspire me to push my limits; by going on a strenuous hike in Iceland, I would have otherwise skipped. They also suggest activities I wouldn’t have considered on my own, from making ramen from scratch in Tokyo to enrolling in Gladiator School in Rome.

If I could speak to my younger self, I would tell her not to wait to have kids because traveling the world with pint-sized travel buddies is so much fun.