No drama mama! - by Karen B

May 08, 2020

The first time I travelled just me and my mom was to go visit my grandparents in Ontario. It was a special treat to get to miss school and take the four hour plane ride from Alberta. I didn’t know it then, but my mom would become my preferred airport buddy from then on.

When I was graduating high school, I asked for a trip to Universal Orlando at spring break as a joke. My mom took me! Two years later, we went back and had even more fun. The next year we visited Cancun for the first time together. The year after that we did a road trip to Banff and Lake Louise.

Our biggest mother-daughter trip was the next year when I talked her into going to London, England for the week! And in 2018, I travelled not just with my mom, but with my grandma and thirty other extended family members for a family reunion in The Netherlands.

Add in the twenty odd family trips with my dad and my brother tagging along, and we’ve really got some adventures together under our belt. So, I feel confident in saying I have a lot of experience travelling with my mom! Here are my top three reasons she’s my preferred travel buddy:

Sharing is caring

When we travel, my mom and I share a suitcase. We share all our toiletries.
We even share a bed, but not blankets (she hogs them). Before we leave, we plan our packing together to make sure we have our bases covered. Out and about, we share meals and snacks, and we take turns buying things like tickets and transit passes. And we share the load. I carry the heavy bags, she makes the small talk.

No Drama Mama

Travelling is stressful, and when you’re with other people there can be an
undercurrent of drama. Maybe someone packed way more bags, or someone insisted that everyone goes to an out-of-budget restaurant. Spending 24/7 with someone in an unfamiliar place is a big change from what most people are used to. Not with mom though. I’m not insulted when she wants to spend the night in the room and she’s not bothered when I walk away to take pictures. When we travelled with my whole family, every day there was a new issue popping up. But I could count on my mom and me being fine. We’ve got this communication thing down to a tee.

We Do What We Want

I’ve known my mom my whole life. So, when I propose international
travel plans centered around a Harry Potter library exhibit, she doesn’t bat an eye. When she wants to go to a department store to see baskets she’s read about in books, I pull up google maps. We both accept each other’s interests and quirks, and plan our travel around that. Neither of us feel embarrassed about what we want to do when we travel. At this point, we even suggest things we think the other would like. And we’re okay splitting up so that we can
both do what we want. She gets a fancy coffee, I climb 10,000 stairs.

Honestly, my list can be applied to any person you’ve travelled with for years. It just so happens, I picked my mom to be that person. We’ve developed a travel routine that works for us. Even when we’re with other people, I know I’m still going to split off with my mom for a weekend in Belgium eating waffles or a boat tour of Reykjavik’s puffins. And every year on Mother’s Day, I share some of my favourite travel photos of us.

Not many people can say they read the Magna Carta with their mom, or had another woman try to arrange your marriage with your mom beside you. Even if we never go on another trip which I doubt, hello Scotland!), I’ll have the best souvenir in the world: time spent with my mom.

The best lesson I learned from all this traveling with Mom? Lost in a subway at rush house? No big deal. Surrounded by a tour group yelling in a foreign language? It's fine. It doesn't matter where you, as long as you love who you're with, the adventure will be great!

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