Family Travel Tips
Nicole Frank is one of the leading experts of the home exchange community. Nicole has been an avid home exchanger since childhood and has completed dozens exchanges around the world with her family. Nicole’s "Key to Home Exchange" appears weekly on RoofSwap.com with do’s and don’t regarding house swapping and tips and advice on a wide array of travel topics. Have a question for Nicole or want to share some insight of your own? Visit our Member Forum section and post your comments and questions.
Dear Key to Home Exchange,
We are doing our first home exchange in Ireland. We have a 6-month oldbaby and a 3-year old. How can we make sure our kids' first home exchangeis a good experience?
Elizabeth, Chicago, IL
Dear Home Exchanger,
If you ask me, home exchange is the only way to travel with kids! When you share a hotel room with small children, their bedtime becomes your bedtime. With home exchange, each child can have a separate bedroom and parents can enjoy evening activities even after "lights out" for the little ones. With a little preparation your children will be the most enthusiastic home exchangers in your family.
FAMILIARIZE THE KIDS WITH THE SWAP HOME BEFORE YOU GET THERE: You love browsing home exchange listings, and your child will, too. After you have finalized an exchange, show your child the listing for the exchange home you will be using. Point out "your bedroom" to your child. Swap families with children often include photos of play rooms or outdoor play equipment. Your child won't want to miss those images.
YOUR KIDS ARE THE WELCOMING COMMITTEE: Involve your children in welcoming your swap partners by having them illustrate a card or banner to greet the
swappers when they enter your home. We did a trade with a fun family who celebrated their son and our son's mutual love of toy trains by leaving him a "treasure map". Following the map led him upstairs to the playroom. He opened the door to find a huge toy train layout that occupied him during every possible moment for the rest of the vacation.
LET THE KIDS HAVE SOME PRIVACY: Just as adults sometimes put items of great
sentimental or monetary value away before a home exchange, your children may
have a few special items they do not want to share with the exchange family. We honor our children's wishes within reason, but we also emphasize that they need to share their toys, beds and so on if they want to play with thetoys at the swap home.
HOME EXCHANGE MAKES GOOD KIDS BETTER: Home exchange is the best way I have found to foster good ethics in my kids. There is the wonderful lesson in sharing that comes from using someone else's most important possession: their home. We have also showed our children how important it is to take responsibility when we make a mistake like breaking a glass or other item at the swappers' home. We are able to demonstrate the "golden rule" of taking care of someone's home as we hope they are caring for our home by fixing a cabinet door or cleaning the whole swap home, even in areas we have not used. The most important lesson our children have learned from their home exchange travels is that people in other places have their own rules, customs and lifestyles that are different from, but as good or better than, our own.
BRING THEIR BEDROOMS ALONG: My older child completed 24 vacation swaps
before his 7th birthday. The little one has done 14 in her four years. Entering a new swap home is as exciting to our children as ripping the wrapping paper off a birthday gift. Our secret to helping our kids adjust to sleeping in a new home is to bring their bedrooms along with us on home exchange.
No, we didn't pack the bunk bed and toy bin. We just got the children used to a small travel bed and a very specific bedtime ritual. The travel bed we used is the Peapod http://www.kidco.com/main.taf?p=4,5 You could use any type of travel child bed or crib, or even just a special travel sleeping bag. Don't forget the special "lovey" stuffed animal or blanket your child needs to sleep securely. Repeat the same bedtime song or story or prayer each night for at least a month before your first home exchange. The familiarity of the bed or bedding, combined with the same bedtime ritual she is used to at home will have your little home exchanger dreaming sweet home swap dreams in no time.
Happy Home Exchanging!
Nicole Frank, Your Key to Home Exchange
