Why 100? 

 “All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.” – Paul Fussell 

There are 196 independent countries in our world today. So, why 100 countries by 2023? 

Our primary reason why 100 countries is because we want to provide the kids our best milestones for our available resources in a limited time. 

Doing some simple math, that is more than 50% of the total countries. This means that if (when! – we are the optimistic bunch, right?!) we achieve our travel goals before the kids turn legal age, we have taken them for the first time to more countries than they will visit for the first time when they grow up.

Come to think of it, isn’t that how good parenting goes nowadays? We, parents, tend to give the children more resources than they would actually need to cope in their adult life? 

Pick up and drop to extracurricular activities, after school – don’t we know how that felt. Those swimming, soccer, choir practice, add in the dance, voice, musical instrument lessons.

Parents used to complain about this, in our family. When we pick up our kids from these classes or practice, we rant about how “Our parents never pick us up from swimming classes, or taken us to any classes… “ or how “My life is passing by right in front of us while waiting for you to practice choir…” or “My tombstone will read.. Here lies Mom and Dad, driver of the kids…” 

We can really get more creative whining and the complaining until the kids ears fell off.

Obviously, we  don’t like this particular task, but we perform  it diligently  anyways. And someday, our kids, for sure, will not consider this huge effort, that time when they strongly believe that we have ruined their lives for good for being the worst parents ever in the entire world!

Happens to the best of parent , we think! Our personal opinion. This is the cycle of parenthood: 

Parents try the very best within all the available resources. Children want more. Parents try harder. Children elevate their needs and desires. Parents unable to give more. Children blame parents. Children work for their own or they become parents themselves. The cycle carries on.

Indeed, the cycle can happen to any parent. It happened to our parents. And our parents’ parents. Well, remember our parents nagging how we have the better of things? 

Well, our parents did try our best to give us all the resources they could ever afford. None from any side, think it was enough. There is always something out there in a different generation to elevate the needs and wants.

Awareness and acknowledgement of this cycle made us set expectations with the children. Open discussions with little bit of negotiations work wonders all the time.

Especially for our travel goals.

“Your parents want to travel, want to come along?”

“Yes?”

“Okay. You can come to 100 countries we will go to as family.”
“Only until 2023. By then, if you want to see other countries with us, you will have to pay for your own travel expenses.”

Expectations set. No harm feelings, kiddos, we’re off to couple cruising in few years.

And this goes to not just traveling. In all aspects of parenting. 

We should give our children the resources we can give as parents, BUT (that’s a big B-U-T)  not to the point of disabling them to do greater things in life. 

And definitely not to the point of sacrificing everything we have parents as human beings so that we are left with no identity the minute our kids are adult enough to stand (preferably travel) on their own two feet. 

The secondary reason is just the number itself! 

We tend to associate the number 100 to perfection. To great and awesome exam grades, 100% effort in studying for exam, competing for something.
We want our turknoys to associate 100 to the 100% love and adventure we want to offer them. Then someday, to that 100 times we step on foreign soil and felt happy, scared, excited, all those rush of emotions while looking at each other’s’ reactions. One hundred times we felt happier than we ever could.
100 first times. 100 first steps. 100 milestones. 

God-willing.