Little Travel Agents in Training
Christmas 2025 was one to remember! Our longest trip so far; eight different hotels, five different cities, and two states…all within 11 days. Eleven days of living from our suitcases, different beds, a lack of routine besides knowing we’ll just be swimming every day, and basically a calendar that we weren’t so used to. However, it was one of the most meaningful Christmases we’ve ever shared; our first as Saefong Six.
This trip was more than the festivities and lights and jingle bells, it was about teaching our kiddos how to navigate the world with confidence and curiosity. We agreed that our kiddos were to “problem solve” and guide us this trip. They took us across TSA Precheck, scanned their own boarding ticket, and found all the signs to “Baggage Claim & Ground Transportation” with little guidance as possible. They were taught how to practice patience instead of panic in moments where things didn’t go as planned (true story- we lost a suitcase coming home), and ultimately that there’s a good and a bad side to traveling.
They got to rate hotels in categories of aesthetics, how “cool” each hotel pool was, how easy it was to get to theme parks, how fast the pool slide was, and ultimately how much fun they had at each spot we stayed. It gave them a purpose instead of just listening to mommy’s reviews. It validated their opinions and actually changed how I viewed family travel as well!
As a parent and someone who lives and breathes travel as an occupation, this trip asked something different of me. I had to learn how to loosen my grip on my business, to trust that things could wait, to prolong my email responses a little longer, and be reminded of WHY I create these itineraries in the first place. To give families moments like these and if I couldn’t live that truth myself, then truly, what’s the point?
All in all, we both got to see the confidence in our children grow with traveling. And this answers my “why” all along. If you ask them where they want to go next, they would say somewhere international like Tokyo. It’s just me and my husband that are not quite ready for that.
The Little Travel Agents’ Boss,
Mama Saefong
