How to Convince your Parents to Let you Travel

How do I convince my parents to let me travel?

This is a question from a reader who wants to go traveling in Europe, but his parents say that he must wait another year and show good progress in school first. But the reader wants to travel sooner. What can he say to his parents to allow this to happen?

Hello Kyle,

You are very correct, South Florida is a sticky web — good choice of adjectives. In my first year of travel I came aground in Boca and attended Florida Atlantic University for a semester.

I figure that there is probably one main thing that you can do to convince your parents to allow you to travel sooner: come up with a plan and do the leg work preparing. Start studying the languages and history of the places you want to travel to, and do everything you can to convince your parents that your journey will be one of “discovery and learning” rather than idle touring.

Explain that you want time to figure out what your passions and true interests are so that you do not waste time and money in university on dead end academic pursuits. Explain that traveling will give you this time and space to focus inward and to test yourself against the world around you. Explain that it is customary for young people in many cultures to take a year off — a “gap year” — between high school and university to travel, experience a little of the world, and to figure out what they really want in life.

Explain that many students go in wayward directions during their first years of university solely because they were too young when they started and did not yet have time to figure out what it was that they are passionate about — what they really want to do with themselves. Say that you are confused, misdirected, and scatterbrained from 12 years of a brow beating high school education and that you need a break to find YOUR road.

And if this fails, try to convince them that traveling is an education in and of itself. During every step of traveling you are learning, you are figuring things out for yourself, you are gaining self confidence, you are making mistakes and finding ways to make less of them in the future. In travel, there is the very real potential to grow up a little, to find your stride, and to really look down into yourself and out again at the world and figure out where your path leads.

It is my impression that traveling is the best introductory course to university. Try to combine the two — pick out a few things that you want to study in university and find ways to investigate them first hand while traveling. Say that going to the places that most people only read about will give you a huge advantage over other university students who have never traveled abroad on their own. Come up with detailed explanations of why you want to visit each location through the lens of future university study.

I recommend that you do all of this study, and then do a formal presentation for your parents. This sounds corny, but I have found that parent’s love it when their children go to great lengths to convince them of something. This may give you a great opportunity to show your parents that you can think for yourself and that you have the ability and maturity to come up with a proposal, present it in front of a group, back up your position, and make a deal. You could do it like a formal business presentation. Simply doing this could very well impress them with your business skills and show them that you do have the tact and passion to get what you want.

And tell your parents that traveling will allow you the opportunity to prepare yourself further for the road ahead.

University teaches you skill for life in the safe contours of a class room, but traveling teaches you life directly.

I have a university degree, but I learned far more about myself and the world around me from traveling. I can recommend no better education than the Open Road.

I hope this helps.

Walk Slow,

Wade

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Original question about getting parent’s permission to travel

Dear Wade,

I have been wanting to hit the Road for the past couple of years but haven’t been able to escape the sitcky web of South Florida. My folks want me to attend college and get a degree in something cause they don’t want me to be “a waste.” I am going to the UK this summer with my folks for about 2 weeks but I told them I want to stay longer. Durring a little retirement planning trip they had I found out through the grapevine that they are ok with it if I put effoirt into the next 2 terms I have untill next summer. What can I say to them to help me hit the Road faster?

Peace and Blessed Be,
Kyle