My 3 year old has visited 32 countries AMA

[Dinoswearunderpants]

No doubt I'd get a load of shade about 'bragging' but that's not the intention. If anyone is interested in asking any questions about travelling regularly with a little own, feel free to ask.

I often travel just the two of us as his Dad can't get as much time off work as I do.

I aim for a maximum of 1 short haul flight per year and 1 long haul every 5 years. More trains and ferries, and UK breaks.

A frequent flier levy, that allows everyone a flight a year exempt of air passenger duty, so families can have an annual break abroad slightly cheaper, but taxes frequent fliers heavily, would be ideal.

neweconomics.org/2024/04/sharing-the-carbon-pie-with-a-frequent-flyer-levy#:~:text=With%20a%20frequent%20flyer%20levy%2C%20the%20first%20round%2Dtrip%20flight,is%20charged%20an%20increasing%20rate.

Why do the privileged few get to fly on holiday once a year even though we know that’s ultimately leading to a massive extinction event? I don’t understand the logic?

The worst thing you can do for your carbon footprint is to have a child. I don't see the same vitriol for parents with two or more kids. Or people with dogs. God forbid you don't have a shower every single day and rewear clothes or thing about what you order from china or where your produce comes from.

There are things to make a huge deal about in terms of greenness that look good on social media.

Ideally none of us should but that's not going to happen. Well I wager in 100 years time the planet will be so ravaged that no one will be flying anywhere but we're all just living our best lives right here right now are we not

When I looked at my carbon footprint, flying was by FAR my biggest carbon expenditure - I’d only ever fly once a year, occasionally twice. It is for most people. If you look it up you’ll see for yourself. I have since cut carbon in other ways too, but flying was the biggest, quickest win.

Why aren't you busy off berating people for having children.

Oh, and I don’t do SM and don’t tend to even talk about my choices much. I don’t care if I ‘look’ good. I just want to look my one DC in the eye and say I did what I could.

I don’t tend to berate anyone to be honest. If you can find my ‘berating’ quote, I’ll apologise.

Because most scheduled air travel and airport expansion is driven by frequent fliers. Not families taking an annual holiday. 70% of flights are taken by just 15% of people.

Ah. I can see the logic in that. I just feel like once a year feels extravagant given the dire situation and an ‘Allowance’ for that might actually ‘ratify’ it as not harmful IFYSWIM?

Going to a funeral and visiting relatives in NZ is not more ‘necessary’ than someone taking a holiday. You could just not go to the funeral. You could just not visit relatives who live so far away. What right do you have to lecture others on how often they should fly when you’ve just admitted you do it yourself.

The one thing that most turns people off changing their habits is overzealous evangelical green lecturers.

A bit of thoughtful nudging yes. That works.

Telling people they are dreadful people for doing x, y and z tends to entrench and alienate.

This. Saying “have you considered flying less” is one thing. Saying “flying is as bad as drink driving” is quite different.

Frankly the attitude and comments by some of this thread make me want to book flights just to be difficult.

Google, the search engine that directs people asking questions to sites like mumsnet?

Like I said, I ‘suppose’ she was looking for questions, rather than to be fawned over or sneered at, given that it’s quite possible pose questions without doing either.

Well perhaps you could have asked her some questions, instead of telling other posters off?

I get that, I just feel a bit desperate about it I guess. It's like seeing the future and frantically trying to warn others about it but they're just saying blah blah blah (to quote Greta obvs) I honestly wish I didn't feel like this, being oblivious sounds much less stressful!

We all need to do something, I agree. I buy local as much has I can, I don’t eat meat, I only buy clothes off Vinted or charity shops, I haven’t bought new clothes in many many years, I barely drive, I minimise how much plastic I use and go the extra mile to find places to recycle it (and I actually wash it al out properly - as much as it irritates my husband to have all this extra work!), don’t buy sparkly wrapping paper and all that shit. But if I could travel to a different country to see different cultures and educate my children about the world then I would! Travelling when I was younger has made me who I am. Personally, having my children and travelling are probably the two things that make my life worth living. We ALL need to do the best we can and make some sacrifices. However I think it’s ridiculous to say we all need to make ALL sacrifices. We exist in this earth and we are allowed to live on it.

Then we need to focus on governments making big changes that change lifestyles. Berating one poster for taking her child on planes really isn’t helpful. She’s not actually the issue, especially as she’s not exactly the norm in how much she travels. It’s like berating a post for having ten kids. It’s very unusual in the uk. We don’t actually have a problem with people having ten kids in this country.

Going to a funeral or visiting elderly relatives isn’t ‘necessary’ but it’s an allowance I made (once) or will make if needed (PIL are getting older and will eventually deteriorate and/or die so I imagine we will have to fly out to NZ at some point but haven’t yet). I personally feel that it is different to the ‘fly and flop’ holidays I’ve taken in the past.

Where have I lectured? I’ve shared my own personal feelings about it and what I do. Then made suggestions in response a question.

I get it. Some people care. Some people don’t. Some people would care if they were better informed.

I'm not sure we can rely on govts to do the right thing though and that's just absolving ourselves of any responsibility. I think it needs to be a multi pronged approach, pressure on govts but personal responsibility of individuals too. You're right that the OP is an outlier (thankfully) as is the person having 10 children etc.

Personally I feel like it’s a bit of a miserable existence for humanity if we can’t even use a plane. It’s like people who tell countries who have just got out of poverty and have electricity that can’t put their lights on because of climate change.

Of course and I wasn't saying don't fly at all, just that 32 flights in 3 years is excessive when we know what we know now. This thread is an AMA but OP didn't like the environmental questions that it threw up as it was bound to.

That’s your choice of course, but whenever I see that it makes me puzzled. Because the climate crisis literally impacts on everyone. So it’s harmful to you too. It’s almost like the doctor saying ‘if you don’t cut down on smoking you are going to die in the next year’ and you then lighting up just show them and ‘be difficult’. I really don’t understand the logic there.

I agree and am surprised at @RedToothBrush who is a poster whose measured views I've often admired over many many years.