Teens with zero desire to travel

[LyricalBoudicca]

Bit concerned that my 2 teens never express a desire to travel ever (NB they go abroad with me frequently but that’s always been down to me). They remind me of my grandparents who hardly ever left the county they grew up in which was probably due to lack of financial means. If I die I can see them perfectly content never to initiate a holiday. Has anyone else got teens like this? Or do mine have an unusual lack of curiosity?

Too big a deal is made out of travel IMO. It's like a weird religion, and those that follow it think they are morally superior. They are not.

Do they need to express a desire to travel if you're already taking them? Maybe they do like it but they're happy with the frequency at which they're already going.

I love travel but my parents didn't have the means to take us when I was a child and when I first left home I didn't travel. At that stage it was more because it is an awful lot of money to travel and I felt I was better placed spending it on the mortgage. Now that I'm in an OK position financially I love to travel, but there's no way I would have prioritised that over housing when I was younger.

I 100% agree with this comment

The people who post on social media “I live for my holidays” and explain to people how seeing folk live in Vietnam or Laos is “life changing” ..

In what way does it change their life? They come back to their job in fire door sales or cosmetic procedures or project management or whatever, they’re still driving their Sportage or Qashqai, they’re still consuming in whatever way their salary allows them to?

Perhaps what they mean to say is that it’s personally elating for them to get out of their heads and see another view of things

But I agree with your post, the cult like way people speak about this stuff is toe curling .

I’m fortunate to have had lots of mini-trips through work to over 20 countries, but I don’t think it changed my life.

I've done an immense amount of travel in my life and there are downsides to it. I think another hugely important thing is learning how to form lastiing positive relationships with the people in your community. You can do that right where you are.

Where I live now, we are in an incredibly multicultural society. The thing that we lack is not experience of other cultures, but any kind of settled life. Making deep connections with community in this situation demands attention I think.

I have no desire to travel really.

There’s a difference between going travelling and going on holiday.

I think there is a massive fuss about going abroad on holiday, and I think the point of a holiday is to take a break away. That can be anything that you find relaxing.

Travelling is more about experiencing things out with tourist traps and possibly working or more the back packing type experience IMO.

I think as long as they (the teens) are still interested in expanding their minds, I don’t think the travel part is that big a deal except to snobs and people wanting to stealth boast about finances.

We’re all interested in different things and travel is no more valid as an interest than sport or reading for example.
If they aren’t interested, why is it a problem?

And You can tell who’s in the cult by the use of the word travel.
Cult members say they like to travel. The rest of us call it a holiday 😂
Them: Last year I travelled to Spain
Me: Last year I went to Alicante on holiday!

My parents have never been into travel, but they love going to the theatre, concerts, museums and art galleries. They read widely and are interested in politics and current affairs and history.

My in laws on the other hand used to love travelling (too old now), not just "going on holiday" but proper travelling. However they never pick up a book and wouldn't be interested in any of the other things I listed above.

I think travelling is just one aspect of leading a curious and interesting life.

You can’t extrapolate now to what kind of adults they will be. Mine are at uni and their interests and personalities are still changing.

In any case, What a privileged thing to worry about!

I get it OP, I'd feel the same way. We travelled a lot with my child and he learnt so much about the world (it helped that I grew up on a different continent). He's been obsessed with exploring more since he was quite young, and went interralling for a few weeks the day after his final A level exam.

I know I'd have been disappointed if he'd wanted to spend his life seldom venturing far from our tiny town - which is surrounded by fields and cows and hills, so is pretty insular.

How old are you teens? Would they really not be interested in doing any sort of travel for a week or two with a friend once they've finished school - would the idea of planning and organizing it all themselves not be exciting for them?

Not clear if the OP is saying her teens are not interested in going on a family holiday or independent travel.
When I was young to me travelling was about exploring the world, experiencing new cultures and meeting people. I went on a load of exchanges while at school and worked as an au pair on my gap year and interrailed at uni.
But I didn’t have a mobile phone or internet. And places were very different. Now they don’t need to go abroad - they can just google a destination and read reviews!
they don’t need to learn a language they have google translate. And when they get there there are often
the same chain stores.
they also went through covid which I think narrowed their horizons- plus travelling now is not ideal.

It seems ironic that while you're so keen to see how other people live their lives you don't accept that your own children don't want to live the same life as you.

My parents were big travellers yet I can't stand it.

Travelling isn't for everyone and I'd only start to worry if they took no interest in any sort of learning or exploring.

Curious about everything except other cultures?

Loads of people travel & learn little about other cultures!

Going on holiday doesn't really teach you about other cultures. Only a very superficial and shallow glance

I'm shocked at how casually people expect to travel/foreign holidays frequently and that you're odd if you don't. Environmentally it's not on. Financially, many can't afford it. Some are not interested or see it just as a very occasional thing. I don't understand the fuss and I wouldn't give a fig in your shoes OP. It's very entitled to expect everyone to do it or have the same desires as you.

Too big a deal is made out of travel IMO. It's like a weird religion, and those that follow it think they are morally superior. They are not

Lol, so true!

I am not sure I have ever travelled though I always explore when on holiday.

I had no interest in backpacking as a teen/young person.

I think teens have a knack of finding the thing you enjoy / promote and rebel against it.

The more you encourage it, the more they'll pour cold water on it. I wouldn't worry yet. But if they are still anti travel in the 20s, it's not a bad thing. There are other ways to acquire cultural capital. Travel is expensive and bad for the environment.

I feel exactly the same as an adult. I have no urge to travel. I've only left the UK once at the request of a family member who kindly paid for me to go for various reasons.

It was OK but if I never left the UK again I'd not be bothered. I've no interest in travelling or holidays or indulging in other cultures. I'm just a boring bugger happy to potter about 🤣

I had limited interest in travel as a teen. Happy that with my driving licence I could go to the coast or to a different city in the UK whenever I wanted. Then a friend persuaded me to by a RTW ticket at 21 and I loved it and spent the next 5 years constantly on the move across the globe. Perhaps the interest will grow when the opportunities are actually present. At the moment its a bit hypothetical.

I’m very similar, I have been abroad when younger but I haven’t for decades.
We live in such a beautiful country steeped in history, I’ve still got tons of places I want to go to within the UK before I need to look again at further afield!

Leave them to it OP. Travelling is not for everyone. I don’t mind it. I quite like getting away from home and exploring but I like doing that in the UK as well as abroad. However, backpacking and travelling on the cheap is crap and I internally roll my eyes at anyone banging on about the “experience”. They can travel at any time in their lives - it’s not limited to being teenagers!

I’ve had a long happy life and a very fulfilling career but never felt the slightest urge to travel. I love a fly and flop holiday for a bit of sun but have never had any interest at all in ‘travelling’. Each to their own.

I think I'm jaded from living in tourist areas but if you flip it round and think about the tourists that visit our tourist areas, are they somehow better people than the people from their home countries who don't come and see British Castles or ride on a London bus? In my mind holidays and travel is a fun change for people who find it fun, but not a requirement for being a better person. If your teens never leave the country again through choice they won't be worse people than if they went on a holiday abroad every year. I think you need to find their hook too. We didn't have holidays abroad when I was a kid and I didn't really see the point at first. Now I travel to see different bird species in their natural habit all over the world, this makes me happy although I find general 'culture' very boring. Maybe for them it could be winter sports, or cathedrals or theme parks or food, or whatever it is they realise they can't experience in their home town and want to travel to find it. Otherwise it's just for the sake of saying you've been, what's the point in that?

They’re teens so probably just rebelling to your attitude of how important travel is by reacting against it. Ease off and they might stop reacting.