At 18 months old, my daughter saw the ocean for the first time on Hawaii’s Big Island. Very unsure of this giant new thing and the feeling of sand under her feet, she kept her little pink sandals on and just stared at the waves from a distance.

As someone who travels frequently with two kids under five, I often get asked why I would subject myself to the stress of traveling toddlers. “They’re so young.” “It’s not like they’ll remember anything.”

The thing is, though, that they do. It might not be what you’d like or expect, but they’re making connections. When my daughter started talking at two years old, she would mention how she wanted to go on a plane again. For her fourth birthday, she wanted to go to the beach.

Besides for getting the opportunity to make happy memories, travel provides a broad and rich experience that enables kids to learn in a multitude of diverse ways. Here are five benefits that traveling with young kids yields for their development:

Adaptability and flexibility

Travel brings about routine changes and new experiences. Travel teaches kids from an early age to learn to adapt to new places and the sensory aspects of settling into a new spot. While I try to stick to a basic daily routine, for example, keeping naps around the same time, other aspects of a traveling child’s day might change. My kids have taken naps in their carriers in New York City, in strollers at protests in D.C., in hotel beds in South America, on long road trips in their car seats and even lying across airplane seats thousands of feet up in the air. This translates at home to kids who are adaptable and understand how to make changes to suit their needs.

Confidence in trying just about anything

My kids are — most likely — neurodivergent. They already are responsive to sensory changes in their environment that fluctuate on any given day. That doesn’t mean they can’t try new things or fly across the globe. Exposure is everything when kids are small and their brains are developing rapidly. In Bogota, Colombia, we made it a point to seek out their favorite fruit, tangerines, from the local grocery store across the street. We also walked the aisles until we found Ritz crackers and Froot Loops. This way my kids felt comfortable trying new foods because they knew there was something familiar waiting in case they didn’t like it. Ultimately, the hope is that they continue to try new things, even if they’re unfamiliar.

Building a sense of entitlement

Yes, the goal is to raise humble and empathetic kids, but you can also instill in them the same sense of entitlement that a white man seems all too eager to accept. Too often, I am the only Black woman they see daring to stop at a roadside caving attraction or hike atCuyahoga Valley National Park. If they see me do it confidently from the time they are born, it becomes an expectation that they can as well. They can be here. They can do these things. They can take up this space. They will push back against the boxes in which society would have them placed.

Developing global citizens with empathy

Just because children know their worth doesn’t mean they can’t be empathetic. Travel reveals that people are different everywhere and deserve to be respected, from things as simple as reading the body language of the cat at their aunt’s house to the more complex ones like wearing masks at international airports. They are learning about how their behavior affects others, whether they can see the effects immediately or not.

Linguistic development

How old were you when you realized people spoke other languages? How old were you when you heard a native speaker actually hold a conversation? If you didn’t grow up in a dual-language household, this opportunity might not have come until elementary school or later.

Just like how the arts are good for creating well-rounded and flexible thinkers, research has shown that the bilingual brain can be better at attention and task-switching, according to an article in Cerebrum.

While young kids won’t be fluent in another language after spending a week in a foreign country, they are bound to have noticed the differences in speech patterns and sounds. In South America, my daughter noticed that stop signs didn’t have the same letters. When we ordered at a restaurant, I spoke words she didn’t understand but she still got a cheese burger. By the end of the trip, she was willing to try it out with the word “Hola.”

Aja Hannah is a writer, traveler, and mama. She’s writes on diversity, equity, and sustainable travel for publications like AAA and The Independent.As the Secretary of the Society of Travel Writers central chapter, she pushes to prioritize travel that has an eco-tourism angle or human-first focus. She believes in the Oxford comma, cheap flights, and a daily dose of chocolate.

This story was created by Detour, a journalism brand focused on the best stories in Black travel, in partnership with McClatchy’s The Charlotte Observer and Miami Herald. Detour’s approach to travel and storytelling seeks to tell previously under-reported or ignored narratives by shifting away from the customary routes framed in Eurocentrism. The detour team is made up of an A-list of award-winning journalists, writers, historians, photographers, illustrators and filmmakers.