Would you bring your child to a third-world country?

Posted on 9:57 PM by
When my daughter was 4 and my son was 3 we visited my brother -- their uncle -- in Vietnam. We flew into Saigon where we spent about two weeks and then took a bus to a beach town about four hours south.

I was a little nervous about traveling with two young children in a third-world country so we booked a nice hotel in Saigon. I purchased evacuation insurance and tracked down a pediatrician who spoke English before leaving. We also checked in with our pediatrician in the U.S. and got the kids caught up on all their evacuations.

Beyond that I did little prepare for any potential problems we might encounter. I had traveled with my own parents to third-world countries as a child and we always survived.

But most of my friends thought I was nuts. They said things like, "I'm glad it's you and not me" or "I would never do that." It got to the point where I stopped telling people about our plans.

I'm curious to hear how other parents feel about this: Would you bring your young child -- under 5 years of age -- to a third-world country?

7 comments:

Trisha said...

We took our then 4yo son to Ethiopia to pick up our daughter. It was a great experience. I was a bit worried about what would happen if he got sick, but we bought travel insurance and it was such a valuable experience for him to see how other cultures lived and it really stuck with him, the appreciation of what he has.

Sharlene said...

Short answer- yes. I have a feeling alot of the people who are hesitant to take their kids to third world countries probably have never done much traveling themselves.

LeslieMac said...

I don't have children, but I think the term "third-world country" means less & less with regard to travel. Jamaica is a third world country and they have family specific resorts endorsed by Sesame Street. If you plan well and do some research everywhere is doable with & without children.

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