Our Little Devils Take the Lead – Letting the Kids Plan a Tasmanian Road Trip

“We did almost zero planning.”

That was Leo’s response when I asked the boys about their process for mapping out a week-long trip around one of Earth’s most rugged and remote islands. I beg to differ.

Click here to read an account of the trip…

Perhaps it’s a bit of an exaggeration to claim ‘remote.’ Nowadays, Tazzie is to Australians like Alaska is to Americans—a goodly distance to travel from the mainland, but an essential trip for beauty seekers to take. Two hundred years ago, however, ‘Van Diemen’s Land’ was the Alcatraz of Australia’s penal colony, where the worst offenders were banished with no hope of escape. A distant outpost battered by Antarctic currents. To folks from our home, it’s literally on the opposite side of the Earth.

On the eight-hour ferry across the Bass Strait to this faraway rock, I had an idea—why don’t we let the boys take charge of planning our itinerary? It wasn’t too crazy a thought. We had the flexibility of a car to take us wherever they wished to go. The locals speak our language. Aside from following the instructions of our Australian friends that we have to go there, we possessed not a single expectation or specific destination in Tasmania. It was a wide-open canvas of possibilities. An opportunity for them to practice leadership.

What could go wrong?

Right. Well, a lot of things could, actually. Being kids, were they going to book a week full of big-ticket items like nighttime Tasmanian Devil feedings, temperate rainforest zip-line tours, and helicopter rides over Wineglass Bay? That could get expensive, really fast in a place like Australia. Were we sentencing ourselves to a week of kid stuff? Would we end up driving hours on end just to get to the next dairy farm in a search for the best ice cream? Or would they doom us to staying in one place and reading books the whole time?

All of our fears were for naught; those boys planned a fantastic week!

Now, before I go into detail about all the great experiences you might have in Tasmania, I should confess that the boys did receive a wee bit of coaching. We asked what they might want to take into account and here’s what they said:

• “Cost.”
• “How long it takes to get from one place to the next.”
• “Will there be places where we can sleep and eat.”
• “What are the general interests of each member in our group… for instance, Mama likes animals and nature, while Papa likes good cappuccinos and wineries.”

It did take some prompting, but they got on the right track pretty quickly. They also self-determined to take turns on planning days, rather than trying to agree on every detail, a smart move. They used a couple of maps, a list of estimated driving times, and started drawing a route. They made a list of the days of the week and penciled in their expected destinations. They relinquished goals that were too far-fetched. There were no ridiculously expensive activities in their plan; the only request for a ridiculously long drive to a creamery was mine (fresh ice cream is truly my weakness).

Now, they were a little over-ambitious with what we could accomplish on the first day. Nor did they think to check details like opening hours, hike durations, and departure times. They lost momentum so that by the end of the week, the itinerary went from a detailed hour-by-hour description to a single place name or a general region. And, they were not so savvy as to book our accommodations or make dinner reservations. (Okay, I never really expected that to manifest). Really, though, I was impressed.

I’ve changed my mind.

Rather than spell out here the route we took, I will direct you to our post on Tasmanian tips. For now, let this post be me encouraging my fellow family travelers to hand over the reins for a while and let the kids steer. Our boys derived great satisfaction from seeing their plans come to fruition. They took other people’s interests to heart. Plus, they practiced flexibility and ownership when things went wrong. We, in the meantime, felt secure knowing that this journey is one to which all the members of our family were contributing.

Years ago, back in Virginia, we covered the boys’ bedroom wall with a six-by-eight-foot map of the world. It went from floor to ceiling and was the subject of many musings, many plans. Leo said to me this week, “You know, Mama, Tasmania was on the part of the map right next to my bed. I always looked at it right before falling asleep. Now I’ve really been there. Not just in my dreams.”

I do love these amazing boys.

Click here to read an account of the trip…